Happy 60th birthday to Michael Jez today.
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From the Blueseum:
Career : 1979 – 1980
Debut : Round 20, 1979 vs Footscray, aged 25 years, 71 days
Carlton Player No. 880
Games : 2
Goals : 0
Last Game : Round 2, 1980 vs Geelong, aged 25 years, 304 days
Guernsey Nos. 13 and 9
Height : 187 cm (6 ft. 1 in.)
Weight : 80 kg (12 stone, 8 lbs.)
DOB : June 7, 1954
East Fremantle wingman Michael “Mick” Jez caught the eye of VFL talent scouts with a string of impressive WAFL games in 1978 – a run of consistently good form that culminated in his selection in the WA State of Origin team that convincingly beat South Australia at Football Park in July of that year.
Football folklore has it that Fitzroy pounced on Jez first; signing him on a VFL Form Four, which allowed him to play four senior games without entering into a binding contract with the Lions. But when word reached the Brunswick St. Oval that Mick was an equally keen player on the nightclub scene as he was on the football field, the Lions had a rethink and cancelled their offer.
Carlton was next in line, and Jez joined a playing group at Princes Park that was simply exceptional. Over the next four years, the Blues would win three Premierships; only missing out on the fourth in 1980 because of off-field dramas. So Jez was forced to wait until round 20, 1979 before he got his first shot at senior football, on a miserably cold and wet day at Waverley Park. Wearing guernsey number 13, he warmed the interchange bench that afternoon alongside Jim Buckley, helping the Blues to a convincing 6-goal win over Footscray.
Eight months later, under a new coach; ‘Percy’ Jones, and carrying guernsey number 9, Mick played his second and last senior match for Carlton when he was called into the team as a late replacement against Geelong in round 2, 1980. Big defender Val Perovic had been ruled out by a troublesome thigh injury on the morning of the match, and Jez took his place on the bench alongside rover Vin Catoggio. Carlton trailed a spirited Geelong by 19 points at half-time, but overhauled the Cats in the last term and won a terrific game by 5 points. Jez was then omitted the following week, and after languishing in the Reserves team for most of the season, requested a clearance to St Kilda.
Carlton let him go, but Jez couldn’t impress the Saints enough to be given another senior game. At the end of 1980, his brief sojourn in the VFL came to end when he bid farewell to St Kilda and returned to WA.