Born: Victoria Park, W.A.
25 December, 1901 – 26 December, 1986
The ability to be totally disciplined in everything he attempted on the football field or off it enabled Jerry Dolan to take a high place in Western Australia’s sporting history.
In a magnificent career as a player and coach, Dolan’s influence was cast over W.A. football from 1923 to 1955 and continued after that in public life.
Like many other champions of his era, Dolan was brought up on the Goldfields, where he had his early football grounding and made up his name as a tall utility player, performing equally well in the ruck or at centre-half-forward. He graduated to East Fremantle from the Teachers’ Training College and his football always had the discipline that came with successful teaching. He was totally dedicated and expected his players to have a similar approach. He coach for a total of 17 seasons and played in 22 finals matches, including nine Grand finals – with six premierships.
His playing career started in 1923 and when he graduated to coaching in 1930 he achieved instant success in 1933 and then coached East Perth from 1934 to 1938, winning the premiership in 1936.
On his return to East Fremantle, he carved out a reputation as one of the club’s all-time great coaches, taking the team to success in 1943, 1945 and 1946.
Dolan achieved notable success with Western Australia between 1946 and 1949, coaching the State team to three successive wins over Victoria.
His official connection with league football came to an end in 1955 after a two-year term as president of East Fremantle. In 1956 Dolan became the first W.A recipient of the Australian National Football Council’s merit award certificate. During a distinguished political career, he served as a Cabinet Minister under Premier John Tonkin – also a former president of East Fremantle.