Player Inductee
East Launceston/NTFUA, 1956-2006
- 186 games for East Launceston 1957-61, 1963-64, 1968-69
- East Launceston Best and Fairest, 1960
- Around 390 games of Country football for Sidmouth (West Tamar FA) 1954-56, Exeter (West Tamar FA) 1962, Balranald (Mid-Murray FL – VIC/NSW) 1965-67, Bridgenorth (Tamar FA) 1970-74, 1978, Evandale (Esk FA) 1975-77, Hagley (Esk FA) 1979
- Credited with 576 senior games at all levels
- Umpired a total of 844 games at NTFA, representative, carnival and social level, 1980-2015
- Umpired numerous senior NTFUA Association Grand Finals and senior representative matches
- NTFUA Director of Goal Umpiring 2009-12
- NTFUA Life Member 1999
- Played/Umpired 1,430 games of football over 61 years
Very few – if any – individuals can boast such and long and unbroken association with Australian Football in Tasmania as John ‘Jack’ Hinds. Over a career spanning more than 60 years Hinds contributed as a player, coach, umpire and administrator, becoming one of the most recognisable faces and names in the game in the north of the state.
Originally hailing from Beaconsfield on Tasmania’s central-north coast, Hinds captained the Beaconsfield Modern School team in 1953 before making his senior football debut with Sidmouth in the West Tamar Football Association in 1954. He spent three years in country football before moving up to the higher standard of the NTFA with East Launceston in 1957; unfortunately Hinds didn’t enjoy the best start in NTFA football, suffering a broken collarbone in his very first match. The Redlegs were traditionally never a threat in terms of the NTFA premiership, but Hinds was nevertheless one of their standout players, taking out the club’s Best and Fairest in 1960 and representing the NTFA against the TANFL and NWFU. After a year with Exeter back in the West Tamar League in 1962, Hinds returned to East Launceston for another two years before venturing interstate in 1965 to play with Balranald in the Mid-Murray League in Victoria, where he was appointed as junior coach and senior assistant coach. He won the club’s Best and Fairest in his first year and spent three successful seasons with the Roos before returning to East Launceston in 1968 – the year after their first and only NTFA premiership. After two final seasons in the NTFA, Hinds returned permanently to country football in 1970, joining Bridgenorth in the newly-combined Tamar Football Association. Hinds’ final 10 years as a player were spent with Bridgenorth, Evandale and Hagley in the Tamar and Esk Football Associations, and he finally retired at the end of the 1979 season after 576 senior games in a marathon 26-season career.
Upon retirement, Hinds joined the NTFUA as a goal umpire. He immediately became one of the north’s senior flag-wavers, umpiring a great number of representative matches and country Grand Finals, as well as a handful of Statewide League matches in the late 1980’s. He was awarded life membership of the NTFUA in 1999 and spent a great part of his later years coaching umpires, including a four-year stint as NTFUA Goal Umpiring Director. He announced his retirement from umpiring at the end of the 2015 season, with his final official umpiring role coming at the Over 55’s National Carnival in Launceston in October of that year. All up, he umpired nearly 850 matches across all forms of the game, bringing his total tally to nearly 1,430 matches in a remarkable 61-year on-field involvement with the game.
Off the field, Hinds dabbled in administration, acting as player representative on East Launceston’s committee during the late 1960’s and serving for a brief period as chairman of the Bridgenorth Football Club. He also enjoyed a heavy involvement in his other great sporting love of cricket, umpiring more than 650 games, including five Sheffield Shield matches and games in England.
Jack Hinds passed away in 2017 at the age of 79.
