Oleksandr Vasiliovych "Alex" Jesaulenko ( ; , ; born 2 August 1945) is a former Australian rules footballer and who played for the Carlton Football Club and the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He also served as a coach at both clubs.
Jesaulenko is a Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame, and as a player was known for his versatility, uncanny balance and spectacular marking. He immortalised his reputation in the game by taking the most iconic mark in football history 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.
Recruited from Canberra, Jesaulenko has played more games and kicked more goals than any other player from the Australian Capital Territory. He represented his home territory in 1978. His popularity caused the code to surge in popularity there, and he remains a household name in the ACT.
He remains to date the only Carlton footballer to have kicked 100 or more goals in a season, and the last player-coach to win a VFL/AFL premiership (1979).
In 2002, he was inducted into the Ukrainian Sports Hall of Fame. On 20 October 2010, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. In July 2013, Jesaulenko was named captain of the first Australia Post Multicultural Team of Champions.
In January 2022, Jesaulenko was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Early life
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 she 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.
Along with many other Eastern Europeans who were World War II refugees or displaced persons, the Jesaulenkos emigrated to Australia via the Norwegian passenger ship SS Skaugum and arrived in the port of Melbourne on 28 July 1949. They spent the first six months living at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre. According to Jesaulenko, the family name should have been spelt Esaulenko, but immigration officials listed "Esaulenko" with a "J" in front, thinking that they had heard a "J" in his name.
From there, the family moved to Canberra, where Vasil set up shop as a carpenter-cabinetmaker. The young Jesaulenko was enrolled at St Edmund's College and then Telopea Park High, where he played soccer and rugby union. He did not start playing Australian rules football until he was 14 years old. He began playing at the Eastlake Football Club in Canberra.
Playing career
Early playing career
Jesaulenko has credited his time at Eastlake for instilling in him a winning culture. After breaking into the senior team, he quickly established himself as a star, playing in three consecutive premierships for Eastlake from 1964 to 1966.
Carlton
On joining Carlton, Jesaulenko reflected in an interview with The Canberra Times that: [Eastlake] certainly provided a winning culture. I was lucky to play at a footy club that was on the way up that just had a new regime put in, with George Harris and his mob, appointed a new coach in Ronald Dale Barassi, they had experienced players and they recruited young guns ... and I just fitted into the mix.
Jesaulenko moved to Melbourne with his wife Anne in November 1966, and during his first pre-season was soon left in no doubt the standard that Barassi required at Carlton: Here was this raging, serious man who demanded excellence and perfection. I knew straight away if I didn't take this game seriously, if I didn't try to be the best, I would be in big trouble. But it only took me two or three practice matches to know myself these guys were just the same as me, no better than me, and it was just a matter of me getting myself into the thick of things.
Jesaulenko made his senior VFL debut in the opening round of the 1967 season against at Princes Park, where he had 14 touches and kicked two goals in a 94-point victory. He would play every game for Carlton that season, one of four players to do so. In that season's Brownlow Medal count, he would poll 15 votes to finish third behind eventual winner Ross Smith (24 votes) from and 's Laurie Dwyer (17 votes). Jesaulenko would go on to play in four Carlton premierships – in 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1979. Jesaulenko was selected for All-Australian honours in 1969 and 1972. He also has the dubious record at Carlton for the most inaccurate score of 5 goals and 12 behinds, against Hawthorn in 1969.