Jon Ballantyne is a former Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er in the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (AFL). He was recruited from Bairnsdale, Victoria

Bairnsdale, Victoria

Bairnsdale is a small city in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With a population at the 2006 census of 11,282, it is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale....

 and started his AFL career with Footscray

Western Bulldogs

The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne...

.

Footscray

Ballantyne debuted with the Bulldogs in 1990. He was used mostly as a spearhead, at a time when Danny Del-Re

Danny Del-Re

Danny Del-Re is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Footscray in the AFL during the early 1990s.Del-Re spent five seasons with Footscray, topping their goalkicking in 1992 and 1993. The 1992 season was his most prolific; he kicked 70 goals, including 13 of them in the finals series...

 was considered the club's first choice full forward. Consequently, he managed only 20 games in four full seasons, although his return of 46 goals suggests that he was able to get amongst the goals when he was included in the team.

Collingwood

Collingwood offered a life line to Ballantyne's football career in 1994. He was tried in defence, mainly at full back, with reasonable success. A serious knee injury ended his football career prematurely, after a further nine games with Collingwood in two seasons.

NFL Europe

After his Australian rules football career ended, Ballantyne played American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 for the Scottish Claymores

Scottish Claymores

The Scottish Claymores were an American football team from Scotland. The franchise played in the World League of American Football between 1995 and 2004, initially playing all home games at Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh and latterly sharing home games with Hampden Park, Glasgow...

 in NFL Europe

NFL Europe

NFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...

. A punter, Ballantyne was signed by National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 (NFL) team, the Denver Broncos

Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

, but never played a match for them.

Ballantyne played amateur gridiron in Australia in the Victoria Gridiron Association.