John Blakey (born 24 July 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played 359 games in the Australian Football League.
Recruited from Doncaster East Football Club, Blakey debuted for the Fitzroy Football Club in 1985, and went on to be used in a variety of midfield positions.
He also played in a record seven consecutive preliminary finals for the Kangaroos (along with teammates Wayne Carey, David King, Mick Martyn, Corey McKernan & Craig Sholl) from 1994 to 2000.
Following his retirement, Blakey became the assistant coach at the Brisbane Lions in 2003 and coached the team when he filled in as caretaker interim senior coach in the absence of regular senior coach Leigh Matthews whose mother had died, for one game in Round 18, 2005 against the Western Bulldogs in which the Lions lost.
[2] In 2007, he moved to the Sydney Swans where he served as Coaching Director and Head of Development,[3] remaining there until the end of the 2020 season when he returned to North Melbourne as senior assistant coach.