Australian Football

Between 1903 and 1922, Jack Tredrea played a total of 220 league games - no mean feat considering that his club, South Adelaide, only played an average of 12 games per season for most of his career, which began in 1903 and ended nineteen years later, with the period 1916-18 being lost owing to World War One.

A tough, team-orientated player, Tredrea was invaluable to both his club and state in that he was sufficiently versatile to succeed in almost any position on the field. Tredrea was also supremely fit and could maintain the same high levels of pace and vigour throughout a game. He was a highly proficient exponent of the stab pass, rarely wasting a possession, and his fearless attack on the ball even won the admiration of notoriously hard to impress Victorians in the interstate arena, a type of football in which Tredrea excelled for over 30 games (sources vary as to the precise number).

South Adelaide’s perennial failure not only in terms of premierships but even in qualifying for the major round must have frustrated Tredrea enormously, but there was never any question of his transferring allegiance to another club. Even after his retirement he maintained association with South for another three seasons as non-playing coach but when premiership success continued to prove elusive he made a surreptitious exit leaving only a multitude of memories. He returned to football as non-playing coach of North Adelaide in 1924, but after the side managed just 4 wins from 14 matches for the season to finish 6th he was replaced in the role by Percy Lewis.

Jack Tredrea was chosen as a ruck-rover in South Adelaide’s official ‘Greatest Team’.

Author - John Devaney