ENIGMATIC former Melbourne genius Allen Jakovich has emerged from the football wilderness in an entertaining two-hour-plus interview on his extraordinary but brief career.

Jakovich remains a fan favourite – even a mythical figure – for how he burst onto the AFL scene and left it almost as quickly with a failed stint at Footscray after sitting out the 1995 season.

The 49-year-old's final tallies read 54 games and 208 goals, including 47 and 201 for the Demons, with back, hamstring and groin injuries ensuring his brilliant stay at the top was all too short.

Jakovich sat comfortably in what was the last great era for full-forwards, when Tony Lockett, Gary Ablett, Jason Dunstall and Tony Modra were kicking oodles of goals.

He played his first match for Melbourne as a 23-year-old in 1991, via Perth, Port Headland, Kalgoorlie, Darwin and Adelaide, and was the fastest AFL player to kick 50 career goals, in just nine games.

Only the legendary John Coleman slotted 100 majors as swiftly as Jakovich's 21 matches.

"It's just, I suppose, another of them famous stats, but when I look at it, if I was 18 or 19 years of age at that time and that happened at that age, I'd say it was a real great feat," Jakovich told the Demonland Podcast.

"But being 23 years of age, I'd had a fair bit of senior football under my belt with Woodville in the SANFL and also a bit of a stint up in Darwin, so I was pretty primed and ready to go.

"What unfolded in that season probably fuelled me to really get crackin'. It was a bit of a purple patch there, and that was fuelled by a lot of different emotions and … a want to succeed and kick some goals."

Jakovich recounted the day he booted a career-high 11 goals – along with eight behinds and another out on the full – in a public mauling of a North Melbourne defence led by 300-gamer Mick Martyn.

Martyn, a dual premiership player, was a rough and rugged full-back who thrived on grit and an acid tongue rather than natural talent, but was one of the best in those days.

He warned Jakovich, the older brother of dual All Australian defender Glen, at the first bounce he would punch him "in the back of the head" if he considered going near the ball.

Jakovich also had a short and failed stint at Footscray. Picture: AFL Photos



"I never said too much until you let your goalkicking do the talking," Jakovich said.

"Once I was up and about and had kicked a couple, then I sort of let Micky know that day that, 'Look, mate, don't worry about punching me in the back of the head, I'm going to make you look like a clown today'.

"The more I kicked, the quieter poor old Micky got, and it was quite funny, because I started to rev him up after I had about four or five.

"Every time I saw the North Melbourne runner … I kept reminding Micky that he was coming to get him very shortly and to, 'Lift your head Micky, he's coming to get you'."

Jakovich was reported for abusive language towards an umpire that same afternoon at the MCG. It was one of four occasions in his AFL stint that he was fined or suspended.

He never crossed paths with Martyn on a football field again, such was the blink-and-you'll-miss-it nature of his career. But they did bump into one another at a pub.

"I promised him I'd give him another shot, but it wasn't to be," Jakovich said.

"We had a beer and we had a bit of a laugh, but he had an incredible career – he was a great player for North."

Jakovich with Demons teammate David Schwarz. Picture: AFL Photos

Jakovich struggled to name his toughest opponent, requesting not to be taken the wrong way, but that "I sort of kicked goals on all of them".

Judging by his following comments, Hawthorn defender Chris Langford was the one, but he wrote off Danny Frawley as "slow" – and whenever they clashed "it was always a good time for a bag".

Jakovich admired Stephen Silvagni's ability to be equally effective up forward as down back despite not being "overly skilled" and related to Mark Zanotti having "a few screws loose".

He also had a feeling a then-young Mal Michael was destined for big things, which played out across 238 games and three premierships.

Jakovich went on to explain some of his complex character owed to a "me against the rest of the world" attitude after struggling emotionally with losing his father, Darko, at a young age.

"He was instrumental in my life and it's hard to deal with that sort of loss," he said.

"When it did get me down, there were a couple of times there, you might see on a few replays, I was probably the only bloke who wore a black armband one particular week.

"That helped me bring him along with me."

Jakovich lives on the east coast of New South Wales these days and is married with two daughters who prioritise academic life over sport.

He runs seasonal fishing charters before switching his attention for the rest of the year to licensing and OH&S on oil rigs.

"I didn’t mope around too much when (football) was over, because there were other things in life I wanted to pursue, like my love for fishing and the outdoors," Jakovich said.

"Stuff you can’t really pursue, especially in the winter months, when you're playing footy and for that fact not much in the summer either, because you'd only have a few weeks off and then you were bang into the pre-season in November.

"So off I went and got on with my life and basically kept a pretty low profile. I'm pretty quiet. I've got a beautiful wife and a couple of kids now, and they consume a lot of my time.

"I'm pretty much a family man, and enjoy watching them grow and getting on with my life."

WISE WORDS FROM ALLEN JAKOVICH

His cult following:

"I don't know about the royalty, mate. Maybe a mad, wild knight."

Kissing his brother and West Coast defender Glen during their round nine game in 1993:

"It was a special day. We did used to fly mum out to every one of those Eagles games and … she was proud as punch. The Glen I played with in the backyard would appreciate that, and also the Glen in the backyard wouldn’t have ever had a crack at me, or he would have ended up on his back – that goes without saying. That would have been in the back of his head, too."

That scissor-kick goal against North Melbourne:

"I think that was just a bit instinctive … if you blink, you miss it. The ball went over the back of the pack and the way I read it, I sort of went beyond it as well, and then all of a sudden it just popped out there. I did a few of them in the backyard with a soccer ball – I don't think I ever attempted to do it with a football."

Behaving off the field:

"You had to be mindful of what you were doing. A lot of coaches used to say, 'Nothing good happens after midnight', but I had a lot of good things happen to me at 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, that's for sure. But you've just got to pick your times and be smart about it and don’t go doing anything that's going to bring yourself or the club down."

Clayton Oliver, who wears Jakovich's No.13:

"I'm super impressed with the reigning best and fairest, Clayton Oliver. I could see great things in him even before he started doing great things. (His number) might have been the first thing that sprung to my attention, but, believe me, what he can do with the ball, the way he rebounds, just his evasiveness – he's a great player. He's going to be a real Melbourne great, he's very special."

Averaging barely one handball a game:

"I've always said, 'You can’t handball goals'. A lot's been said about that over the years and the lack of handballs, but I don’t think I was a greedy player. If you look back at some of them, if there was a player lurking out the back of the square and I was sort of beyond 50 (metres) or something, I've seen a few replays where I've actually passed the ball. I actually passed once to Rod Grinter there when I was on nine (goals) … you don’t get too many full-forwards who've got nine under their belt and go and give what could have been your 10th goal off."

His serious back injury:

"You've got to get on with life … you can't cry over spilled milk and think 'poor me'. (But) it's very frustrating. When you think you're up and about and you're going all right, then you're sitting there or you bend over to do your boots up at training and 'bang', it pops again and all of a sudden, you feel like a 95-year-old man. There was a famous time there out at the Whitten Oval, where I had my bag on the backseat (in the car), grabbed my bag, turned, and noticed my back-passenger door was unlocked, so I leaned over to pop the button and then just 'bang'. I got out of the car and it took me about 35 minutes to walk 300 metres to the changerooms."

Wishing he played with Jeff Farmer:

"I would have loved to play next to the 'Wiz' (Farmer). I think I ran into him in a nightclub in Perth not long after he left Melbourne. I don’t know what we said to each other – it was probably 4am – but we had a bit of a laugh, a hug and a bit of a joke. But, Jesus, some of the highlights I saw of him standing on blokes' heads – wow, could he play. Geez, he was just a freak of a small forward. That's another guy you'd love to see in today's football; he'd tear it up for sure."