Mark Jackson (Australian footballer)
Australian rules footballer
Mark Alexander Jackson (born 30 August 1959) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Demons, St Kilda Saints and Geelong Cats in the Victorian Football League (VFL), and for the South Fremantle Bulldogs in the West Australian Football League (WAFL).
Known as "Jacko", Jackson's colourful and enigmatic personality often resulted in clashes with officials and teammates, which tended to overshadow the fact that he was also a capable full forward.
Following his football career, Jackson became notable for several television appearances, including commercials for Jenny Craig, Energizer and Nutri-Grain, along with several feature films. Jackson has also written an autobiography, Dumb Like a Fox, which was released in 1986.
Early life
Jackson was born at the Royal Women's Hospital as one of six children to George Jackson and his wife Frances, and grew up in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Nunawading.
Football career
South Fremantle & Richmond (1979–1980)
After playing colts and reserves football for Richmond in 1977 and 1978, Jackson started his senior career in the West Australian Football League, spending the 1979 season with South Fremantle. Coach Mal Brown employed Jackson as a forward to protect Ray Bauskis, a skilful but lightweight full-forward. Jackson kicked 53 goals in 22 games and Bauskis 66 in 17 games. South Fremantle finished second in 1979. The night before the second semi-final, Jackson returned to Melbourne after being told that the other players had voted him out of the team.
“Mark Jackson (Australian footballer)” enters the record as australian rules footballer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mark, Jackson and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6766386. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1986, 1979 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mark Jackson (Australian footballer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.