Jack Hale

Who was Jack Hale?

Jack Hale was an Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton in the VFL during the 1930s before becoming a coach.

Hale played in many positions during his career but was most notably a rover. He represented Victoria at the 1937 Perth Carnival and was a premiership player with Carlton in 1938. A broken leg caused him to retire in 1941 aged just 28.

He returned to the league in 1948 as a non playing coach at South Melbourne, spending two seasons at the club.

In 1950 he was appointed an assistant coach to Bob McCaskill at Hawthorn. When McCaskill's health started to fail he was appointed coach in 1952. Hale became the first man to coach Hawthorn to more than 100 matches, and had the distinction of leading them to their first ever finals appearance in 1957. He stepped down at the end of 1959 when he believed that his successor John Kennedy was ready to take over.

Kennedy often credited Hale as being the one who laid the foundations of the 1961 premiership side. “Jack Hale taught Hawthorn to hate defeat,” said Kennedy.

“When I went to Hawthorn,” Hale said, “I took the Carlton spirit with me. I wanted to create a Hawthorn spirit by encouraging the local kids to become involved. I suppose it was the start of the ‘family club’ tradition.”