John Howat (born 15 July 1970) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played with

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL). A tall utility player, Howat was used on both ends of the ground during his league career, which began in 1989. In his four seasons with Melbourne he never played more than six games in a season. He was picked up by Richmond with the 97th selection of the

1992 AFL Draft The 1992 AFL draft is the annual draft of talented players by Australian rules football teams that participate in the main competition of that sport, the Australian Football League. It consisted of the main national draft, the pre-season draft an ...

, where he rejoined with his previous coach

John Northey John Neville Northey (born 29 June 1943) is a former Australian rules football player and coach. He played from 1963 to 1970 with the Richmond Football Club. Northey was a dual premiership player with Richmond, winning flags in 1967 and 1969. H ...

. In just his second game for his new club, against the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Bears were a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, now known as the Brisbane Lions. Granted a Australian Football League, Victorian Football League (VFL), licence in 1986, ...

, Howat had 25 disposals and earned three

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

votes for his efforts. Unlike at Melbourne, Howat was able to establish a regular place in the team and missed just three games in his debut season. He added another 17 games in 1994 and although he played just four times the following year, he appeared in Richmond's preliminary final loss. Howat was delisted after the 1996 season and went on to coach Mitcham in the Eastern Football League, in 1999 and 2000. He played on some of the games great full forwards of all time including

Tony Lockett Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he played as a full forward, full-forwar ...

Jason Dunstall Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...

Warwick Capper Warwick Richard Capper (born 12 June 1963) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Sydney Swans and the Brisbane Bears in the Australian Football League (AFL), known before 1990 as the Victorian Football League (VFL). An acc ...

and Gary Ablett Senior.

References

1970 births Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) Melbourne Football Club players Richmond Football Club players Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen {{AFL-bio-1970s-stub