John Cahill (footballer)

Collingwood were seeking to choose the best possible candidate in Australia as it desperately sought an end to an embarrassing premiership drought.

The new Collingwood Magpies board, who had taken over the club after the 1982 election, finally settled on Cahill, a legendary South Australian player and coach, who hadn't even applied for the job after it was advertised across Australia.

[6][7][8][9] Cahill then spent two seasons as senior coach of the Collingwood Football Club in the VFL from 1983 to 1984, where he led them to 6th in 1983 and 3rd in 1984.

In the 1984 season, Cahill guided Collingwood to the preliminary finals, where they were eliminated by the eventual premiers Essendon Bombers by 133 points.

Years later in 2022 in a radio interview with SEN, Cahill revealed that the main reason why he left Collingwood when he stepped down as senior coach was because “there was no chain of command and there was no structure through the club” and "the administration could’ve been improved a lot".

[13][14][15][16] But it was Port Adelaide where his heart lay and he returned to Alberton in 1988 and led the club to six more premierships in 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1995 before ending his SANFL coaching after 14 rounds of the 1996 season.

[17][18][19][20][21] Cahill then went to move on to become the inaugural Port Adelaide Football Club senior coach in 1997, when they were admitted into the AFL.

Prior to that he was a dual premiership player with South Adelaide in the SANFL and a member of VFL side Richmond's 1943 grand final winning team.

In 2010, he purchased an EFM Health Clubs Franchise[39] located on-site at Pulteney Grammar School in the Adelaide CBD.