Jeff Gieschen (born 22 September 1956) is the former National Umpire Manager of the
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...
(AFL) and a former
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
player and coach who played in the
Victorian Football League
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...
(VFL) between 1974 and 1978 for the
Footscray Football Club. He was the senior coach of AFL club
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, Californi ...
from late 1997 until the end of the 1999 season.
Playing career
In 1971, Gieschen captained the State Championship winning La Trobe Valley Schoolboys team and was also named the Victorian Captain and All Australian vice captain in the U16's. He played 150 games in the Latrobe Valley Football League (LVFL) with the Maffra Football club during which time he collected three player of the year awards, two league best and fairest awards and seven Club Best and Fairest awards (including one as a 15-year-old in 1972). He represented the LVFL in inter-league games 15 times between 1973 and 1984 and was captain of the LVFL side in 1981. He was selected in the Victorian Country side to play the ACT in 1980. In the Ovens and Murray League he won Wodonga's Best and Fairest award in 1986, his only year as a player at that club.
Footscray
Gieschen played a total of 24 games and kicked one goal for
Footscray from 1974 until 1978 in the
VFL League.
Coaching career
Gieschen coached the Maffra Football Club in 1979, 1980 and 1982 (and was inducted into the Maffra F.C.'s inaugural Hall of Fame in 2008).
He coached Wodonga from 1986 to 1991 for two premierships and was awarded Regional Coach of the Year in 1990. During his six years at Wodonga the club won five Ovens and Murray League club championships based on the combined results of the Senior, Reserve and Third grade teams. (He was also named as Wodonga's "coach of the century" in 2004).
He coached West Perth
from 1992 to 1994 which included a grand final loss
to Claremont in 1993, during which season he was awarded the JJ Leonard Medal for West Australian Coach of the Year Award. (West Perth also named him as coach of their "All Star Team of the Century" in 2008). In the
1995 season and the
1996 season, he was an assistant coach to
Gary Ayres
Gary James Ayres (born 28 September 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is currently the senior coach for the Montrose Football Club in the Eastern F ...
at the
Geelong Football Club
The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 20 ...
which included a grand final appearance in the 1995 season, which Geelong lost to Carlton.
Richmond Football Club
At the end of 1996, Gieschen was approached by Richmond to be their reserves coach and assistant coach under senior coach
Robert Walls
Robert Walls (born 21 July 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented and in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. In a playing career that spanned three decades Robert played a combined 259 games ...
. Richmond reserves won the premiership in the first year, Gieschen coached them and he reluctantly stood in as caretaker senior coach for the
Richmond Football Club
The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Victo ...
senior side after Walls was sacked with five games to play in the
1997 season. Under Gieschen, the Tigers won four of those remaining five games to finish thirteenth on the ladder with ten wins and twelve losses. The reserves premiership and the four senior wins at the end of 1997 season gave rise to the Richmond cheersquad’s ‘Unleash the Giesch’ chant and made Gieschen a frontrunner for the Richmond senior coaching position. Gieschen was then appointed as full-time Richmond senior coach in 1998. In the
1998 season, Richmond under Gieschen, just missed out of the finals, where they finished ninth on the ladder with twelve wins and ten losses. However in the
1999 season, Richmond's on-field performance under Gieschen dropped when they finished twelve on the ladder with nine wins and thirteen losses. At the end of the 1999 season, Gieschen resigned as Richmond Football Club senior coach. Gieschen coached Richmond to a total of 49 games with 25 wins and 24 losses where Gieschen’s winning percentage as a senior AFL coach finished at 52 percent. Gieschen was then replaced by
Danny Frawley
Daniel Patrick Frawley (8 September 1963 – 9 September 2019) was an Australian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League ...
as Richmond Football Club senior coach.
AFL Umpires' Manager
Gieschen served as the
Umpires' National Umpire Manager
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...
for 14 years, until his resignation which took effect on 28 November 2013.
Gieschen (with the now former Head of Coaching for umpires,
Rowan Sawers
Rowan Sawers (born 19 October 1954) is a former Australian rules football field umpire and umpire coach in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Over a career that spanned 21 seasons at the highest level, Sawers became the first field umpire ...
) has been acknowledged by the AFL (memorandum from Mark Evans, AFL Football Operations Manager, 30 October 2013) as "...the longest serving umpire coach/manager combination in the history of the AFL. They have overseen a period of great improvement in the professionalism and advancement of umpiring programs and the outstanding performance of umpires and officials in Finals and Grand Finals."
In his 14 years of managing the AFL's umpires Gieschen implemented a range of reforms which have included: stricter enforcement of the AFL's "abuse to umpires" policy; abolition of the white uniform as part of a conscious effort to eradicate the "white maggot" label previously applied to umpires; objective performance management criteria to ensure accurate ranking and appointment of umpires; introduced a DVD overviewing umpiring/laws of the game for umpires, clubs, media and fans; successfully recommended the implementation of taller goalposts to improve scoring accuracy; oversaw the introduction of the "score review system"; four boundary umpires to enable boundary umpires to keep up with the game; standardised fitness testing for umpires; player to umpire career pathway to encourage former players to take up umpiring roles; and the appointment of Chelsea Roffey, the first female umpire appointed to a final, including a grand final.
Following his departure from the AFL, Gieschen plans to launch a sport consultancy business.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gieschen, Jeff
Living people
1956 births
Western Bulldogs players
Richmond Football Club coaches
West Perth Football Club coaches
Wodonga Football Club players
Wodonga Football Club coaches
Maffra Football Club players
Maffra Football Club coaches
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)