John Lachlan Hale (2 January 1913 – 25 June 2001) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton in the VFL during the 1930s before becoming a coach.

Hale had suffered a serious cut to his head in the semi-final which had seen him miss work in the fortnight before the 1938 grand final, and by many accounts was still unwell on the day of the game and should have been deemed unfit to take the field;[1] but he played nonetheless, and was considered by most sportswriters to be the best player on the ground, giving Carlton great drive from the ruck-rover position, significantly limiting the impact of star Collingwood rover Des Fothergill, and kicking two goals – including the steadying goal with less than four minutes remaining which put Carlton ten points ahead.

[2][3][4] Unusually for his era, he sometimes took set shots with place kicks – albeit with limited success, his first place-kicked goal not coming until 1940.

[5] He famously earned the wrath of the Perth crowd during a windy 1939 interstate game, when he twice took place kicks from the back pocket during the final quarter, for the main purposes of wasting time as Western Australia tried to make best use of the gale; the umpire quickly put a stop to it by blowing time off, but one spectator threw dirt at him over the fence as he took the second of the kicks.

Hale was unable to walk for two years and spent seven months in Epsworth Hospital enduring operations and bone grafts.