Original team(s) Ascot Vale Name John Towner | Years Club | |
Date of birth (1933-11-19)19 November 1933 Debut 2 May 1953, Essendon
v. South Melbourne, at Lake Oval | ||
Height/Weight 183 cm (6' 0"), 75 kg 1953-1959
1960-1962 Essendon
West Perth | ||
Schindler s list 1993 soundtrack theme from schindler s list by john towner williams
John Towner (born 19 November 1933) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 87 senior games for the Essendon Football Club from 1953 to 1959.
Contents
- Schindler s list 1993 soundtrack theme from schindler s list by john towner williams
- Career
- Forward to back line
- References
Career
Recruited from the Ascot Vale Football Club, Towner made his debut for Essendon Firsts as a reserve in the second home-and-away round match against South Melbourne at the Lake Oval on 2 May 1953. In his first year, he played 11 senior matches, including the Firsts Semi-Final team that lost 5.11 (41) to Footscray's 6.13 (49).
He played 16 senior games in 1954, a single game in 1955, 10 games in 1956 (plus 1 night game), 16 games in 1957 (plus 1 night game) — he played on the half-back flank in the losing Essendon Grand Final team of 1957 — 16 games in 1958 (plus 2 night games), and 17 games in 1959.
His game at full-back for the Essendon 1959 Premiership team, which beat Melbourne 17.13 (115) to 11.12 (78), was his last game for Essendon.
Well-liked at Essendon (he was chosen as Best Clubman in 1957 and 1959), he left Essendon due to an employment transfer to Western Australia.
He played at full-back with West Perth for three years (1960–1962).
He later moved to Queensland and was captain-coach of Surfers Paradise Football Club in 1965.
Forward to back-line
In 1953 and 1954 Towner played on the forward line. With a lot of pace across the ground, and strong in the air, he was tried at full-forward as a replacement for the injured John Coleman in 1954; however, once at full-forward, he demonstrated that he was not a very accurate kick (he kicked 23 goals in 9 matches).
Once he was switched to defence, he was highly successful, initially on the half-back flank and, later in his career at Essendon, as the team's regular full-back.
As a full-back, much of his game was centred on his ability to judge and understand the manner in which his full-forward opponent went for the ball; and much of his value to Essendon was his ability to consistently punch the ball out of the hands of a full-forward attempting to mark over his head.
In particular, he always had "the wood" over South Melbourne's Brownlow Medallist Fred Goldsmith, holding him goal-less on several occasions; and it was enthralling as a spectator, to see the tussle between the two — in particular, to see the highly skilled full-back-turned-full-forward Goldsmith getting more and more frustrated each time that the fist of the highly skilled full-forward-turned-full-back Towner came between his own outstretched hands and, yet again, punched the ball 20 metres towards the Essendon goals.