John Waddington is a former Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er who played with North Melbourne

North Melbourne Football Club

The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world...

 in the Victorian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (VFL).

Waddington, a half forward, topped the Bendigo Football League

Bendigo Football League

The Bendigo Football League is an Australian rules football competition based in the Bendigo region of Victoria, Australia.Formed in 1880, it is one of the oldest football leagues in Australia, and among its members are some of the oldest football clubs in Australia, including the Castlemaine...

 goal-kicking in 1957, with 72 goals for South Bendigo

South Bendigo Football Club

The South Bendigo Football Club are an Australian rules football club which compete in the Bendigo Football League .Since South Bendigo entered the league in 1894, no club have won more premierships...

. The following year he arrived at North Melbourne and played all possible 20 games in his debut season. This included their four point semi final win over Fitzroy

Fitzroy Football Club

The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897...

, in which he contributed three goals.

He remained a regular fixture in the team for the next eight years, mostly as a defender. It was as a centre half-back

Centre half-back

In Australian rules football, the centre half-back refers to a position in the half-back line of a football field.Centre half back is considered a key position in defence. Examples of centre half-backs include Glen Jakovich, Darren Mead, Tom Harley and Chris Tarrant....

 that he was selected for the Victorian interstate side in 1964.

At the end of the 1966 season

1966 VFL season

Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1966.-Premiership season:In 1966, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...

 he left North Melbourne to become senior coach of Benalla

Benalla Football Club

The Benalla Football Club are an Australian rules football club which compete in the Goulburn Valley Football League.The club is based in Benalla, Victoria....

 in the Ovens & Murray Football League

Ovens & Murray Football League

The Ovens and Murray Football League, often referred to locally as the O&M, is a semi-professional Australian rules football league based around ten clubs in north-eastern Victoria and the southern Riverina region of New South Wales, and affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League...

. He won the 1968 Morris Medal.

He later played with Morningside

Morningside Australian Football Club

Morningside Australian Football Club, also known as Morningside AFC or the Panthers, is an Australian Rules football club based at Jack Esplen Oval in the suburb of Hawthorne in Brisbane...

in Queensland.