Career
Oatey played 181 games for the Norwood Football Club between 1940 and 1952 and acted as playing-coach from 1945 to 1952. While on service for World World War II in 1944, he played 5 games for the South Melbourne Football Club. Following his retirement from playing in 1952, Oatey remained the coach of Norwood until 1956.
In 1957, Oatey moved to West Adelaide where he coached until 1960, reaching the finals each year but never winning the premiership.
He went to Sturt, coaching there from 1962 to 1982, and leading the league team to 7 SANFL Premierships (a record at the time) including the famous five in a row from 1966 to 1970. Oatey was one of the instigators of the greater use of handball, which is often solely attributed to the VFL"s Ron Barassi, particularly within Victoria.
He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996. Overall, Oatey coached 37 seasons in the SANFL, winning ten premierships (three with Norwood, seven with Sturt), reaching seventeen grand finals (six with Norwood, two with West Adelaide and nine with Sturt) and reaching the finals on 33 occasions.
His ten premierships is still the record for the most premierships by one coach in top-level football.
Oatey"s eldest son Robert Oatey also played for and coached Norwood and later became a highly respected television commentator for Channel 7 and Channel 10"s SANFL coverage in the 1980s, teaming with Bruce McAvaney, Ian Day, Peter Marker and Graham Campbell. Jack"s youngest son Peter, was both a Norwood football player and tennis player.
