It is with great sadness Hawthorn Football Club announces the passing of premiership coach and life member Allan Jeans, who died this morning.
Jeans coached Hawthorn for 221 games between 1981 and 1987, and for another two seasons in 1989 and 1990.
He won three premierships in his time at the Club: 1983, 1986, and the Hawks’ famous victory in 1989.
In November of 1987, Jeans suffered a brain haemorrhage and while surgery to repair an aneurysm was successful, he was forced to stand down as coach for twelve months. Returning after Alan Joyce took Hawthorn to the 1988 flag, Jeans pulled off his greatest coaching triumph - securing back-to-back premierships for the Club in 1989.
In Jeans’s decorated career at Hawthorn, he oversaw the greatest era in the Club’s history and was inducted into the Hawthorn Football Club Hall of Fame in 2003.
Affectionately known as ‘Yabby’, Jeans was inducted into the Australian Football League Hall of Fame in its inception in 1996.
The legendary coach was known for his oral motivation skills and led St Kilda and Hawthorn to a total of four premierships.
Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett extended his deepest sympathies to Allan’s wife Mary and his family.
“Hawthorn Football Club has lost a very humble and extraordinary individual, who not only nurtured many of our players, but also led the Club to premierships in 1983, 1986 and 1989,” Kennett said.
“We will all miss him.”
As a mark of respect for Allan Jeans, Hawthorn players and on-field officials will wear black armbands for the Club’s Round 18 match against Melbourne.
Related articles:
'Yabby' and the Hawks - a chapter from The Golden Years
Football was a simple game: Jeans
Share with fellow Hawks fans your favorite memories and thoughts on the late great Allan Jeans - the man, the three-time Hawks premiership coach.
