Alex Jesaulenko hopes a new scholarship will help multicultural people get involved in AFL

SATURDAY marks 50 years since Alex Jesaulenko’s Carlton debut and the AFL legend hopes a new coaching scholarship will encourage more multiculturalism in the game.

Carlton legend Alex Jesaulenko at Ikon Park. Picture: Tony Gough

CARLTON legend Alex Jesaulenko played his first game for the Blues 50 years ago on Saturday and now wants to help encourage multicultural Australians take up the game that changed his life.

“Jezza” made a rare appearance at Princes Park this week to lend his name to a coaching scholarship, which is an initiative of the AFL and AFL Coaches Association.

The Alex Jesaulenko Coaching Internship will see a community coach from a multicultural background appointed as a part-time volunteer in an AFL club’s program for 12 weeks this year.

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The internship will focus on coaches with origins in northern Africa, Asia or the Middle East.

“There was nothing like this in my day,” Jesaulenko said. “You just had to fit into being an Aussie as best as you could, and football helped me do that.”

“I hope this helps more people from different backgrounds get involved in the game.”

A 21-year-old Alex Jesaulenko in 1967.

Alex Jesaulenko flies over Bob Murray in 1970.

Jesaulenko, 71, was born in Salzburg, Austria, to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, in the months after the end of the War in Europe in 1945. His family came to Australia four years later, spending time at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp before settling in Canberra.

After coming off a rugby ground one day, 14-year-old Alex was asked by a few mates to fill in for an Australian Rules match, and the rest is history.

He went on to play 279 games with Carlton and St Kilda, kicked 444 goals and was a four-time Blues premiership player and premiership coach. He is one of only 26 Legends of the Australian football Hall of Fame.

AFLCA chief executive Mark Brayshaw said Jesaulenko’s journey was “incredibly similar to many other stories in Australia today ... and we hope his story will inspire a lot of others to take up our game.”

Alex Jesaulenko with West Preston Lakeside reserves coach George Lattouf. Picture: Tony Gough

“We know the importance of community coaches and if they can bring back their experiences to a community level, all of a sudden the people who didn’t feel as if the game was for them, might think otherwise.”

West Preston Lakeside reserves coach George Lattouf, whose parents were born in Lebanon, was part of the pilot program last year, working with his beloved Blues. He said it was a great experience and he took his learnings back to his local club.

Lattouf’s father, who arrived in Melbourne in the early 1960s, was there the day Jesaulenko made his debut for the Blues on April 15, 1967. Jezza kicked two goals in Carlton’s 94-point win over Fitzroy.

“It doesn’t feel like 50 years ago,” Jesaulenko said with a smile. “The one thing I will never forget was the roar of the crowd that day — I was used to the toots of the car horn from up in Canberra.”