Michael Forster Patterson (7 January 194116 April 2002) 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 and coach. Affectionately known as the "Swamp Fox", Patterson was a premiership ruckman with the

Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Victoria, Ric ...

in 1967, and also captain/coach of the 1972 Australian Champions, the

North Adelaide Football Club The North Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed the Roosters, is an Australian rules football club affiliated with the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) and SANFL Women's League (SANFLW). The club plays its home games at Prospect ...

Richmond

Patterson played for the

between 1959 and 1969. When first choice ruck Neville Crowe was suspended for the 1967 grand final, Patterson stepped up brilliantly to compete with legendary ruckman

Polly Farmer Graham Vivian "Polly" Farmer (10 March 1935 14 August 2019) was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and the East Perth Football Club and West Perth Football Club in th ...

and made a major contribution to Richmond's 9-point victory. In Round 8 of the 1969 VFL season, Patterson was hit in the face with a football by Carlton trainer Ron Vincent. The event was immortalized in Mike Brady's football anthem "Up There Cazaly".

North Adelaide

In 1970, Patterson joined the

as captain/coach with great success, hardening a champion side and leading the

Roosters The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport. ...

premierships in 1971 and 1972. In 1972, he also led North Adelaide to national triumph in the Australian Championship, sealed with a 1-point victory over the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

. In 1973, he retired as a player after a career of 18 years but remained as North Adelaide's coach until 1977.

St Kilda

Patterson returned to the VFL as coach of St Kilda from 1978 until Round 2 of 1980. After an extremely uneven 1978 season that nonetheless saw the Saints improve from three wins and two draws to eleven wins and a draw, in 1979 St Kilda collected the wooden spoon for the second time in three years. Former player and trucking millionaire

Lindsay Fox Lindsay Edward Fox (born ) is an Australian businessman. In 1956, Fox founded the Australian logistics company Linfox, where as of 2015 he serves as non-executive chairman. Early life Lindsay Fox was born around 1937 and brought up in Pra ...

had been brought into the club, as president, in 1979. One of his actions was to facilitate the signing of high-profile

Alex Jesaulenko Oleksandr Vasiliovych "Alex" Jesaulenko ( ; , ; born 2 August 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer and who played for the Carlton Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also served as a ...

as an on-field player only. However this placed great pressure on Patterson's position as Jesaulenko had an established record as a captain/coach, having the year previously led Carlton to premiership victory. During the Round 2 match two St Kilda players, in an attempt to win the ball, comically bumped into each other. Fox declared this indicated a lack of discipline that could no longer be tolerated. Patterson was sacked immediately for Jesaulenko.

Frankston

Patterson went on to coach the Frankston in the VFA from 1981 to 1983.

Richmond

Patterson returned home to

Punt Road Oval Punt Road Oval, also known as the Richmond Cricket Ground or known by naming rights sponsorship as the Swinburne Centre, is an Australian rules football ground and a former Cricket oval located within the Yarra Park precinct of East Melbourne, ...

in his final position as senior VFL coach of the

for the 1984 season.

Death

Patterson died from a stroke on 16 April 2002, at the age of 61.

Honours

In 2001, shortly before his death, Mike Patterson, the first Victorian to steer an SANFL club to a premiership, was selected as coach of North Adelaide's official 'Team of the Twentieth Century'.

References

Bibliography

* Hogan P: ''The Tigers Of Old'', Richmond FC, Melbourne 1996

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Mike St Kilda Football Club coaches Richmond Football Club players Richmond Football Club premiership players North Adelaide Football Club players Richmond Football Club coaches North Adelaide Football Club coaches Australian rules footballers from Victoria (state) 2002 deaths 1941 births VFL/AFL premiership players Frankston Football Club coaches