John Northey

Who is John Northey?

John "Swooper" Northey is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He played from 1963 to 1970 with the Richmond Football Club.

A Derrinallum recruit, Northey was a dual premiership player with Richmond, winning flags in 1967 and 1969. He is better known however as a coach.

After retiring as a player, Northey took up assistant coaching positions in the VFL, where he stayed for 14 years until the opportunity to coach at senior level presented itself. He coached 315 VFL/AFL games including stints at Sydney Swans, Brisbane Lions, Melbourne Demons, Richmond Tigers and Brisbane Bears.

Northey was known for his ability to rebuild struggling clubs, managing to produce results at all of these clubs, his first club as senior coach was Sydney Swans for one season in 1985 where he was unsuccessful and sacked at seasons end.

He then went to coach Melbourne from 1986–1992; his most successful year was when he took the Demons to the 1988 VFL Grand Final, eventually losing to Hawthorn. After the 1992 season he decided to leave the Melbourne Football Club as coach after struggling to finish 11th.

From 1993–1995 he coached his former club, Richmond.