Jeff Gieschen

Jeff Gieschen (born 22 September 1956) is the former National Umpire Manager of the Australian Football League (AFL) and a former Australian rules football player and coach who played in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1974 and 1978 for the Footscray Football Club. He was the senior coach of AFL club Richmond from late 1997 until the end of the 1999 season.

In 1971 Gieschen captained the State Championship winning La Trobe Valley Schoolboys team and was also named the Victorian Captain and All Australian vice captain in the U16's. He played 150 games in the Latrobe Valley Football League (LVFL) with the Maffra Football club during which time he collected three player of the year awards, two league best and fairest awards and seven Club Best and Fairest awards (including one as a 15-year-old in 1972). He represented the LVFL in inter-league games 15 times between 1973 and 1984 and was captain of the LVFL side in 1981. He was selected in the Victorian Country side to play the ACT in 1980. In the Ovens and Murray League he won Wodonga's Best and Fairest award in 1986, his only year as a player at that club.

Gieschen coached the Maffra Football Club in 1979, 1980 and 1982 (and was inducted into the Maffra F.C.'s inaugural Hall of Fame in 2008).

He coached Wodonga from 1986 to 1991 for two premierships and was awarded Regional Coach of the Year in 1990. During his six years at Wodonga the club won five Ovens and Murray League club championships based on the combined results of the Senior, Reserve and Third grade teams. (He was also named as Wodonga's "coach of the century" in 2004).

He coached West Perth from 1992 to 1994 which included a grand final loss to Claremont in 1993, during which season he was awarded the JJ Leonard Medal for West Australian Coach of the Year Award. (West Perth also named him as coach of their "All Star Team of the Century" in 2008). In 1995 and 1996 he was assistant coach for the Geelong Football club which included a grand final appearance in the former season. In 1997 he became coach of the reserves team at Richmond and took that side from the wooden spoon (the year before) to Premiership winners. After a string of disappointing results by the Richmond senior team under the previous coach, Gieschen was appointed senior coach from late in the 1997 season. He held the position until the end of 1999. Gieschen’s winning percentage as a senior AFL coach finished at 52 percent.