60th anniversary: Alex Jesaulenko made a mark of greatness and changed a nation forever
Alex Jesaulenko and the 1970 grand final mark that changed a nation forever.
Every great event and every great image creates its own history.
Three-quarters of my family were listening to the broadcast of the 1970 VFL grand final on a radio in country Victoria; the remaining 25 per cent of the clan was at the game.
My father had gambled a set of Michelin tyres on Carlton defeating Collingwood – roughly $1600 in today’s money – and until Carlton’s Alex Jesaulenko rose unassisted to the left shoulder of Collingwood’s Graeme “Jerker” Jenkin at the 27th minute of the second quarter, there was very little to be optimistic about.
It was money we never had.
Carlton would go into the half-time break 44 points down and, with seemingly little hope, the family’s tyres were flat.
At half-time, Carlton coach Ron Barassi changed Australian rules forever when he demanded the team take on Collingwood by hand balling and playing on at all costs. Jesaulenko kicked the final goal in the fourth quarter, helping deliver a 10-point win.
Had Carlton failed to defeat Collingwood, the impact of the mark may have been lessened but not for the late TV commentator Mike Williamson, who immortalised it with the commentary “Oooooh Jesaulenko. You beauty!”
The most commonly reproduced image is of Jesaulenko from behind, but the rarer version presents part of the crowd of 121,696 people and the late Serge Silvagni, waiting for the fallout.
Silvagni of Italian heritage, Jesaulenko’s family tree stretching to Russia and Ukraine, Barassi’s roots branching out to Swiss-Italian.
Carlton historian Tony De Bolfo later recording Barassi’s pragmatic view of the mark: “The best thing about Jezza’s mark was that we kept possession.’’
For 53-year Carlton member Leanne Tyrrell, the best thing about the mark might have been that she lived around the corner from 193cm tall Jenkin, who never quite lived down the ignominy of being on the wrong end of the leap.
Ms Tyrrell, who grew up in Rosanna in Melbourne’s northeast, remembers seeing Jenkin walking the streets after the grand final. “Jerker lived around the corner from us growing up as kids,’’ she said.
Whenever the family car drove anywhere near Jenkin, there would be a race to wind down the windows.
“We’d all yell out ‘Jesaulenko. You beauty’.’’
Jesaulenko has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He remains the most revered Carlton footballer of his generation, a group of players from multiple lists who delivered eight VFL/AFL premierships between 1968 and 1995.
The 1970 grand final also enhancing Barassi’s legacy as an innovative coaching genius. He changed the game that day.
Glenn Mitchell, a former reporter with The Australian and Carlton expert, agrees with the view that the game’s result helped trigger the positive national debate about multiculturalism.
“From my point of view, it still stands to be the greatest mark of all time,’’ he said, Jesaulenko having put the jumper leads on the team’s flat battery.
Mitchell remembers Jesaulenko that year working as the bar manager at Essendon’s Cross Keys Hotel, elated when he won a new Holden for his efforts, where he also kicked 115 goals.
Jesaulenko is one of the most understated, loved-across-clubs Australian rules footballer ever to play.
“The mark sent us on the road to the greatest comeback victory in history,’’ Mitchell said.