Next Saturday 1st August will mark John ‘Beany’ Bennett’s 300th game as a coach in the Southern Football League when he takes charge of Heatherton FC in their clash with Ashwood.
John’s playing career included VFL experience spanning 1980 – 1986 with St Kilda (35 games) and Footscray (3 games). John went on to become a legendary full forward in the VFA with Sandringham before joining East Brighton FC in 1990 where he captain/coached East Brighton for 8 years from 1990 to 1997. He is the only player in EBFC 63 year history to have kicked over 100 goals in a season kicking 116 in 1991. At East Brighton he played 122 and coached 155 games winning Division 1 Premierships in 1991 and 1993 and runner up in 1994. John won EBFC Club B & F in 1993 and amongst some of his other achievements he captain/coached the Federal League’s representative side.
John joined Heatherton FC as coach in 2002 at a time of rebuilding for the club. He is now in his 8th year as coach and has taken the ‘Tunners’ to a premiership in 2006 and runners up in 2008. HFC are sitting on top of the Div 2 ladder and John will be hoping to add some more silverware to trophy cabinet at Ross St this September. Renowned as a master tactician, he will coach HFC for the 145th time this Saturday marking his 300th SFL game as coach.
President Damien Cody said “John has become one of our favourite sons and our longest serving coach in our Club’s history which spans almost 100 years. He commands the utmost respect from the players and has an uncanny knack of spotting hidden talent and building a player from a raw recruit to an outstanding footballer”.
Last Modified on 27/07/2009 13:50