Australian Football

Originally from Melbourne District, Jack 'Chooka' Howell played just 40 VFL games for South Melbourne, kicking 22 goals, but for a brief time he was arguably the most outstanding knock ruckman in the land. His form when he began with South in 1915 was serviceable rather than brilliant, and he then missed the entire 1916 season as his club went into temporary abeyance owing to the war. However, when he resumed in 1917 his performances simply got better and better. In the 1918 finals series he was arguably the biggest single reason behind the southerners' eventual premiership triumph. He was best afield in the Semi Final defeat of Carlton, and vied for that honour with Collingwood's 'Flapper' Hughes as the Magpies were downed by five points in the 'big one'. Having enjoyed stellar form all year, had South offered a best and fairest trophy in 1918, Howell would almost certainly have been the recipient.

Which, in hindsight, makes it seem somewhat astonishing that the very next year, while still at the peak of his ability, he elected to throw in his lot with Footscray in the VFA. In both that season and the next he emphasised that he remained one of the pre-eminent footballers in Australia by helping the Tricolours go from nowhere in 1917 to consecutive premierships. Howell remained at Footscray until 1924, having played in another flag-winning side in his penultimate year. He was appointed captain-coach of VFA side Prahran in 1925, but a sequence of poor results prompted the club's committee to replace him towards the end of the season with Joe Scales.

Unfortunately, the fact that Jack Howell chose to spend the majority of his career away from football's very highest level has meant that his importance and status have tended to be undervalued. His best, however, may well have been on a par with that of any ruckman in the history of the game.

Jack Howell's son, also named Jack, was himself a footballer of the very highest order.

Author - John Devaney