Allan Lindsay Jeans (21 September 1933 – 13 July 2011) was an

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er and coach. He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the 1996 AFL season, centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media pe ...

at its inception in 1996. Jeans was known for his oratory and motivation skills as a coach and led St Kilda and Hawthorn to a total of four premierships.

VFL career

Allan Jeans was recruited to St Kilda after playing in Finley Football Club's 1954

Murray Football League The Murray Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league affiliated with the Victorian Country Football League. The league covers a large area of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales from Shepparton in ...

(MFL) senior premiership, and he was also runner-up in the 1954 MFL O’Dwyer Medal. After a modest 77-game playing career with the

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

(1955–1959), Jeans, known as "Yabby", took the reins of the Saints in 1961 for a remarkable 16-year career as senior coach. He coached St Kilda to successive grand finals, in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, including the Saints' first (and only) VFL premiership in 1966. He took the Saints to another grand final appearance in 1971. Claiming "burn-out", he retired from coaching the team at the end of 1976. In 1981, Jeans revived his coaching career when he was appointed coach for the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawth ...

. He coached them until 1990 (excluding a year off in 1988 due to brain injury) establishing them as the dominant VFL team of the 1980s, with premierships in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

and

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

from seven consecutive grand finals. Finally, he had a short-lived one-year stint at

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, winning only five out of 22 games.

Later life

Jeans supported the planned merger between and in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. Following his retirement from his job as a Senior Sergeant with

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victor ...

, Jeans became an avid social

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

player at Cheltenham Lawn Bowls Club. One of his last public appearances was at the post-match presentations of the

2006 AFL Grand Final The 2006 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 30 September 2006. It was the 110th annual grand final of the Austral ...

. He died following years of ill health on 12 July 2011.

References

External links

St Kilda Saints profile of Allan Jeans
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeans, Allan 1933 births 2011 deaths Australian rules footballers from New South Wales St Kilda Football Club coaches St Kilda Football Club premiership coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees St Kilda Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club coaches Hawthorn Football Club premiership coaches Richmond Football Club coaches Finley Football Club players Australian police officers VFL/AFL premiership coaches