Mark "Jacko" Jackson

Mark Alexander "Jacko" Jackson (born 30 August 1959), is a former Australian rules footballer who played professionally for several teams, including Melbourne, St Kilda, Geelong and South Fremantle. After his football career he became notable for his television appearances, namely the Energizer and Nutri-Grain commercials, along with several feature films. Jackson has also written an autobiography, Dumb Like a Fox.

As a football player, "Jacko" was a full forward of great potential. He started his senior career in the West Australian Football League with South Fremantle in 1979. Mal Brown, who was coaching South Fremantle at the time, employed Jackson as a tough forward to protect Ray Bauskis, a skillful but lightweight full-forward. It worked well, with Jackson kicking 53 goals from 22 games and Bauskis 66 from 17 games. South Fremantle finished 2nd that year, but the night before the second semi-final, Jackson returned to Melbourne, after being told that the other players had voted him out of the team.

Upon returning to Melbourne, Jackson rejoined Richmond, who had lent him to South Fremantle. However, with Michael Roach and Brian Taylor at the club, there was no room for a third full forward. Jackson spent the year in the reserves and kicked 131 goals. Seeing that there would be little opportunity at Richmond, Jackson moved to Melbourne for the 1981 season.

Here, despite having one of the strictest taskmasters and legends of the game in Ron Barassi as coach, Jackson released his bag of tricks on the Melbourne fans. One of the most famous was the handstand in front of the Hawks full back, Kelvin Moore. Moore told Jackson that he "wouldn't be a full forward while his arse pointed to the floor", so Jackson did a handstand to point it to the sky. He was also famous for twirling the ball on his fingers like a basketball. Jackson kicked 76 goals in each of his two years with the Demons, leading the goal kicking in 1981 and falling one goal behind Gerard Healy in 1982. He felt that he didn't have the support of the coaches or players so he put himself on the market and waited for interest from other clubs.