John Jolly

John Jolly began playing senior football in 1933 at age 16 for the Wolseley Football Club in the Tatiara association. He played for Serviceton in 1934 and then played for new club Border Warriors in 1935. Border Warriors were formed from a union of Serviceton and Wolseley.

John, or Jack as he was also known, transferred to Kybybolite where he played the next two seasons. He returned to Serviceton in 1938 and built a reputation as a strong defender. The local media describing a game that Jack played-: ‘Jolly brought down some fine marks and his pace and long kicking were an advantage. For a man of small stature there are few better aerialists in the association than Jolly’.

Jack was working as a transhipper at Wolseley and once Transhipping* ended he moved to Adelaide. He had been approached by West Adelaide but chose to play for Sturt/Marion. Late in the 1941 season Jack was picked up by Glenelg and played out the season with them playing mostly seconds but did manage two league games. Jack returned to Sturt Marion in 1942 where he had an excellent year as their goal sneak ending the season as runner up for the goalkicking trophy.

Once football resumed after WWII, Jack continued playing with Sturt Marion but also managed to play another league game for Glenelg. In 1949 Jack had a season with Tailem Bend before returning to Sturt Marion as coach.

From 1951 to 1953 Jack coached Sturt Marion, he played exclusively from full forward and was the association leading goalkicker in 1951 kicking 82 goals. Jack also managed to coach Sturt Marion to a premiership in 1951.

In 1954 Jack was recruited by Happy Valley and played for them until 1959 with his son Des as a regular teammate. Now in the twilight of his career, Jack’s experience and guile were vital assets in him becoming a prolific full forward often kicking ten goals or more in a game. In 1960 Jack went to play for Morphettville Park however after 28 goals from six games, he finally retired from all football after 26 seasons.

* Transhipping: Was adapting trains to run on different gauge rail at the SA/Victorian border