John Jenkins Memorial Presentation
Each year, the “John Jenkins Memorial Medal” is awarded to the Tacker player considered by the coach and team manager to be the best and fairest and showing particular skills and potential to be a real club champion.
But just who was John Jenkins? John was an active member of the club for over seven years from 1972. A keen student of football, John believed emphatically that many boys playing competitive football sadly lack basic skills. In 1976, he introduced our first skills clinic which proved to be an immediate success with both boys and parents alike. He devoted an extraordinary amount of time in preparing coaching manuals, training sheets, skill acquisition sheets to ensure that his coaching methods could be demonstrably shown to be of benefit.
He extended his skills clinics into primary schools schemes in conjunction with the then Junior Football Council.
His whole life was devoted to football. Starting in his early years, he played at Richmond FC and then later at North Melbourne FC. He then went on to coach Preston FC, Vermont FC as playing coach before moving to Doncaster Heights.
John was a big man in both body and spirit, a quietly spoken and friendly man who revelled in the enjoyment of bringing football into the lives of junior players.
So if your son or daughter is lucky enough to win his medal, be enormously proud, because this award was introduced in honour of a man whose devotion and skills to junior football is unsurpassed.