Where is Allen Jakovich?

[Moonshadow 16,347]

53 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

The three most exciting players I've seen in the last 40 years apart from Flower who was just poetry in motion were Jakovic, Farmer and Schwarz.

I'd say 4 and add jurrah. Robbie was poetry, but the other 4 were pure freaks.

Allen Jackovich was the reason I attended so may games at the time. It was like watching your best mate drunk at a party, never knew what highs or lows he'd get up to next.

[DeeZee 6,805]

Yeah I'll pay that Jurrah was a freak, real shame we didn't get to see more of him though.

[Diamond_Jim 11,942]

Jurrah was very special

If he had continued.. and we built a successful team around him...he would have added another 10,000 to our membership

I went to a Box Hill VFL game just to watch him

Anyway back to Allen J .... those videos remind me of the importance of leading ...but just by a metre or two.. he wasn't  a great overhead mark like Neitz but his one on one was spectacular

Now.... imagine him today..... where and how would you play him??????

[John Crow Batty 8,286]

7 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Jurrah was very special

If he had continued.. and we built a successful team around him...he would have added another 10,000 to our membership

I went to a Box Hill VFL game just to watch him

Anyway back to Allen J .... those videos remind me of the importance of leading ...but just by a metre or two.. he wasn't  a great overhead mark like Neitz but his one on one was spectacular

Now.... imagine him today..... where and how would you play him??????

Jakovich was great at leading but you could also plonk the ball on top of his head in the goal square and he was lethal at ground level. There was no gorilla backman that could outmuscle him. When his attitude was right he was perhaps the most complete offensive forward in the game. 

He had two weaknesses though that were consistent throughout his career. He was very selfish and his defensive pressure was extremely poor and criticised even in a day when forward defensive pressure was not deemed as important as it is today. 

Edited March 18, 2017 by america de cali

[Demon trucker 1,776]

Could've been a champion 

[Dee Dee 1,048]

The most erratic football talent I have ever seen! I remember John Northey for some reason kept Jackovich in the 2nds for a long time before he was permitted to debut in the seniors. At that time I would get to the ground early to watch the seconds and especially Jackovich and invariably someone would arrive later and  ask "how many's he kicked so far"? No name just "he"and everyone knew who "he" was! If my memory serves me correctly "he" kicked 14 in one reserves game.

I also remember Jackovich giving a very young Dustin Fletcher the run around on one occasion. But I think Fletcher had the far better career. And Jacko went of to Footscray for an inglorious career end.

[chook fowler 18,359]

7 minutes ago, Dee Dee said:

The most erratic football talent I have ever seen! I remember John Northey for some reason kept Jackovich in the 2nds for a long time before he was permitted to debut in the seniors. At that time I would get to the ground early to watch the seconds and especially Jackovich and invariably someone would arrive later and  ask "how many's he kicked so far"? No name just "he"and everyone knew who "he" was! If my memory serves me correctly "he" kicked 14 in one reserves game.

I also remember Jackovich giving a very young Dustin Fletcher the run around on one occasion. But I think Fletcher had the far better career. And Jacko went of to Footscray for an inglorious career end.

An inglorious  bastard indeed

[Adzman 2,085]

Even to this day, I think it would be harder to name any footballer who made such and immediate impact and gained such a cult following so instantly. Every fan knew and admired him, he was just electric. I can't recall such a meteoric rise and fall since Jakovich.

[Gator 16,910]

8 minutes ago, Adzman said:

Even to this day, I think it would be harder to name any footballer who made such and immediate impact and gained such a cult following so instantly. Every fan knew and admired him, he was just electric. I can't recall such a meteoric rise and fall since Jakovich.

Carman.

[Gator 16,910]

 Whether it be Jakovich, Jurrah, Charles, or to a lesser extent Schwarz, we've had our share of unfulfilled talents. 

Petracca has a similar type of x-factor bubbling underneath the surface.   Let's hope it blossoms in full. 

 

[sisso 2,388]

Great to watch the old style of footy when a forward had the whole 50 to lead into without 4 defenders blocking up the space in front of him!

 

Loved Jako as a kid and I remember I was shattered when he went to the Bulldogs, even though he didn't do anything for them. Also see in that footage Sean Charles, another huge talent that we only saw a glimpse of....

[Dr. Gonzo 22,542]

18 hours ago, Wiseblood said:

That's correct.  He also reached 100 goals in just 21 games, which equalled the record set by John Coleman.  

What a player he was.  He could miss absolute sitters and then dob one from the boundary on his left.  He could have had so many more goals too if he kicked straighter.  Didn't he kick 4.11 in 1994 against the Hawks at Waverley?

Missed one running into an open goal square and then dobbed one from 45 metres out on the boundary on his left minutes later.

[Hellaintabadplacetobe 4,099]

On 3/18/2017 at 0:41 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

I never saw him play as i moved to Australia in 1998.

But why dont we ever hear about him at all? Has the club actually reached out to him? 

 

I too was abroad for his whole career, so all I have is memories of my brother telling me stories about him and seeing his name in the old TNT mag in London every week. Loved the highlights from that Pies game in this thread, see a lot of Plugger in him. He looked like he knew he was unstoppable.

[John Crow Batty 8,286]

A few more highlights against the cheaters.

 

[Engorged Onion 9,418]

9 minutes ago, america de cali said:

A few more highlights against the cheaters.

 

Bloody loved Obst

[Engorged Onion 9,418]

Allen v North Melbourne - 1991

Score

0.1 -1.45 (time via youtube)

1.1 - 4.50

1.2 - 7.00

2.2 -11.00

3.2 -20.00

4.2 22.00

and thats just the first quarter...

4.3  - 38.00

4.4 - 39.00

5.4 - 41.00

6.3 - 51.00

6.3 - 54.00

Half time

nice clean hit on Jose Romero - 1.15.30

7.3 1.17.30 - THAT GOAL!

8.3 - 1.22.00

9.3 - 1.34.00  (it says 10, so I've missed one)

3/4 Time

OOB -20 metres out -1.43.00

10.04 -1.47.00

11.04 - 1.59.00

 

 

[dieter 3,325]

My favourite memory of the Yugoslavic beast is his first game. I believe it was against Adelaide and his opponent was one Daniel Hughes. In the first quarter Hughes, as they say in the classics, gave Jackovich one and Jackovich just got up and biffed him back. I knew at that moment we had a gun and that, like in the Chekov plays, the gun would go off.

[Engorged Onion 9,418]

this sums the marvellous bastard up - arrogant, didn't mind a biff, and you knew that as soon as that ball was delivered..he'd do the rest

[Engorged Onion 9,418]

 

[Guest]

Watching that video, it struck me: Why have the blokes that we have bought to the club with a bit of spunk and mongrel about them always have turned out to be dropkicks?

Watching that Collingwood game above, what stood out to me was that Jaka REFUSED to be intimidated by the Filth and their nuff nuff supporters. He gave it back to them in spades. When he kicked a goal, he let Garry Pert know all about it. It wasn't fake, try hard bluster either. He could back up what he was saying. Ox wrote in his autobiography as well that he nearly started a riot after that game as well after he gave them the double bird as he headed down the players race.

He was a bit like Tiger Crosswell in that if you gave him sufficient motivation to turn it on, you had a show on your hands.

That being said, even watching that video, he had a bit of a pot gut. We have heard tales of his training habits and other innuendo. I wonder how things might have turned out had we had people in place at the club that embraced individuals but kept the discipline of the club in tact.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Colin B. Flaubert

[Mazer Rackham 14,970]

In one of those videos he was listed as 187cm and 99kg.

In another he was 183cm and 88kg.

 

The guy either became a jockey or went to the NBA.

[daisycutter 28,641]

10 minutes ago, Ted Fidge said:

In one of those videos he was listed as 187cm and 99kg.

In another he was 183cm and 88kg.

 

The guy either became a jockey or went to the NBA.

noticed that.

from wikipedia - 

height / weight	187cm / 98kg

[Tony Tea 2,792]

22 hours ago, america de cali said:

I was at that game and we beat them easily in a surprise win. He upstaged Lockett and the Saints fans were shocked. He kicked 8.7 till 3/4 time and shut up shop for the rest of the day. Must have felt tired.

We won easy by a point.

[pikeout 41]

  He changed the way I watched the game. Usually sat on the wing. Moved to behind goals, & changed ends each quarter. Have VHS's of every game he played.

[Tony Tea 2,792]

6 hours ago, Dee Dee said:

The most erratic football talent I have ever seen! I remember John Northey for some reason kept Jackovich in the 2nds for a long time before he was permitted to debut in the seniors. At that time I would get to the ground early to watch the seconds and especially Jackovich and invariably someone would arrive later and  ask "how many's he kicked so far"? No name just "he"and everyone knew who "he" was! If my memory serves me correctly "he" kicked 14 in one reserves game.

I also remember Jackovich giving a very young Dustin Fletcher the run around on one occasion. But I think Fletcher had the far better career. And Jacko went of to Footscray for an inglorious career end.

Jako's first game was round 1 against West Coast in Perth. Jako hardly did a thing and got dropped to the Twos where he kicked lots of goals until Northey brought him back to the Ones where he continued to kick lots of goals.

I think he kicked a total of about 130 goals for the year, 1s and 2s, but also had over 200 shots at goal.