FORMER Carlton and St Kilda legend Alex Jesaulenko says being elevated to Legend status in the AFL Hall of Fame "tops off" his career.
Jesaulenko, 62, was already a member of the Hall of Fame after being inducted in 1996 but on Thursday night he became just the 22nd man to receive Legend status at the AFL's Hall of Fame induction dinner.
A humble Jesaulenko said he was "very honoured" to receive the accolade.
"What else is there left?" he asked.
"You usually get Legend status when you're gone, you're dead. It wasn't something that I'd even thought about."
Remarkably, the Austrian-born Jesaulenko didn't play his first match of Australian Football until he was 14 after playing soccer and rugby as a child.
"It was a game that pricked my attention," he said of Australian Football.
"I was playing rugby for my school and I was seeing this strange game, Aussie Rules.
"Darrel Baldock was my hero and I was watching him and I was going 'God, this is alright this game'.
"There was jumping on people's backs and all those sorts of things that gave you a lot more freedom than what you could do in rugby."
Throughout his career, "Jezza" and high-leaping went hand in hand.
His mark in the 1970 Grand Final – when commentator Mike Williamson famously shouted "Jesaulenko, you beauty!" – is now a part of football folklore.
His huge grab over Collingwood's Graeme Jenkin not only brought more than 120,000 fans to full voice but helped spark a remarkable Carlton fightback that would see them eventually steal the premiership cup away from the Magpies.
However while the man himself is often reminded of the grab, he says that particular mark is perhaps overplayed.
"I just say to people, 'Look, we were 44 points down [at the time of the famous mark] … I don't remember jumping on anyone's back, I didn't even know I did that," he said.
"I thought I took a better mark in the last quarter, across the other side [of the ground] but no-one said anything about that.
"That mark sort of caught the imagination of everybody."
A back injury later in Jesaulenko's career resulted in the freakish Blue being shifted to the other end of the field, where he again flourished.
Jesaulenko won his only best and fairest when playing in defence and said his first impressions upon moving to the backline were simple.
"Well, I thought 'How long has this been going on?' … the backline's so easy," Jesaulenko said.
"All I had to do was punch the ball away and they think you're a hero.
"But up in the forward [line] I had to jump on people's backs and get clobbered from behind and turnaround.
"I said to myself 'I wish I was in the backline to start with!’"
The four-time premiership player said he took away many great moments from football, but it was hard to single out any specifics.
"Just the game itself," he said.
"I had good times at Carlton, I had good times at St Kilda. Just football in general has been good."
And today, more than 25 years after being out of the game, the Jesaulenko name still rings out wherever he goes.
"I don't know what's more daunting, playing in front of 120,000 people or standing in front of 700 school kids and having them yell out 'Jesaulenko, you beauty!'" he said.
