Western Australian football has been littered with stories of young players seemingly with the world at their feet succumbing to injury or illness, eventually disappearing from the spotlight as quickly as they arrived there.Swan Districts wingman Johnny Mack was a household name at the age of twenty.John Mack started his football career in the Swan Districts Junior Football competition at Midland in the under sixteens and under eighteens competition alongside many talented footballers, including Ken Bagley, Dave Sidebottom, the late Ken Cooper, and Peter Colquhoun. “During that time, former West Perth backman Wally Price, who had a property behind us, had done his best to brainwash me into playing with West Perth by taking me to the Cardinals games, but I was always going to Swans,” John said. “It was good fun early, playing colts with some of my old school mates.”  John joined Swan Districts Senior Competition in 1959 starting in the Thirds.In 1960 Swan Districts Football Club embarked on a program to encourage young players and John was promoted to the League after playing a few games with the Reserves. Mack played his first full League match at Perth Oval, on star wingman, Paul Seal. “It was intimidating,” he laughed. “I thought I was pretty quick, but they were faster. Seal was a very elusive player, but it was the terrific understanding with “Polly” Farmer that set the duo apart. A thirty metre spot on handpass from the ruck contest that often left you wrongfooted was mighty hard to combat.”  Mack was named Swans best first year player as a nineteen year old that year.1961 was a dream year for the youngster. “It was certainly something special,” he recalls. “At the start of the season we had no idea of what was to unfold under Haydn Bunton. With the inclusion of some new talented country footballers like Billy Walker, Keith Watt and Gary Gray, as well as a few new faces from the East, including Tasmanian Max Kelleher, the whole side just lifted to another level under Bunton’s use of handball and play-on style of football.”  Mack was part of the club’s rejuvenation that year, with Swans first premiership win.Mack had played a blistering first half of 1962, as reflected in his selection in the State Training Squad.  Mid season he was struck down with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a sometimes fatal condition only encountered by two to six people in a million. Losing a layer of skin and most of his hair, he spent three weeks in intensive care at Royal Perth Hospital. “I was an utter mess,” John said. “I couldn’t eat or drink, my skin was in agony at a touch.  It was not how I had envisaged celebrating my twenty first birthday.”    Due to this illness, Mack missed the rest of that season. Even so, he ran third in the black and whites fairest and best for the year.Resuming in the 1963 season, Mack found that his main asset, pace, had lessened, his game suffered accordingly and in spite of having played for most of the season, he found himself out of the side for the finals. Determined to fight his way back in the 1964 season, he played only a few league games, finishing the year in the winning seconds premiership team. Mack eventually retired from football at the age of twenty three,John Mack studied accountancy at night school. His employment at the Public Trust Office spanned thirty nine years. He and his wife, Maxine, were married in 1965 and had two sons.John’s sporting ability was inherited by youngest son, Chris, who, like Dad, was a high achiever at a young age. Playing for the Midland/Guildford Cricket Club, Mack won a scholarship to the Australian Cricket Academy in South Australia. He was recalled to make his debut for Western Australia  in the 1989/90 season as a fast bowler, together with another rookie, Brendan Julien. Chris also played one season in the UK. Unfortunately, the bad luck of his father was also passed on, a back injury prematurely ending a promising cricket career.East Perth’s Derek Chadwick and Subiaco’s Tommy Robbins were John’s nominations for hardest opponent.   John has many fond memories of his football years while the 1961 Swan Districts team was the best he played with.  “East Perth was a team of champions,” he said. “We were a champion team.” One of many top wingmen Swan Districts have boasted over the years, Mack had a brief but exhilarating time at the top in the early sixties in a career tragically cut short by a debilitating illness. Football saw too little of the talents of Johnny Mack.