Robert Reginald Oatey OAM (16 August 1942 – 17 September 2019) 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 Norwood and Sturt in the

South Australian National Football League 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. ...

(SANFL). He was a member of the

South Australian Football Hall of Fame The South Australian Football Hall of Fame enshrines those who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football. The Hall of Fame was established in 2002 when 114 outstanding individuals became inaugural inductees. S ...

Early life

Oatey, the son of South Australian football great

Jack Oatey Jack Oatey (29 August 1920 – 26 February 1994) was an Australian rules football player and coach. Playing career Oatey played 181 games for the Norwood Football Club between 1940 and 1952 and acted as playing-coach from 1945 to 1952. Whil ...

, captained the first eighteen at Norwood Boy's High School winning the Hone Medal for Fairest and Best in the High School competition in 1959 and 1960. In 1960 Robert was invited to join the Norwood thirds (U19) for 4 games as a Reserve after playing for his school. He then played in the SANFL second semi and Grand Final which Norwood won by defeating North Adelaide FC 13 goals to one with Robert winning the prize of $10 as best player on the ground.

SANFL career

A rover, Oatey kicked a goal with his first kick in league football for Norwood, in the 1961 season. He was amongst Norwood's best players in the loss to West Adelaide in the 1961 SANFL Grand Final. Oatey won Norwood's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

award for the first time in 1967 and was also the club's leading goalkicker. The following season he began a six-year tenure as Norwood's captain-coach, during which time he played his best football. He was runner up to

Barrie Robran Barrie Charles Robran MBE (born 25 September 1947 in Whyalla, South Australia) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1967 to 1980. He won South Australian footb ...

in the 1968

Magarey Medal The Magarey Medal is an Australian rules football honour awarded annually since 1898 to the fairest and most brilliant player in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL), as judged by field umpires. The award was created by Willi ...

count, in his first year as coach, a season when Norwood finished last on the ladder. He won another club best and fairest that year, then again in 1971 and 1972. Under Oatey, Norwood improved to fifth in 1970 and were fourth in both 1972 and 1973, but he would be replaced as coach by former North Adelaide player

Bob Hammond Robert Allen Hammond (16 February 1942 – 30 May 2020) was an Australian rules footballer who played for North Adelaide and Norwood in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) during the 1960s and early 1970s. He later served as ...

in 1974. From 1974 to 1978, Oatey played for Sturt, which were coached by his father. He was a Sturt premiership player in 1974, when the club defeated Glenelg in 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 ...

. His nine interstate appearances for

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

includes games at the 1966 Hobart and

1969 Adelaide Carnival The 1969 Adelaide Carnival was the 17th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian football interstate competition. Four teams competed in the carnival, South Australia, the Victorian Football League, Tasmania and Wester ...

s. While at Norwood, Oatey played with his brother

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

, who also played tennis at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

in the 1960s. Following his retirement from playing, Robert Oatey became a television commentator for SANFL games, working with Adelaide's Channel 7 and Channel 9 alongside others such as

Bruce McAvaney Bruce William McAvaney (born 22 June 1953) is an Australian sports broadcaster with the Seven Network. McAvaney has presented high-profile events including the AFL Grand Final, Melbourne Cup, Australian Open, Test cricket and both Winter and S ...

Ian Day Ian Douglas Day (9 February 1935 – 30 June 2025) was an Australian rules footballer who played for West Adelaide between 1952 and 1960, and South Adelaide between 1961 and 1964. He captained the team in 1963 and played in the 1964 Grand Fi ...

Peter Marker Peter Marker (born 21 March 1949) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with and captained Glenelg in the SANFL during the late 1960s and 1970s, captaining the Tigers to the 1973 SANFL premiership, in what was the last SANFL Grand ...

, Rick Keegan and

Graham Campbell Graham Fraser Campbell (22 July 1936 – 30 January 2022) was an Australian rules footballer who played 151 games for the Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League from 1956 until 1964. Playing career In his playing days Campbel ...

Honours

In 2000, Oatey was named as a

forward pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

in Norwood's Team of the Century. Oatey was an inaugural inductee into the

in 2002. He received the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

(OAM) in 2008, for his "service to Australian Rules football as a coach and as a contributor to the development of younger players."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oatey, Robert Australian rules footballers from South Australia Norwood Football Club players Norwood Football Club coaches Sturt Football Club players Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia South Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees 1942 births 2019 deaths