Mark Jackson

[James1970]

I may have told this story here, but I met Jacko when I was going for a wee in the Great Southern Stand around late '85 - a couple of hours before a game against the Dees. Did the business, was washing my hands, when out popped Jacko from a stall. He noticed I had his number on the back of my jumper (it was an old jumper) and said "Jesus mate, I'd be getting that number changed pretty soon if I was you."

I'd heard he wasn't that close to the group, but Jacko having to take a shit in the public toilets of the Great Southern Stand pretty much summed up the Cats culture back in those days.

 

[The rabbi]

I had heard stories that Jacko liked to put lighted cigarettes in the jacket pockets of Cats officials.

Whether it is true or not I do not know. The myth maybe bigger than the man.

I do remember being at the city end when it was just a hill and Jacko decided that his opponents shins would be handy for cleaning the mud out of his boot stops. The full back was less than impressed.
The bloke had some ability but he was an idiot.

 

[The rabbi]

I may have told this story here, but I met Jacko when I was going for a wee in the Great Southern Stand around late '85 - a couple of hours before a game against the Dees. Did the business, was washing my hands, when out popped Jacko from a stall. He noticed I had his number on the back of my jumper (it was an old jumper) and said "Jesus mate, I'd be getting that number changed pretty soon if I was you."

I'd heard he wasn't that close to the group, but Jacko having to take a shit in the public toilets of the Great Southern Stand pretty much summed up the Cats culture back in those days.

I think that you mean the old Southern Stand as the Great Southern Stand did not exist until about 1991-2.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

Friggen hell! I thought that I was old but Fred is a genuine living fossil.

Wow , have to agree - looks like Fred is at least 6-7 years older than me............to be that and still coherent is really saying something !!
Vive Le Deux !!

 

[FredLeDeux]

Friggen hell! I thought that I was old but Fred is a genuine living fossil.

Yep, I regard myself as a cross between the Crocodile and the Mountain Beaver.

 

[FredLeDeux]

I think that you mean the old Southern Stand as the Great Southern Stand did not exist until about 1991-2.

The Southern Stand was built in 1936-37, but they must have done more work on it later; after he came back from WW2, as part of the Army's Rehabilitation School, my dad worked on it as an apprentice carpenter, planing the front edges of the wooden seats. As late as the early 60s, he used to point out to us which ones were "his".

 

[romeoh]

Don't care if he was genuinely talented, couldn't abide him. Thought signing him typified the desperation of that era. Glad when he went.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Wow , have to agree - looks like Fred is at least 6-7 years older than me............to be that and still coherent is really saying something !!
Vive Le Deux !!

Well, there are at least a couple of others on here older than me, because they remember 51/52.
I'm just glad I made the 44 years.
And I'm glad that in 2007-08 I witnessed a series of the most astounding and awe-inspiring footy displays in the history of the game.

 

[Vdubs]

At least you had the talented bit.
My youth involved, among other things, travelling to and from Melbourne to Geelong in Dad's ute every 2nd Saturday to watch them win back to back Wooden Spoons in 1957/58.
The only saving grace was watching the brilliant Freddie Le Deux.

What number was Fred, Fred?
Did you include him in the guernsey team?

 

[FredLeDeux]

What number was Fred, Fred?
Did you include him in the guernsey team?

No, I reluctantly took Morrow at 22 because Freddie didn't quite play enough games - yet another career cruelly cut short by a dreadfully short-sighted Selection Committee.
As soon as he started playing I wanted Mum to sew his number on my new jumper, but Dad must have had an "in" with the selectors, because he said the shop was out of 2s, and take no. 4 instead. I was pretty upset, I can tell you. But it was alright the next season when they made Woofa the Centenary All-Australian Captain. Wore the jumper 24/7 after that.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Was embarrassed that he played at Geelong.

 

[you pick one]

Nothing wrong with Jacko except the voice didn't match the man,a wimpy squeaky thing for such a big man, he used to pull piss at one of the City pubs,can't think of the name of it now, someone will know.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Nothing wrong with Jacko except the voice didn't match the man,a wimpy squeaky thing for such a big man, he used to pull piss at one of the City pubs,can't think of the name of it now, someone will know.

Would like to hear him talking to Leigh Mathews. Makes me think of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

 

[LifeSpan-Void]

He was ahead of his time in some ways. He played football as a purely commercial venture and made no bones about it. No doubt it rubbed some people up the wrong way. He didn't partake of the footy culture - never drank - and didn't go out of his way to befriend teammates. So no surprise he wasn't everyone's favourite.

But he could play. You don't kick that many goals unless you have some ability. And he played at mostly crap clubs too.

Yeah I should have clarified that Jacko's follies were primarily of an interpersonal clashing nature, or letting other interests take precedence over the football (although most of that stuff happened after he left the VFL anyway), whereas Fev just tended to engage in public displays of stupidity and antisocial behaviour while continually being in denial that he was anything other than a larrikin. Sorry Grizzly_82 but I couldn't agree less with your post.

 

[AM]

Nothing wrong with Jacko except the voice didn't match the man,a wimpy squeaky thing for such a big man, he used to pull piss at one of the City pubs,can't think of the name of it now, someone will know.

Nah! He was a nuff-nuff. Agree with Partridge though, he could play when he put his mind to it.

 

[CF]

The club was in poor shape in the mid 80's and then were hit hard by the Hafey treachery who decided to decimate the Geelong list by poaching players to the Swans!

What a load of bollocks. Hafey was sacked by a petty short sighted board because he wasn't an ex-Geelong player. The fact that players decided to go with him was not his doing. Greg Williams for example wanted a small pay rise and he was knocked back so he decided to leave. Hafey was probably the best coach we had in the eighties bar Malcolm Blight. It was the small town syndrome that got Hafey sacked because key people didn't view him as a Geelong person and they wanted a Geelong man as coach.

As for Jacko he was a decent footballer and entertaining to watch. IIRC he even had a top 10 single in Australia at one point such was his popularity as a football personality. But for a team sport he was too much of an individual and that was why he played at four clubs even though he was a decent player.

 

[Partridge]

Yeah I should have clarified that Jacko's follies were primarily of an interpersonal clashing nature, or letting other interests take precedence over the football (although most of that stuff happened after he left the VFL anyway), whereas Fev just tended to engage in public displays of stupidity and antisocial behaviour while continually being in denial that he was anything other than a larrikin. Sorry Grizzly_82 but I couldn't agree less with your post.

Yep that's where to me Jacko was ahead of his time. He saw playing football as a way to make money and didn't apologise for it. Definitely wasn't the norm then, now it probably wouldn't matter so much.

There was no doubt Jacko did his job as a footballer, no matter what people like to think. Hafey to this day won't hear a bad word about him, he was one of the few who trained on time, all the time (don't think Ablett was the only one who didn't from that era), and he was always practicing extra stuff by himself.

 

[JackFlash]

What a load of bollocks. Hafey was sacked by a petty short sighted board because he wasn't an ex-Geelong player. The fact that players decided to go with him was not his doing. Greg Williams for example wanted a small pay rise and he was knocked back so he decided to leave. Hafey was probably the best coach we had in the eighties bar Malcolm Blight. It was the small town syndrome that got Hafey sacked because key people didn't view him as a Geelong person and they wanted a Geelong man as coach.

As for Jacko he was a decent footballer and entertaining to watch. IIRC he even had a top 10 single in Australia at one point such was his popularity as a football personality. But for a team sport he was too much of an individual and that was why he played at four clubs even though he was a decent player.

What a load of bollocks, Hafey had asked up to 8 players to move north with him in 1986, (including Gary Ablett) the club had no money to pay him or Greg Williams (ask Billy Goggin about that huge error of judgement) Short sighted? In the end it was the best thing that ever happened to Geelong. Devine was always a stop gap and he did the job for peanuts helping to rebuild a side that eventually Malcolm Blight took over.

 

[vinum coupe]

Hafey was probably the best coach we had in the eighties bar Malcolm Blight.

Nah, I though Goggin was our best.
Now there's another person we shafted in that era.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Nah, I though Goggin was our best.
Now there's another person we shafted in that era.

Goggin's record was much better than those of Hafey/Devine.
I've got no idea who did and didn't get shafted, or why.
Hafey was definitely proactive in recruiting our players to Sydney and in trying to recruit others, Bews especially. That's what Williams has said, anyway.

 

[vinum coupe]

There is no doubt Hafey went after them, but so would you if the Doc is throwing cash around. You're naturally going to target players you know. God knows how they didn't get Gaz.

As for Goggs being shafted. I actually can't remember the story now. Or even if there was one. (I was early teens) But I do remember how dirty he was. My brother was best mates with his son.

 

[vinum coupe]

My teacher at the time was I. Nankervis, I used to ask him every Friday how we would go the next day. Damn positive guy, we were always going to win.

 

[CF]

What a load of bollocks, Hafey had asked up to 8 players to move north with him in 1986, (including Gary Ablett) the club had no money to pay him or Greg Williams (ask Billy Goggin about that huge error of judgement) Short sighted? In the end it was the best thing that ever happened to Geelong. Devine was always a stop gap and he did the job for peanuts helping to rebuild a side that eventually Malcolm Blight took over.

your revisionist history is complete and utter bollocks. I don't disagree that Hafey didn't ask some players to go to the swans as why wouldn't he. But the way Hafey was treated at Geelong by the Board and the 'pat each other on the back' brigade of former Geelong players at the time was a disgrace, and the club got what it deserved as a result.

 

[JackFlash]

your revisionist history is complete and utter bollocks. I don't disagree that Hafey didn't ask some players to go to the swans as why wouldn't he. But the way Hafey was treated at Geelong by the Board and the 'pat each other on the back' brigade of former Geelong players at the time was a disgrace, and the club got what it deserved as a result.

Hafey knew that four of Geelong’s stars – including Williams – were out of contract, so he wasted little time in arranging big offers to each of them to switch clubs.

Williams later claimed that he would have been happy to stay at Geelong (and told the Cats that he would stay) for a reasonable increase in contract from $45,000 to $50,000 per year. Unbelievably, they refused, saying that a rise for one meant a rise for all, and that was out of the question. Geelong was near broke at this time. So Diesel became a Swan - on somewhere near twice the money that Geelong had paid him. No revision here, it's the truth. Goggin was the man responsible for stuffing up the Williams deal, but Hafey can never be exonerated acting out his revenge by poaching players and decimating the club. I know all about the mates rates culture at Geelong and in the 1970's and 80's they were a very insecure club and rarley made appointments from outside the realm. Olsson being the first exception.


How Sqaure boy Diesel became a Swan

inShare​

GOLDEN Square’s Greg ‘Diesel’ Williams, then a senior Geelong player, spent a busy off-season during the summer of 1985-86.

When Geelong dropped Tommy Hafey and he was snapped up by the Sydney Swans, the canny coach knew which leading Cats’ players were coming out of contract.

So he had a word in the ear of Swans’ boss Dr Geoffrey Edelsten who was prepared to use money --- heaps of it ---- to mould a team which could win its way into the VFL finals.

Williams hadn’t had any luck in the early 80s convincing the Carlton brains trust he was a league footballer. But after leaving the Square and getting those knockbacks from the Blues he actually got his start in the then VFL at Kardinia Park.

Outlined in his book Diesel: The Greg Williams Story the dual Michelsen medallist tells how Edelsten nurtured the grand plan of VFL bosses Allen Aylett and Jack Hamilton once South Melbourne had been shifted to the Harbour City.

And Williams was one of the marquee players involved in Edelsten’s build-up during those early Sydney days.

WILLIAMS writes that as soon as Edelsten appointed Hafey, Hafey’s manager Danny Finley contacted him along with three other out-of-contract Geelong players in Andrew Bews, David Bolton and Bernard Toohey.

"“Andrew was a local bloke from North Geelong and not really interested. But the rest of us were keen to know more.

“I was particularly interested because I was having trouble negotiating a new contract with Bill Goggin, Geelong’s former champion rover and later coach. He’'d become football director and was the real power around the place.

“I had just won the club’s best and fairest award but was being paid considerably less than several other players --- Gary Ablett, Brian Peake, John Mossop, the South Australian Bruce Lindner and even my old mate, Mick Turner.

“I felt I was entitled to a better deal,” Williams wrote. So he contacted another teammate in former champion Golden Square full-forward Ron Best to find out how he thought Williams, Toohey and Bolton should proceed.

“Ron suggested that David Bolton and I drive up to Bendigo on the Friday night, discuss the matter at his place and maybe give the Doc a call."”

Best ended up making the call and it was arranged for Bolton, Toohey, Williams and their wives to meet Edelsten at the Menzies at Rialto Hotel in Melbourne.
“"At the meeting the Doc was very frank, very open. He said ‘yes’ to all our inquiries --- money, accommodation, everything.”"

Then came the quandary, Williams says. The offer was in the region of $100,000 a year, more than double the money Geelong was paying him.

"“But I really wanted to stay at Geelong. All I asked was to raise my pay from $45,00 a year to $50,000. But Goggin wouldn’t have it so they let a lousy $5000 take me away.”"

Ron Best arranged for his friend Andrew Fairlie, a solicitor in Rochester and also a Richmond Football Club director, to tie up the legal side of things with Sydney. He clinched a four-year contract for Williams and three-year deals for Toohey and Bolton.

Hafey had contacted Gary Ablett personally and asked him to attend the meeting at the Rialto along with Bews. Ablett failed to show up.

 

[FredLeDeux]

If Hafey disclosed information about the players' contract status which was then known only to the club, he crossed the ethical line. If he did so whilst still employed by the club, it was even worse.
Nowadays it would also be a breach of any vaguely normal employment contract, but maybe not back then.
But I don't know the facts.