John Blakey

John Blakey
Blakey with Sydney in August 2018
Personal information
Full name	John Blakey
Date of birth	(1966-07-24) 24 July 1966
Original team(s)	East Doncaster
Height	187 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	83 kg (183 lb)
Position(s)	Midfielder, defender
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1985–1992	Fitzroy	135 0(38)
1993–2002	North Melbourne	224 0(72)
Total		359 (110)
Coaching career
Years	Club	Games (W–L–D)
2005	Brisbane Lions	1 (0–1–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2002.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

John Blakey (born 24 July 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 359 games in the Australian Football League.

Football career

Playing

Recruited from East Doncaster, Victoria, Blakey debuted for the Fitzroy Football Club in 1985, and went on to be used in a variety of midfield positions. He went on to play 135 games (for 38 goals) with the Fitzroy Lions until 1992. He switched to the North Melbourne Football Club in 1993 and went on to be a stalwart for the club. He played in the 1996 and 1999 premiership sides and went on to play 224 games for 72 goals until he retired in 2002 at 36 years of age. His total of 359 games places him 12th on the list of most games in VFL/AFL football and has played the most games in the VFL/AFL without playing in a draw.

He represented Victoria in State of Origin in 1998.

Coaching and support

Following his retirement Blakey became the assistant coach at the Brisbane Lions in 2003 and coached the team in the absence of Leigh Matthews (whose mother had died) for one game in Round 18, 2005. In 2007, he moved to the Sydney Swans where he served as Coaching Director and Head of Development, remaining there until the end of the 2020 season when he returned to North Melbourne as senior assistant coach.

Statistics

Playing statistics

Season	Team	No.	Games	Totals							Averages (per game)
				G	B	K	H	D	M	T	G	B	K	H	D	M	T
1985	Fitzroy	54	4	0	1	21	21	42	7	—	0.0	0.3	5.3	5.3	10.5	1.8	—
1986	Fitzroy	18	23	2	3	166	135	301	66	—	0.1	0.1	7.2	5.9	13.1	2.9	—
1987	Fitzroy	18	11	2	0	67	64	131	24	12	0.2	0.0	6.1	5.8	11.9	2.2	1.1
1988	Fitzroy	18	20	6	7	198	159	357	87	24	0.3	0.4	9.9	8.0	17.9	4.4	1.2
1989	Fitzroy	18	20	7	5	216	136	352	66	28	0.4	0.3	10.8	6.8	17.6	3.3	1.4
1990	Fitzroy	18	19	6	6	205	129	334	67	20	0.3	0.3	10.8	6.8	17.6	3.5	1.1
1991	Fitzroy	18	20	8	11	210	142	352	59	23	0.4	0.6	10.5	7.1	17.6	3.0	1.2
1992	Fitzroy	18	18	7	13	181	109	290	66	38	0.4	0.7	10.1	6.1	16.1	3.7	2.1
1993	North Melbourne	12	17	3	4	144	87	231	38	22	0.2	0.2	8.5	5.1	13.6	2.2	1.3
1994	North Melbourne	12	24	8	7	222	129	351	72	33	0.3	0.3	9.3	5.4	14.6	3.0	1.4
1995	North Melbourne	12	25	11	13	236	151	387	92	27	0.4	0.5	9.4	6.0	15.5	3.7	1.1
1996	North Melbourne	12	24	9	12	225	129	354	74	33	0.4	0.5	9.4	5.4	14.8	3.1	1.4
1997	North Melbourne	12	24	6	9	218	107	325	70	33	0.3	0.4	9.1	4.5	13.5	2.9	1.4
1998	North Melbourne	12	25	10	12	258	118	376	97	27	0.4	0.5	10.3	4.7	15.0	3.9	1.1
1999	Kangaroos	12	25	11	3	271	118	389	101	17	0.4	0.1	10.8	4.7	15.6	4.0	0.7
2000	Kangaroos	12	25	10	8	299	158	457	128	26	0.4	0.3	12.0	6.3	18.3	5.1	1.0
2001	Kangaroos	12	22	1	5	225	189	414	119	18	0.0	0.2	10.2	8.6	18.8	5.4	0.8
2002	Kangaroos	12	13	3	0	62	62	124	35	14	0.2	0.0	4.8	4.8	9.5	2.7	1.1
Career			359	110	119	3424	2143	5567	1268	395	0.3	0.3	9.5	6.0	15.5	3.5	1.2

Coaching statistics

Legend
W	Wins	L	Losses	D	Draws	W%	Winning percentage	LP	Ladder position	LT	League teams

Season	Team	Games	W	L	D	W %	LP	LT
2005*	Brisbane Lions	1	0	1	0	0.0%	—	16
Career totals		1	0	1	0	0.0%

* = Caretaker Coach

Personal life

Blakey's son, Nick, was drafted by the Sydney Swans in the 2018 AFL draft.

External links

• John Blakey's playing statistics from AFL Tables
• John Blakey's coaching statistics from AFL Tables
• John Blakey at AustralianFootball.com