Vale John Payne

We Must Not Forget The Loved Ones We Lost….

Long-serving former team manager John Payne has been remembered as a loyal friend who dedicated to the club he loved. We pay tribute to a Life Member who gave so much to the red and white.

The Sydney Swans are mourning the loss of our dear friend, longtime team manager John Payne, who died on Sunday just one week shy of his 77th birthday.

John’s contribution to, and love of, the Sydney Swans – indeed, Australian Football in New South Wales – is impossible to overstate.

His role as team manager required fastidious attention to detail, sublime organisational skills, and the ability to successfully herd forty-odd players and staff through airports, onto buses, and on and off the interchange bench at precisely the correct moment. But these things are not primarily what we will remember John for.

We will remember him for his fierce loyalty, his absolute love of everyone involved with the Swans, and his steadfast friendship. Quite simply, we will miss him terribly.

Born in Gawler, South Australia, John developed a love for footy at a young age, barracking for Sturt, where his uncle played, and Essendon because they happened to have a completely unrelated Payne on their list.

John played for both Sturt and Central Districts in the SANFL Colts competition, but claimed to have been “just an ordinary footballer with a deep love of the game”. His future lay not in the SANFL, but elsewhere, and we’re glad that was the case, as ultimately it was work which brought John to Sydney in his capacity as National Development Manager for Amoco.

First order of business when he arrived in New South Wales was to find some involvement with football. So it was that in 1980 he became team manager for the Baulkham Hills Under 11s before coaching the Under 13s to an undefeated premiership. For four years he was Vice-President of Baulkham Hill Seniors in the Sydney Football Association, overseeing their promotion to the Sydney Football League. John was a Life Member of the club, an honour of which he was justifiably extremely proud.

In 1994, during some of the Swans’ leanest years, John started Club 31, a small coterie group which aimed to give some financial aid to the club. Of this initiative, he once recalled, “I got a few of my mates together, we put in $100 each, and once a month we would take Ron Barassi out to a No-Names restaurant where we’d have pasta and wine, and tell stories (or lies!). They were terrific events.”

Those coterie lunches were the beginning of his long formal association with the Swans. Club 31 evolved into the Redbacks coterie group, of which John was President for a time. He stepped down from that role in 1997, however, whewas approached to take on the role of Reserve Grade team manager, a position he held for two years before being invited to perform the same role for the Senior team. Along with Adam Goodes, he made his senior debut in round one, 1999.

From co-ordinating activity in the change-rooms and on the interchange bench on match-day to ensuring all runs smoothly during interstate – and occasionally international – trips, a team manager’s tasks are many, varied, and frequently stressful. John approached each of them with absolute professionalism, enthusiasm and an unfailing sense of humour.