HAD YOU asked any football fan at the end of 1991 to forecast which of the Jakovich brothers, Glen or Allen, was on track for a better career, the more likely answer would have been Allen.

Glen had a fine season for West Coast in 1991, holding down a key defensive post in a side that reached the Grand Final.

But Allen, five years older, was a star from the start.

The flamboyant full-forward joined Melbourne in 1991, fresh off a century of goals for Woodville-West Torrens in the SANFL, and in his first season, booted 71 goals in just 14 games.It was a remarkable season for Jakovich. He was kept goalless in the opening game against West Coast and did not return to the team until round 10 against Adelaide, when he kicked one goal.

He was out of the team again until the clash with Hawthorn in round 14, when he booted three goals. After that, the dam walls burst.

Over the next six weeks, he kicked bags of eight, six, six, eight and seven and, then at the MCG in round 20, he kicked 11 against North Melbourne.

His final goal that day was his 50th for the season, kicked in just nine games. No player had made it to 50 career goals so quickly.

Hence the excitement about Jakovich and the hope that footy had unearthed its next superstar.

A genuine showman, he was powerfully built and was a great kick on either foot. He looked like the prototype footballer for the 1990s.

The highlight that afternoon was a famous scissor-kick goal.

With the ball bombed long towards the Punt Road end goal, the ball spilled off the hands of Melbourne's Darren Bennett and North Melbourne defender Darren Crocker straight at the feet of Jakovich, who, while falling to the ground, simply wound up his right foot, met the ball and slammed it through the goals in one fluid motion.

"He had this freakish ability when he got going," John Northey, his coach at the Demons at the time, said this week.

"He didn't train too hard, mind you, but he could have been anything."

Due to injuries and attitude, Jakovich ended up playing just 54 games (47 for Melbourne from 1991-94 and seven for Footscray in 1996) and kicked 208 goals.

Glen Jakovich, of course, played a club-record 276 games for West Coast, won two premierships and is in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.