John Heriot
1958-1968
153 games
39 goals
Swans Team of the Century
Like most kids growing up in Melbourne’s west during the 1950s, John Heriot spent his summers playing cricket and winters barracking for the Bulldogs. On game days, he joined his mates strolling from Spotswood to Footscray to take in the Western Oval action.
As a boy, Heriot joined the Spotswood Football Club and soon displayed outstanding potential. Playing primarily as a forward, he caught the attention of South Melbourne’s recruiters, just as ‘Spotty’ boys and fellow Swans Hall of Famers Billy Williams, Fred Goldsmith and Bill Gunn had before him.
Despite his love for the red, white and blue, the 17-year-old Heriot adopted the red and white of the Swans when he joined the club’s Under 19s in 1957.
He spent that season developing in the thirds before South’s new captain-coach, Ron Clegg, gave Heriot his League debut in 1958, during the Round Nine clash with competition powerhouse Melbourne.
In his first game, Heriot started on the forward flank. Playing on Demons’ legend Don Williams, he followed instructions to open space in the forward line by keeping a wide position. In response, Williams largely ignored the debutant. Heriot tried to convince the coaches to change tact, but Williams continued to dominate the game as champion players generally do.
Heriot later said, “Donny Williams showed me that’s how you play football: Don’t wait for someone to lead, just get in front and go and get the ball.”
Under Bloods Legend Clegg, South introduced nine debutants in 1958. Heriot’s seven senior games were the highest tally, with most judges appreciating the potential housed within his tall, lean frame. He told Jim Main, “It was a different era with different standards. There was no signing fee, and you thought yourself very lucky to be invited to play for a League club.”
In 1959, Clegg’s second and final season as Swans’ captain-coach, Heriot began to play more matches at full-back. Ideally suited to the position due to his height, ability to read the ball in flight, considerable aerial skill, and searing drop-kick punt, he was among the Swans’ best in a famous opening-round win over reigning premiers Collingwood at Victoria Park.
The fledgling defender played all 18 games that year, thriving under Clegg’s direction. In Champions All: A History of VFL/AFL Football in the Players’ Own Words, Heriot told Matt Zurbo, “He was a fantastic player and a great coach. He came up to me and said, ‘You’re playing on Bill Young today, and this is how, with your physique, you’re going to do it and how you’re going to play for the rest of your career. So, he sat with me for five or six minutes and went through it. I’d never had this input from any coach."
In addition to Clegg’s great influence, Heriot joined the Swans senior team just two years after another champion, Bob Skilton, debuted. The pair became great mates, playing most of their respective careers together. On February 27, 1960, they also shared a wedding day.
It seemed that both John and Bob had persuaded their soon-to-be wives, Val and Marion, that this particular time of year would be perfect for a wedding. In reality, it was the only weekend when the cricket finals were over, and football training hadn’t yet begun. The issue was that they hadn’t coordinated their plans. Incredibly, later that year, both couples also moved into their new homes on the same day.
When they returned to the club, a new coach had taken charge. The Swans’ 1933 premiership player and Hall of Famer Bill Faul was appointed non-playing coach for the 1960 VFL season. Clegg remained captain, and the Swans placed eighth. The year ended positively, though, when South Melbourne claimed the night series premiership with a 13-point win over Hawthorn.
Heriot lined up at full-back, and The Age declared he ‘played brilliantly’ and was ‘almost impassable’. Heriot’s best-on-ground performance helped the club claim some silverware, but the bittersweet nature of featuring in the night series meant you hadn’t qualified for the VFL finals. The Age’s report said, “South thoroughly deserved its victory. It is a pity it cannot play with the same fire during a full season.”
The following year, Skilton began his longstanding tenure as Swans captain. Heriot, now regarded among the finest full-backs in the League, displayed such imperious form that he was selected to represent Victoria at the 1961 National Carnival in Brisbane.
However, one of the game’s most prestigious honours was almost snatched away before Heriot could grasp it. Shortly after the team was announced, he suffered an ankle ligament injury. After the team’s final training session, Ron Carter reported in The Age, “Heriot, kept out on the track after most of the other players had returned to the dressing rooms, was given a sprinting and twisting test, which he passed easily.”
Heriot played full-back in the runner-up Victorian side. Still, at times, particularly under Noel McMahen’s coaching, he was deployed as centre half-forward or full-forward with the Swans. A magnificent kick and, naturally, a strong-marking target, Heriot twice kicked four goals in a match during the 1962 season.
In 1964, Heriot finished one vote short of Bloods Legend Skilton in the club’s best and fairest count, and as vice-captain, he provided outstanding leadership to the side. Team success, though, proved elusive. Heriot once said, “I regret not playing finals footy in my 11 years at South Melbourne. Absolutely. It breaks your heart.”
The 1965 season presented Heriot and his teammates with perhaps their best chance at September action. Skilton had commenced captain-coach duties, and the highly regarded Max Papley had joined from Moorabbin. With future Hall of Famers Graeme John and John Rantall also in the side, hopes were high.
Their nine wins were a significant improvement but could only place them eighth. Sadly, that was the club’s highest ladder finish across Heriot’s entire Swans career. When describing the club’s struggles, Heriot said, “You received your gear allocation for the season, and this consisted of one pair each of black and white shorts, a club jumper, two pairs of socks and one pair of boots.”
“Also, we had to clean our own gear, and this was extremely difficult mid-season when the grounds were mud heaps. Clubs in those days lived on the smell of an oily rag.”
Following the 1968 VFL season, Heriot, 28, with a family to financially support, accepted an attractive offer to play with VFA club Yarraville in 1969. The next year, he was also appointed coach. Then, in 1975, Heriot returned to the Lake Oval to coach the Swans’ under-19s for three seasons.
Following his coaching contribution, Heriot stepped into the club’s Chairman of Selectors role until South Melbourne moved to Sydney in 1982. Described by Jim Main as ‘Among the best full-backs to have played the game’, Heriot has always been a highly-respected and much-loved club figure.
In 1999, Sydney CEO Kelvin Templeton asked Heriot to form a Swans Past Players’ Association. Through the type of commitment he consistently displayed on the club’s last line of defence, Heriot built that group into the thriving, vibrant and passionate community it now is.
In 2003, reflecting his status as one of the club’s greats, Heriot earned selection at full-back in the Swans Team of the Century. Following the club’s historic 2005 flag, Heriot said, “It was such a wonderful occasion that I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”
One of the game’s true gentlemen, John Heriot and his family, will forever remain intimately connected with the Sydney Swans.
