Having frustrated journalists and would-be biographers for years, Allan Jeans is now more than willing to share his opinions on football and reflect on his remarkable coaching career.
For anyone with a pulse, Allan Jeans’ motivational speeches possess a power that resonates. Jeans, 76, still exudes an aura that is impossible to ignore (sugar in your coffee equates to weakness!).
His Cheltenham home is unsurprisingly modest. Interestingly, it took a school girl’s observation before he even realised the way he naturally modulated his voice so effectively.
“I suppose it might have been the trains at Hawthorn going past – every time you went in giving a serve to somebody or giving an instruction, a train would go past and you’d have to raise your voice”, muses Jeans.
Considering himself an ordinary person that coached in a public arena, Jeans’ aversion for self promotion was also bound in denying opponents any motivational material.
“Usually if you’re prepared to say something different or ratty they like to come and listen” quips Jeans in reference to the new trend of coaches as club marketers.
In an age of spin and manufactured hype, Jeans’ strength of character and ability to cut through superfluous distractions and get to the nub of an issue are refreshing traits born of another era.
So what does Jeans make of the exhaustive coach selection process now in vogue?
“I think the first question you gotta ask any person is ‘what product are we selling as a professional football club?’ The product you’re selling is winning! ‘Now tell me your philosophy on how to win a game of Australian Rules football because we’re buying that philosophy’. The formula for winning in League football is so simple it’s unbelievable!”
The magic formula? “Money and players! You can’t really buy players now but you can hang onto players which makes it so much easier.”
After closely observing three coaches in five years at perennial easybeat St Kilda, at just 27 Jeans sensed his true calling. Being a policeman with a mature sense of responsibility provided a leadership foundation however it was the brothers Smith, Norm and Len, that guided Jeans through his early years. At 33 Jeans famously took the Saints to football’s pinnacle.
When Jeans inherited a not-so happy team at Hawthorn in 1981, no-one envisaged the fantastic ride ahead. Jeans’ is typically pragmatic in assessing the Hawk juggernaut.
“No coach has won a premiership with poor players. Hawthorn was very fortunate, they had a very good country zone and I got the benefit out of it.”
More than good fortune, Jeans’ ability to identify players’ weaknesses, extract their best and minimise the ‘natural phenomenon of undulating performance’ were keys to his success. With Jeans at the helm, the perfect storm bore the ruthless, grounded and highly disciplined Hawks of the ‘Eighties.
“The only thing that alters is the bottom sides crack earlier if you put the same amount of pressure on them.”
Jeans’ penchant for engaging the likes of Dipper in impromptu wrestling bouts are legendary, however a brain aneurysm in January 1988 nearly had him down for a full count.
“I was lucky to get through it, I was very fortunate. Dr Su, he was a brilliant neurosurgeon, he saved my life. It was a very complicated operation.”
Many questioned Jeans’ returning to the director’s chair but the lure of a great Hawthorn team was incentive enough, as was consolidating his family’s finances. Having left the police force in 1987, Jeans simply loved coaching too much.
The ’89 Flag rewarded Jeans’ perseverance but after just a year’s retirement, a persistent Graeme Richmond lured Jeans back for an ill-feted sojourn at the Tigers in 1992.
“When you’ve been in football any length of time you don’t like to see clubs struggling. If you feel like you can help them, if you like coaching…”
Jeans is concerned by structural issues facing the AFL and the modern game’s aesthetics.
“Possession takes away the unpredictability, and that’s what the coaches are trying to get, but it’s the unpredictability that keeps you so intense watching it and that’s what you’ve got to try and keep going.”
Amid a coach driven modern game, Jeans empathises with AFL’s task of maintaining its unique brand of organised chaos.
“Can you describe our game? If you can’t describe something, how do you sell it?”
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