Mike Williamson’s call of 'Jesaulenko, you beauty!' remembered forever
Mike Williamson, the man behind one of footy's most iconic moments, has passed away, aged 91. In one of his last interviews, he explained the story behind the famous 1970 Grand Final call.
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They're the three words that will give him perpetuity in the game of football.
The three words that spilt out of him as he watched the Carlton No.25 jump as if propelled by heavy-duty springs and mark spectacularly over his Collingwood opponent.
The three words that will forever be linked to the 1970 Grand Final.
“Jesaulenko, you beauty!’’
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Mike Williamson described hundreds of matches of league football.
But his call of “Jezza’’, Alex Jesaulenko, rising like a bird and riding the shoulder of Magpie Graeme “Jerker’’ Jenkin, reserves him a lasting place in football. He’s been told many times it’s an “immortal line’’.
Williamson passed away today, aged 91. After joining Channel 7 in the late 1950s he was responsible for many great sporting moments, but in one of his final interviews, he said the image of a soaring Jesaulenko would never leave him.
“It’s a bit hard to forget it, isn’t it?’’ he said at his two-bedroom apartment at a retirement village in East Brighton.
Shown footage of the magical mark on YouTube, Williamson smiled as he took in the call.
“McKay to the wing position on the members’ stand side. Oh, Jesaulenko, you beauty!’’
“Well it just came to me,’’ Williamson said.
“It happened very quickly. A lot of things do in that business (sports commentary). I was just happy he came down safely. He was a well-built character, ‘Jezza’. Who knows what might have happened if he landed awkwardly. Might have made a terrible mess of himself.’’
He was adamant the mark inspired the Blues’ famous comeback to win the Grand Final.
Williamson and Jesaulenko were friends before the match, sharing Carlton ties (Williamson’s father-in-law, Frank Martin, also wore No 25 for the Blues).
They remained close for almost 50 years afterwards, and Williamson rarely missed the chance to tell Jezza “I made you’’.
He did so once in the company of Jenkin, who cut him off. “No, my head made him famous,’’ Jenkin said.
Jesaulenko said he long ago lost count of the number of times Williamson had remarked about the mark.
“He says if he hadn’t said those words, ‘Jesaulenko, you beauty’, I’d still be an unknown little immigrant! The whole thing, my mark, his words, is down in folklore now, isn’t it? Even the young ones of today know of it.’’
Williamson’s career began at the old Herald newspaper, after he left school at the age of 15 to work as a “messenger boy’’.
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The great football writer Alf Brown was well established at the newspaper, as was ace racing scribe Jack Elliott.
But none of their magic rubbed off on Williamson. “I couldn’t write too well,’’ he said.
At the age of 22 he received a scholarship at Vincent’s School of Broadcasting. That led to a position at 3AK in the early 1950s.
Then it was on to 3AW and, in 1959, to Channel 7, where he broadcast league matches and fronted shows including Tell The Truth and The Penthouse Club. They called him “The Golden Voice’’.
Williamson first described football for 3AW, with Geelong great Reg Hickey at his side. There were few comforts around the grounds. “None of the private boxes back then,’’ he said. “Our commentary positions didn’t amount to much. On the roof of something or way up in the grandstand.’’
He recalled calling a game from above the Hawthorn coaching box. At quarter time Hawks coach John Kennedy told him to “keep your voice down, I can’t hear myself thinking’’.
And one day he raised the ire of a North Melbourne supporter he knew as “Aunty Mary’’. She clipped him with her handbag.
Like the 1970 Grand Final, the 1966 decider between St Kilda and Collingwood was a match lodged in his memory.
He covered it with “Butch’’ Gale and Ted Whitten, positioned at the back of the members’ stand.
“Oh Michael, you might be right, this could be a draw,’’ Gale said in the exciting final few minutes.
“I tipped this!’’ he shot back, more words to echo down the years.
Soon after came the passage of play that gave the Saints the lead and ultimately their first premiership.
“Potter has it, he can’t break clear. It’s taken by Breen. It’s a (pause) point! It’s a point, St Kilda in front! St Kilda in front!’’ Williamson cried.
He remembers ’66 as much for the deafening noise of the crowd as the Barry Breen point.
Football writer and historian Russell Holmesby said some long-tooth St Kilda supporters knew the commentary by heart.
Williamson had a pioneering role in television commentary. “Because it was new, no one could really tell us how to do it,’’ he said. “We made it up as we went along.’’
He aimed to be accurate and to entertain his viewers.
“No good doing it if you’re dull and no one watches,’’ he said. “You had to have some excitement to it.’’
His talent, good looks and the spheres of sports and entertainment vaulted him to household-name status in Melbourne.
In the book Heart of the Game’, Michael Winkler wrote that football commentators “can be as big as or even bigger than the game itself’’, noting that in his heyday “Mike Williamson was better known than Mike Patterson’’.
A bunch of framed certificates and photos hangs outside the spare bedroom in Williamson's East Brighton home that give a glimpse of his many achievements: MCG Media Hall of Fame, life membership of the Australian Football Media Association, an honorary life governor of the Royal Children’s Hospital and an OAM for his charity work, particularly his fundraising efforts for leukaemia research (his granddaughter Meg was diagnosed with the illness at age three).
In Jesaulenko’s mind, something is missing. He believes Williamson should be in the Australian football hall of fame.
“It’s got me absolutely bamboozled that he’s not in it,’’ Jesaulenko said.
“I think it’s disgrace. Anyway, we’ll see what we can do about that. Got to get him in so I can turn it around and say if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t be famous.’’
Holmesby said Williamson had made a towering contribution to football.
“He was the No.1 caller on Channel 7 for a very long time,’’ he said.
“He was part of your Friday night — he did the Kevin Dennis Footy Show, a preview show, at one stage — and he was part of your Saturday night with The Pelaco Football Inquest. He was a big voice in football.’’
Holmesby said the calls of the 1966 and 1970 Grand Finals “would live forever’’.
Mike Williamson, you beauty.
As a wide eyed kid and footy fanatic in the 1960s, the great Mike Williamson was the voice of my childhood. He brought the game alive with a touch of showbiz and cheekiness. I was honoured to interview him many years later and delighted to find him an absolute gentleman.
— NickMcCallum7 (@NickMcCallum7) May 2, 2019
The great Michael Williamson has just left us, as he ventured into his 90’s. If you don’t know of him, look him up and you’ll see he was one of Australia’s giant media talents. All the best to Michelle and family. (With Allen Aylett) pic.twitter.com/Fjji5b40bO
— Sam Newman (@Origsmartassam) May 2, 2019
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