Alex Jesaulenko | |||
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Personal information | |||
Full name | Alex Jesaulenko | ||
Nickname(s) | Jezza | ||
Date of birth | 2 August 1945 | ||
Place of birth | Salzburg, Austria | ||
Original team(s) | Eastlake (CANFL) | ||
Height | 182 cm (6 ft 0 in) | ||
Weight | 84 kg (185 lb) | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1967–1979 | Carlton | 256 (424) | |
1980–1981 | St Kilda | 23 (20) | |
Total | 279 (444) | ||
Representative team honours | |||
Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
Victoria | 15 | ||
Coaching career3 | |||
Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
1978–1979 | Carlton | 42 (35–7–0) | |
1980–1982 | St Kilda | 64 (13–49–2) | |
1989–1990 | Carlton | 34 (18–15–1) | |
Total | 140 (66–71–3) | ||
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1981.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 1990.
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Career highlights | |||
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Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com |
Alex Jesaulenko /dʒɛzəˈlɛŋkoʊ/ (Ukrainian: Олександр Єсауленко, transcribed Oleksandr Yesaulenko, [ɔlɛksˈɑndr jɛsɑuˈlɛnkɔ]) MBE (born 2 August 1945 in Salzburg, Austria) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach who represented Carlton and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL) from the 1960s to the 1980s.
He is regarded as one of the game's greatest-ever players and is an official Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame. He immortalised his reputation in the game by taking the Mark of the Century in the 1970 VFL Grand Final. In 2009 The Australian nominated Jesaulenko as one of the 25 greatest footballers never to win a Brownlow Medal.
Jesaulenko was born in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Vasil, was Ukrainian and served as a German policeman during World War II. His mother, Vera, was born in Russia, and had survived the horrors of seeing her father shot dead by German soldiers and having her first child, whom she first gave the name Alex, taken away from her when she was in a German prison camp. The child was not heard of again until over fifty years later.