John Douglas Coleman (23 November 1928 – 5 April 1973) was an Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the Essendon Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Coleman is widely regarded as one of the greatest-ever Australian rules footballers. In a relatively short playing career, Coleman has the second-highest goal average in the history of the VFL/AFL (with 5.48), kicking 537 goals in 98 matches; he is behind only Peter Hudson (with 5.64). As of 2023, they are the only VFL/AFL players to average more than five goals per game. He was also known for his high-flying spectacular marks, in some cases jumping cleanly over opponents. After a knee injury ended his playing career at age 25, he returned to coach Essendon to premiership success. Coleman died in 1973, at the age of 44, of sudden coronary atheroma.
In 1981, the VFL named the Coleman Medal in his honour, awarding it to the League's leading goalkicker at the end of the home-and-away rounds. In 1996 he was one of 12 inaugural Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees bestowed "Legend" status. He is the only player amongst them to have played fewer than 100 games at senior level.
Early life Born at Port Fairy in the Western District of Victoria on 23 November 1928 to Albert Ernest Coleman (a manager) and his wife Ella Elizabeth (née Matthews), Coleman was the youngest of four siblings; his three older siblings were Lawna Ella, Thurla Margaret and Albert Edwin.Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.3.
Coleman was introduced to football at Port Fairy Higher Elementary School. During the early war years, the family moved to Melbourne, where Coleman was enrolled at Ascot Vale West State School. He later attended Moonee Ponds Central School, where he became dux of the school.
Football career
Promising junior At the age of 12, Coleman was already playing in a local under-18 Australian rules football team. Two years later, in 1943, Coleman's mother took the children to live at Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula as her husband remained in the city to look after his business. Coleman then divided his time between Melbourne, where he was a student at University High School, and Hastings, playing on Saturdays for the local football team which competed in the Mornington Peninsula League.Coleman, John Douglas (1928–1973) Biographical Entry – Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
first invited Coleman to train at the club in 1946, but they considered him too young to be able to play senior football.Graeme Davison, 'Coleman, John Douglas (1928–1973)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 13, Melbourne University Press, 1993
In the following two seasons, Coleman completed pre-season training with Essendon and played in practice matches.Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.17 However, both times he was sent back to Hastings, where he kicked 296 goals in 37 games over two years, including 23 in one game against Sorrento in August 1948.
Instant sensation
The 1949 season was a make-or-break time for the budding forward. He again trained with Essendon, but he was frustrated by many of the senior players who ignored his leads. Coleman's potential was noted by a number of other clubs, and Richmond made an attempt to sign him. However, Essendon finally selected him for the opening-round match against Hawthorn.
From his first match, when he not only kicked a to-this-day unbeaten record of 12 goals on debut but also a goal with his first kick,Having been paid a mark by his brother Alby's former classmate Harry Beitzel, who was the central umpire that day (Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.25). Coleman was the star player in the game, which was experiencing a boom in the immediate post-war years. His 12 goals in the first home-and-away match of a season also equalled the Essendon record set by Ted Freyer against Melbourne on 27 April 1935
He was 185 cm tall, with a pale complexion and slight build.
Later, one of his teammates, ruckman Geoff Leek, recalled one of his 1949 marks:
He usually converted from most of his set shots by way of a long, flat punt kick. Notwithstanding this, however, he was also an excellent drop kick. Ted Rippon, Coleman's former business associate and vice-president of the football club, recalled that Coleman had kicked 14 goals in a match in Perth against a Western Australian side, and six of those goals had been drop-kicked against the wind.Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.137. It is not clear from the text whether Rippon was referring to either (or both) of the two Victoria-WA matches that were played in Perth in 1951, or was referring to an inter-club pre-season match between Essendon and a team from the Western Australian National Football League (WANFL).
Coleman capped his debut year in storybook fashion: he booted his one hundredth goal in the dying moments of a record Grand Final win over Carlton. As of 2026, he remains the only player to kick one hundred goals in his first year.
Second premiership The next year, 1950, was Coleman's most prolific season, kicking 120 goals despite missing one match with the flu,Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.51. and he was a major factor in Essendon's premiership win over North Melbourne.Brittingham W, Essendon Football Club Premiership Documentary, 1949 and 1950 (Melb, 1991) Coleman's feat of kicking more than 100 goals in consecutive seasons had only been matched by Collingwood's Gordon Coventry, South Melbourne's Bob Pratt, and Collingwood's Ron Todd, all of whom achieved the feat much later in their careers when they were older, stronger, and more experienced.
North Melbourne back pocket Pat Kelly said he would never forget playing against Essendon in Round 17 [of 1950].1950 VFL season#Round 17 Alf Brown of The Herald wrote:
Late in the 1950 second semi-final, Essendon was trailing North Melbourne by three points with just 30 seconds remaining. In driving rain, North's Jock McCorkell unexpectedly punched a ball that was already rolling out over the boundary line back into play just before it crossed the line. Coleman pounced on the ball, and passed it to Ron McEwin in the goal square. McEwin kicked the goal, and Essendon won by three points, 11.14 (80) to 11.11 (77). Essendon had lost only one match during the season to that point.
In an unexpectedly one-sided grand final (many had thought that North Melbourne could win the rematch), with a rain-lashed third quarter, North Melbourne "went the knuckle", rather than playing football, and specifically targeted Essendon players Dick Reynolds, Ron McEwin, Bill Snell, Bert Harper, Ted Leehane and, of course, Coleman.See Mapleston (1996), pp.162–164, and Ross (1996), p.189. Essendon eventually won 13.14 (92) to North Melbourne's 7.12 (54) in front of a crowd of 87,601.1950 VFL season#Grand Final Teams
Opposition coaches and full-backs stopped at nothing to curb Coleman's influence. In a one-on-one duel, close-checking, spoiling defenders fared best, but few could outrun him, and certainly no one could match him in the air. Often pitted against two, or even three opponents, Coleman's equilibrium could be upset by needling, jostling and physical contact, which often happened behind the play. Coleman's occasionally fiery temper ensured that he never backed away from a confrontation.
Controversial suspension
Despite specific instructions having been given to the umpires in relation to the protection of forwards from "interference" from opposing backmen,"League defenders who "interfere" with forwards by holding on to their guernseys while play is at another part of the ground will be penalised in future matches. The League permit and umpire committee has instructed umpires and the umpires' coach to pay attention to the practice of interfering with forwards in future games. Mr. W. Brew (Essendon) told delegates at the V.F.L. permit meeting on Wednesday night that in recent matches leading forwards had been "held down" by their guernseys by full backs without justification, and often when play was at the other end of the ground. Mr. H. Clover (Carlton), a former champion forward: "That's-not a new trick. It happened to me 25 years ago!" ": Forwards to be Protected, The Argus, (Friday, 12 May 1950), p.19 and in the absence of any sort of protection at all from the field umpires,At the time, there were no rules allowing for additional penalties (e.g., the current 50-metre penalty in AFL), and there would not be until the VFL introduced the "15-yard penalty" at the start of the 1955 season (Ross, 1996, p.201). these problems with Coleman's response to the ever-increasing level of provocation, abuse, headlocks, hair-tugging,For example: Saturday's Rough Football, The Argus, (Monday, 20 August 1951), p.1; and The Coleman Incident, The Age, (Monday, 20 August 1951), p.14. and thuggery came to a head quite sensationally when Coleman was reported in the last minutes of the second quarter of Essendon's last match of the 1951 home-and-away season against Carlton at Princes Park. He was reported for striking Carlton's journeyman back-pocket ruckman Harry Caspar; Caspar was also reported for striking Coleman."Angry Crowd at Carlton; Bottle Misses Coleman", The Age, (Monday, 3 September 1951), p.14For extensive details of the whole matter see Maplestone, 1996, p.166; Ross, 1996, p.192; and Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, pp.52–65.
Today, it is well established that Caspar had been niggling Coleman since the very start of the match, which included making persistent and heavy contact with a nasty boil on Coleman's neck; that Caspar had punched Coleman twice whilst play was at the other end of the ground, immediately before Coleman retaliated; and that, apart from his reaction to Caspar's thuggery, Coleman had not been proactive in any way.Ross (1996, p.263) The match to that time had been a somewhat brutal encounter, and the crowd was highly agitated. During the match, bottles were thrown at Coleman, and as he came off the ground at half-time and walked up the players race, a Carlton fan spat at him through gaps in the cyclone wired barriers that separated the spectators from the players. Coleman snapped, and smashed the fan in the face, badly hurting his hand. He went into the Essendon rooms, shouting with rage at the total absence of any protection from the match officials, took off his jumper, and spoke of not returning to the field.
He was finally persuaded to take the field for the second half, and once on the field, he was so "full of fire" that, according to the recollection of ruckman Geoff Leek, at the time resting in the forward pocket, he took two of the most amazing marks that Leek had ever seen:
At the tribunal, Caspar's case was heard first.Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, p.94 Caspar was suspended for four weeks. Coleman's defence was simple: he had simply retaliated to two unprovoked punches from Caspar (for which Caspar had been suspended). The VFL at that time made no allowance for provocation; the players' advocate Dan Minogue was thought to have made a good case for Coleman by arguing that any man, if he were a man at all, would hit back after being hit. Both the boundary umpire, Herb Kent, and goal umpire Allen gave evidence that Coleman had retaliated only after he had been punched twice by Caspar.Miller, Petraitis & Jeremiah, 1997, pp.57–58.Jack Cannon's, The Argus, Wednesday, 5 September 1951 ()