Australian Football

An excellent link player who could rove all day, Glenn O’Loughlin was a typically tough goldfields product and a key member of Subiaco’s powerful mid 1980s combinations. He began his senior football with Boulder City, played four games for Subi in 1979, and then returned to the Tigers for the next four seasons. The 1984 season saw him back at Subiaco and, after taking a season or so to readjust to the greater intensity and faster pace of WAFL football, he developed into an extremely handy midfielder.

A premiership player with the Lions in 1986, O’Loughlin was selected as an inaugural squad member by the West Coast Eagles ahead of their debut in the VFL in 1987. However, he found it difficult to break into the team, managing just a single game for the season, and spending most of his time back in the WAFL with Subiaco. The last of his 75 games for the Lions was the 1987 grand final, in which Claremont proved to have Subi’s measure.

O’Loughlin returned to the goldfields competition in 1988 after being appointed captain-coach of Kalgoorlie City. On a personal front, he enjoyed an outstanding four season stint in the role, winning two club fairest and best awards. Much more importantly, however, he steered his charges to the 1988 premiership, the club’s tenth.

Author - John Devaney