Had it not been for the disbandment of an Amateur football club, Claremont ruckman John Hilton may never have played league football.The twenty six year old was left in limbo when Inglewood-Mt Lawley Amateurs folded after the 1956 season. “Some of my mates went to East Perth and I thought: “If they can get a game why can’t I?” Joining the Amateur club in 1952, Hilton had become a leading player in the competition, representing Western Australia from 1953 to 1956, and winning fairest and best awards in 1954 and 56. It was Subiaco who originally showed interest in Hilton approaching the 1957 season, but Claremont, to whom John was tied, refused to clear him. “I’d really preferred Claremont anyway, but found it harder to get to training on time. I eventually got over that by sneaking out of work early,” he laughed.John Hilton played his junior football at Swanbourne, in the Temperance League and Metropolitan Juniors before lining up with Swanbourne in the Amateur Competition. In 1949 he played half a seconds game with Claremont. “One of my teammates at Swanbourne, Ernie Bowyer, was recommended to Claremont by coach Bill Sutherland,” he recalled. “Ernie didn’t want to go by himself so I went along with him.” That brief appearance was to benefit the Claremont Football Club some eight years later.He was twenty seven when he made his league debut with Claremont in 1957,at an age when many in those days were considering retirement. But in just three seasons on the football stage he did enough to suggest that an earlier commitment to the higher level of the game would have enabled him to achieve much more.A six foot one ruckman in the days of Polly Farmer, Jack Clarke, Brian Foley, Percy Johnson, Roy Porter, Jack Sumich, and Laurie Kennedy, he  was never without a challenge on a Saturday afternoon, especially when playing in a perennial bottom four side, but Hilton was a consistently competitive big man throughout his brief career.His thin frame and lack of inches proved deceptive,with a good leap enabling him to outpoint many bigger opponents. A “loping left footer,” he was also proficient at ground level. He took on the number one ruck mantle almost from day one, never playing anywhere but in the league side, and missed just one game in his three seasons with the Tigers(the last, with a shin injury). Selected in a State training squad, he was vice captain of Claremont for two of those  years and won the club’s fairest and best in 1958.    In his debut against South Fremantle in round one of 1957 he was rated one of Claremont’s best in the newspaper. “I had always played in the ruck, resting in the forward line, but Claremont changed me in a back pocket that day,” he said. “We were well beaten and the ball came down there a lot, so I was in the play.”An employment transfer to Guildford brought Hilton’s league career to an end at the age of twenty nine, but it was by no means the finish of his football. On the contrary, it was to herald success in the world of coaching.After a season with South West League club Harvey-Brunswick, in which they won a premiership, John took on the coaching role at Cannington, and tasted success immediately, with another flag. He also captain coached the combined South Suburban side.In 1965 Hilton returned to Inglewood, who were playing in the Sunday League. He was coach for three seasons, during which time the club were runners up, before serving on the committee as President and Treasurer at different times. John and Fran Hilton have five daughters: Linda, Jenny, Suzanne, Dianne, and Louise. Linda played State under sixteens at Netball, while Suzanne and Louise both played State League netball. John enjoys a round of social golf at Maylands.He regarded Brian Foley and Polly Farmer as toughest to beat, and while only seeing Dennis Marshall in the star’s younger years, reckoned he was the best he played with. John recalled an Amateur match at Midland, when umpires had the power to send players off the ground. “One of the opposition got his marching orders, then promptly took his jumper off so that he didn’t have a number displayed. “How can you send me off if I’ve got no number?” he queried.”John Hilton may have been a reluctant league footballer, playing only three seasons, but he made his mark in an era of great ruckmen. There is no doubt he would have achieved much more if he’d made the transition earlier.