John Riley is an Australian scientist at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation and former Australian rules football player who played with Footscray in the Victorian League and North Adelaide in the South Australian National League.
Education
He was still finishing off his Doctor of Philosophy in atomic physics when he was recruited to the Footscray Club in the Victorian League (VFL). Riley completed an Australian Research Grants Scheme research fellowship, then worked in the development of instrumentation for the mining industry.
Career
Riley played football for North Adelaide Club while he was studying at Flinders University. He returned to Adelaide after only playing one match for Footscray. Riley moved to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), the research arm of the Australian Department of Defence, in 1988, initially working on sonar signal processing which improved the performance of towed array and sonobuoy systems
Riley worked as the Navy Scientific Adviser in 1997 then was appointed as head of Airborne Sonar leading a research programme in support of the Royal Australian Air Force P3-C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and RAN Seahawk helicopters.
Riley spent a year based in Washington District of Columbia as Defence Science Attaché supporting liaison between Australia, the United States of America and Canada. He then returned to Australia to lead submarine operations research for DSTO, based at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia.
This included improvements to the Collins-class combat and sonar systems He then moved to Research Leader of Maritime Combat Systems, which included support for the Air Warfare Destroyer project
He has also chaired the Maritime Systems Group of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP).
As of 2015, Riley is back in Adelaide, as Chief of the Weapons and Combat Systems Division of DSTO.
Originally from Broadview, Riley made his SANFL debut in 1977 and by 1982 was North Adelaide captain. However he had not been granted a clearance by North Adelaide and the club were successful in getting a Supreme Court injunction to prevent him playing more games at Footscray. Riley finished the season with North Adelaide and remained with the club until 1990, amassing 250 games.
He was later named at the same position in the North Adelaide "Team of the Century".