John Nottle

Son of the legendary George Nottle, brother of club icon Brenton and father of Chris, John W. Nottle was the first South product post-World War Two to acheive success at a higher level. One of the original colts program at South, as a schoolboy he made his way up the ranks to play in the 1951 B Grade premiership, and then three A Grade flags - 1952, 1954, 1955, before claiming the 1957 Mail Medal. Nottle remains today as one of our greatest players in one of our most successful sides.

By 1957 he was already revered as a local champion, representing the GDFL and duly receiving the Mail medal that year. The following season, John was then invited down to Sturt where he would successfully play league footy for three years.

Somewhat prematurely, he returned to South in 1960. In what must be one of our greatest years, all three South teams - A, B and Colts, romped home to undefeated premierships that year. No team posed an even distant threat to a year when everything seemed to go right. John Nottle capped it off with his second Mail Medal and John Hutchins just missed out for the GDFL Reserves trophy on a countback.

He was pivotal to a great team, including the likes of Bob Argent, Stan Edmonds, Bob Gordon, Bob Martin, brother Brenton, and Graeme Shannon, which virtually brought the GDFL to its knees. But Nottle's excellence stands out in the result record below - in what is our greatest ever winning margin.

A Grade, Gawler Oval May 21, 1960

South 33-22 Elizabeth North 0-0

Best: J.Nottle, G.Newberry, P.Jones, Dean Clark, Des Clark, F.Burnett, B. Walker, M. Heinrich

Goalkickers: J. Nottle 16, Dean Clark 4, B. Nottle 4, F. Burnett 3, G. Shannon 3, M. Hutchins 2, B. Deuter 1.

Instrumental in this historic flag and then the following year when we took out the APFL 1961 premiership, John Nottle was a fantastic footballer and is stil respected today as a life member.