John Collins

A product of the football breeding ground of Yeronga State School where he was a good schoolboy player. His family moved to the northside and linked up with the Sandgate club. His father was an early club administrator when the Hawks were in their fledgling stages. In 1957 he played in a Sandgate U19 premiership and made his first debut. A serious knee injury saw him take up umpiring for a short period. In 1963 took on the role of treasurer at Sandgate and went onto be vice president in 1970-71 and president from 72-74 and 76-77.

He was ever mindful of the importance of code promotion through the schools and was a strong advocate for investment of time and money in that area. Control of your destiny through owning your own facility was a dream of he and his colleagues. They achieved this through the purchase of the Lemke Rd facility in the 70’s. Another achievement was his work to establish the Deagon Dodgers Football Club which proved a useful satellite to the then invincible Sandgate Hawks. After receiving Life membership at Sandgate he became the QAFL treasurer in 1978 and served as President for eight years from 1980-87.

They were tumultuous, eventful and important times for football in Queensland and the Australian sporting landscape was changing rapidly. He was a key figure in the machinations of the granting of the first AFL license to Queensland. Oversaw the appointment of the first full-time General Manager for the QAFL in Ken Murphy and his successor Andrew Ireland. Undertook difficult reform of junior structures and also initiated new governance structures for regional affiliates.

A Team of the Century selector he has recently returned more than 50 years after he commenced to his Sandgate Hawks who are beginning to regenerate.