Editing Allen Jakovich

{{short description|Australian rules footballer, born 1968}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox AFL biography
| name = Allen Jakovich
| image = 
| fullname = Allen John Jakovich
| nickname = Jaka
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1968|03|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Western Australia]]
| death_date = 
| death_place = 
| originalteam = [[South Fremantle Football Club|South Fremantle]] ([[West Australian Football League|WAFL]]), [[Southern Districts Football Club|Southern Districts]] ([[Northern Territory Football League|NTFL]]), [[Woodville-West Torrens Football Club|Woodville]] ([[South Australian National Football League|SANFL]]).
| draftpick = No. 6, [[1990 AFL draft|1990 National draft]], {{AFL Mel}}<br />No. 9, [[1995 AFL draft|1995 National draft]], {{AFL Foo}}
| height = 187&nbsp;cm
| weight = 98&nbsp;kg
| position = [[Australian rules football positions|Forward]]
| statsend = 1996
| years1 = 1985&ndash;1986
| club1 = [[South Fremantle Football Club|South Fremantle - WAFL]]
| games_goals1 = {{0|00}}7 {{0|0}}(22)
| years2 = 1988&ndash;1990
| club2 = [[Southern Districts Football Club|Southern Districts - NTFL]]
| games_goals2 = {{0}}23 (125)
| years3 = 1989&ndash;1990
| club3 = [[Woodville Football Club|Woodville - SANFL]]
| games_goals3 = {{0}}38 (186)
| years4 = 1991&ndash;1994
| club4 = {{AFL Mel}}
| games_goals4 = {{0}}47 (201)
| years5 = 1996
| club5 = {{AFL Foo}}
| games_goals5 = {{0|00}}7 {{0|00}}(7)
| games_goalstotal = 122 (541)
| careerhighlights = *{{AFL Mel}} [[List of Melbourne Football Club leading goalkickers|leading Goalkicker]]: 1991, 1992, 1993
*[[Melbourne Football Club#Honour board|Harold Ball Memorial Trophy]]: 1991
}}

'''Allen John Jakovich''' ({{IPAc-en|dʒ|æ|k|ə|v|ɪ|tʃ}}) (born 21 March 1968) is a retired [[Australian rules football]] player. Jakovich was a prolific [[full forward]] and is notable for kicking 208 goals in his 54 [[Australian Football League]] matches, an average of 3.85 per game, for [[Melbourne Demons|Melbourne]] and [[Footscray Football Club|Footscray]]. He and his younger brother, [[Glen Jakovich]], both began their AFL careers in the [[1990 AFL draft]].

Jakovich grew up in Western Australia and played football with clubs in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria.
He is of Croatian descent.

==Early career==
Allen Jakovich was the second of three sons for Darko and Mary Jakovich.
Allen represented Western Australia in 1983 for the Secondary Schools U15 competition. He played alongside [[Chris Lewis (footballer)|Chris Lewis]], [[Andrew McGovern]], [[Paul Peos]] and [[Chris Waterman]] who would also go on to play AFL.<ref>[http://www.schoolsport.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/VFL-AFL-Schoolboy-Footballers-2015.pdf VFL-AFL Schoolboy Footballers 2015] {{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Allen played in the 1985 [[AFL National Championships|Teal Cup]] football team for Western Australia. Allen played alongside future West Coast Eagles players [[Chris Lewis (footballer)|Chris Lewis]], [[Paul Peos]], [[Guy McKenna]], [[Chris Waterman]], [[Scott Watters]], [[Peter Sumich]] and [[John Worsfold]] in what was Western Australia's first [[AFL National Championships|Teal Cup]] win. Although playing well in Western Australia's first two games against Queensland and NSW, Allen Jakovich only scored a single goal in the final against Victoria and was replaced halfway through the 3rd quarter.

Allen followed his older brother Garry (4 Senior Games in 1984)<ref name="waflfootyfacts.net">{{Cite web |title=WAFL FootyFacts - All Players by Team |url=https://www.waflfootyfacts.net/player/byteam.php |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.waflfootyfacts.net}}</ref> and began his senior career with [[South Fremantle Football Club|South Fremantle]] in the [[West Australian Football League]]. Over the 1985 and 1986 seasons, Allen played 7 games in the seniors and kicked 22 Goals at an average of 3.14 goals per game. As of 2025 this was the 9th best goals per game average for the club. Noting that [[Mark Jackson (Australian footballer)|Mark Jackson]] is in 10th place with 100 goals from 32 games (3.13 goals per game). Also noting that no player since Allen Jakovich played has had more goals per game for the club.<ref name="waflfootyfacts.net"/>

Allen kicked 62 goals for the Colts 1984 season and was an important part of the Bulldogs premiership victory. In Round 4 of the 1985 Season for the Colts, Allen kicked 10 goals against Subiaco.<ref>[https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/SoundTemperament?src=hash Twitter message] Twitter</ref>

Jakovich left the club in 1987.

He then played in towns in outback Western Australia such as Port Hedland and Kalgoorlie.<ref name="Encyc">{{Ref AFL Encyc|4th|317}}</ref>
It was while playing at Port Hedland that Allen Jakovich met Brian Hood who was the Coach of the NTFL team [[Southern Districts Football Club|Southern Districts]]. Brian convinced Allen to join [[Southern Districts Football Club|Southern Districts]] for the 1988/1989 season.

==NTFL career==
He then played in the [[Northern Territory Football League]], including the 1988/89 season in which he kicked 104 goals for [[Southern Districts Football Club|Southern Districts]].

==SANFL career==
Jakovich later moved to South Australia and played in the [[South Australian National Football League]] (SANFL) playing for [[Woodville Football Club|Woodville]]. In the 1989 season he kicked 85 goals. In the 1990 season he kicked 101 goals. It was this performance that drew the attention of [[Melbourne Demons|Melbourne Football Club]] talent scouts.<ref name="Encyc"/>

==AFL career==
'''1991 Season'''

He debuted in the seniors in round 1 against the [[West Coast Eagles]] at [[Subiaco Oval|Subiaco]] but was quickly dropped for the following week. Jakovich played in the Melbourne reserves and dominated the reserves competition in the first half of the 1991 season.

In the second half, though, he burst out convincingly and big hauls came on an almost weekly basis for the rest of the season making a big impression in the league with his confident playing style.  A high point was a near single handed defeat of North Melbourne where he kicked 11 goals (including a miraculous [[Bicycle kick|scissor kick]] out of mid-air from twenty metres out, a certain goal of the year candidate), 8 behinds and one out on the full. This effort also earned Jakovich the distinction of being the fastest player to score his first fifty goals, taking only nine games to do so.<ref name="Milestone">[http://afltables.com/afl/stats/alltime/misc_goals.html#05 Goalkicking Milestones]</ref> He finished with 71 goals for his debut season; becoming one of a handful of players in [[VFL/AFL]] history to kick 50 goals in both the senior competition and now defunct 'reserves' league within the same season.

'''1992 Season'''

He kicked his 100th career goal in his 21st game, equalling the record held by [[John Coleman (Australian footballer)|John Coleman]].<ref name="Milestone"/>

'''1993 Season'''

He kissed his brother [[Glen Jakovich|Glen]] during a match between Melbourne and the West Coast Eagles at the MCG.<ref>[http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/notorious-capper-on-mainy-tribute-guest-list-20090824-evmx.html Notorious Capper on Mainy tribute guest list] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325205348/http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/notorious-capper-on-mainy-tribute-guest-list-20090824-evmx.html |date=25 March 2012 }}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/QFt-QaYxV7g Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160309041415/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFt-QaYxV7g Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFt-QaYxV7g| title = Allen Jakovich kisses brother (Round 9, 1993) | via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

'''1994 Season'''

Over the past three years at Melbourne he balanced some mercurial performances with fitness problems and indifferent form. He was let go at the start of 1995, due to a persistent back injury.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/133335554?searchTerm=Allen%20jakovich&searchLimits= | title=IN BRIEF Jakovich bows out to injury | newspaper=The Canberra Times | date=15 February 1995 }}</ref>
 
'''1995 Season'''

He spent the year out of the game recovering from a back injury before being drafted by the [[Footscray Football Club]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/133918659?searchTerm=Allen%20jakovich&searchLimits= | title=Footscray ignores youth to claim Jakovich | newspaper=The Canberra Times | date=9 December 1995 }}</ref>

'''1996 Season'''

An ill-fated comeback that lasted barely half a season.

In his AFL career, he kicked 208 goals and 173 behinds.

==Statistics==
:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/A/Allen_Jakovich.html|title=Allen Jakovich|work=AFL Tables|access-date=28 May 2016}}</ref>
{{AFL player statistics legend}}
{{AFL player statistics start with votes}}
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | [[1991 AFL season|1991]]
|style="text-align:center;"|{{AFL Mel}}
| 13 || 14 || 71 || 57 || 177 || 10 || 187 || 92 || 3 || 5.1 || 4.1 || 12.6 || 0.7 || 13.4 || 6.6 || 0.2 || 10
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | [[1992 AFL season|1992]]
|style="text-align:center;"|{{AFL Mel}}
| 13 || 11 || 40 || 37 || 115 || 9 || 124 || 66 || 1 || 3.6 || 3.4 || 10.5 || 0.8 || 11.3 || 6.0 || 0.1 || 1
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | [[1993 AFL season|1993]]
|style="text-align:center;"|{{AFL Mel}}
| 13 || 9 || 39 || 34 || 93 || 18|| 111 || 57 || 3 || 4.3 || 3.8 || 10.3 || 2.0 || 12.3 || 6.3 || 0.3 || 3
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | [[1994 AFL season|1994]]
|style="text-align:center;"|{{AFL Mel}}
| 13 || 13 || 51 || 31 || 123 || 17 || 140 || 82 || 5 || 3.9 || 2.4 || 9.5 || 1.3 || 10.8 || 6.3 || 0.4 || 1
|- style="background-color: #EAEAEA"
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | [[1996 AFL season|1996]]
|style="text-align:center;"|{{AFL Foo}}
| 13 || 7 || 7 || 14 || 29 || 4 || 33 || 16 || 0 || 1.0 || 2.0 || 4.1 || 0.6 || 4.7 || 2.3 || 0.0 || 0
|- class="sortbottom"
! colspan=3| Career
! 54
! 208
! 173
! 537
! 58
! 595
! 313
! 12
! 3.9
! 3.2
! 9.9
! 1.1
! 11.0
! 5.8
! 0.2
! 15
|}

==Post-football career==
He has largely been out of the public eye since the late 1990s, except for a one-off appearance on ''[[The AFL Footy Show|The Footy Show]]''.<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/06/1022982735465.html Footy Show kicks 250]</ref>
and in a wide-ranging interview on the [http://demonland.com/Podcast Demonland podcast] in 2017 and also two appearances on [[The Front Bar]] in 2018.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{AFL Tables}}
*{{AustralianFootball}}
*{{WAFL FootyFacts}}
*[http://demonwiki.org/Allen+Jakovich Demon Wiki profile]

{{Melbourne leading goalkickers}}
{{1990 SANFL All-Stars Challenge}}
{{1991 Western Australia State of Origin players}}
{{1993 Western Australia State of Origin players}}
{{1990 AFL national draft}}
{{1995 AFL national draft}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jakovich, Allen}}
[[Category:1968 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Western Bulldogs players]]
[[Category:Melbourne Football Club players]]
[[Category:South Fremantle Football Club players]]
[[Category:Woodville Football Club players]]
[[Category:Southern Districts Football Club players]]
[[Category:Australian people of Croatian descent]]
[[Category:Australian rules footballers from Western Australia]]
[[Category:Western Australian State of Origin players]]