BIRT, John

John "Sparrow" Birt was one of the finest rovers ever to play the game. A quick, elusive and skilful left-footer, Birt had bags of courage and was a prolific goalkicker. His pace and his ability to find space and team-mates were the keys to many Essendon wins.

Birt came from Ballarat where he had won the Best and Fairest award in the Ballarat League in 1955 while still a schoolboy.

He debuted for Essendon in Round 1, 1957, played every game and finished with 29 goals, the second highest at the Club that year and won the Club's Best First Year Player award.

Birt carried on in 1958 where he'd left off the previous year, playing in every game and topping the goalkicking with 31 goals, and winning the Most Improved Player award.

He won Essendon's Best and Fairest award in 1961, 1965 and 1967.

Birt was appointed vice-captain in 1966 and 1967 and at his career's end, he'd never played a game in the Reserves.

Always a regular goalkicker, Birt was also the Club's second top goalkicker in 1961, 1962, 1965 and 1966 (equal). He was third top in 1959 (equal), 1960, (equal), 1963,1964 and 1967. His best goalkicking effort was six against St Kilda in Round 2 of 1959.

He was Essendon leading Brownlow Medal vote-scorer in 1958 (equal) with 15 votes, in 1960 with 10 votes, in 1961 with 9 votes and in 1967 with 13 votes. He was equal second top in 1965 and equal third in 1959 and 1964. He was voted the Club's Best Team Player in 1964.

Birt was the star of the 1962 finals series and was one of the best in the premiership victory in that year. He was also the star rover in the 1965 premiership win. He kicked 20 goals in finals games and only seven Essendon players have bettered this.

Birt represented Victoria in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1966.

After leaving Essendon, he became captain-coach of West Torrens in South Australia from 1968 to 1970 and represented South Australia in each of those years. He finished third in the Magarey Medal for Best and Fairest in South Australia in 1969.

Birt then returned to Essendon as coach in 1971 but his coaching stint was short-lived and he lost the job at the end of the year after Essendon finished eleventh.

Following this, Birt went on to become assistant coach at Footscray from 1972 to 1976. He was then skills coach at Hawthorn between 1977 and 1980 and at Carlton in 1981.

He later became a football administrator at Collingwood (1982-1993, 1998-1999), Fitzroy (1994-19896 and then Brisbane (1997). He has been vice-president of the AFL Premiership Players Club since 2000.

He was awarded AFL Life membership in 2016.

John Birt was named at number 21 in the Champions of Essendon (2002) and was elevated to a Hall of Fame Legend in June 2023.