Jack Hacker (19 April 1914 – 17 September 1984) was an

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

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at the 2021 ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football competition in Australia operated by the Australian Football League (AFL) as a second-tier, regional, semi-professional competition. It includes teams from clubs based in east ...

(VFL).

Career

South Melbourne

Hacker, a defender who could play in the ruck, was recruited by South Melbourne from Oaklands in New South Wales. He won South Melbourne's "most improved player" award in

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

and went on to play 111 league games for the club. This included two finals in

1942 The Uppsala Conflict Data Program project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 4.62 million. However, the Correlates of War estimates that the prior year, 1941, was th ...

, a semi final win over Footscray and

preliminary final The McIntyre system, or systems as there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher, by allowing higher qualified teams to lose more games or series before being eliminated compa ...

loss to

Essendon Essendon may refer to: Australia *Essendon, Victoria **Essendon railway station **Essendon Airport *Essendon Football Club, in the Australian Football League *Electoral district of Essendon *Electoral district of Essendon and Flemington United Kin ...

. A knee injury kept him on the sidelines in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II, the fall of Nazi Germany, and the Empire of Japan. It is also the year concentration camps were liberated and the only year in which atomic weapons have been used in combat. Events World War II will be ...

and he also wasn't able to play senior football the following year. His brother, Alf Hacker, played for fellow VFL club

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government ar ...

Coaching

Hacker was appointed playing coach of

Hampden Football League The Hampden Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league based in South-Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns along or near the Princes Highway from Camperdown to Portland. The league is a major country ...

club Camperdown in 1947 and led the team to the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

, which they lost to

Warrnambool Warrnambool (; Eastern Maar, Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the Census in Australia#2021, 2021 census, Warrnambool had a populati ...

. He was captain-coach of Camperdown again in 1948, when they narrowly missed out on making another grand final, with a seven-point loss to South Warrnambool in the preliminary final. In 1949 he coached

Shepparton Shepparton () (Yorta Yorta language, Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River (Victoria), Goulburn River in northern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Mel ...

to a premiership in the

Central Goulburn Valley Football League The Central Goulburn Valley Football League (CGVFL) was an Australian Rules Football League based in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria. The CGVFL was originally established as the Ardmona Central Junior Football Association in 1923, before bei ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hacker, Jack 1914 births Australian rules footballers from New South Wales Sydney Swans players Camperdown Football Club players Camperdown Football Club coaches Shepparton Football Club players People from the Riverina 1984 deaths