Career
He was inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame at its inception in 1996. Jeans was known for his oral motivation skills as a coach and led Street Kilda and Hawthorn to a total of four premierships. After a modest 77-game playing career with the Street Kilda Club (1955–1959), Jeans, known as "Yabby", took the reins of the Saints in 1961 for a remarkable 16-year career as senior coach.
He coached Street Kilda to successive grand finals, in 1965 and 1966, including the Saints" first (and only) VFL premiership in 1966.
He took the Saints to another grand final appearance in 1971. Claiming "burn-out" he retired from coaching the team at the end of 1976.
In 1981 Jeans revived his coaching career when he was appointed coach for the Hawthorn Club. He coached them until 1990 (excepting a year off in 1988 due to brain injury) establishing them as the dominant VFL team of the 1980s with premierships in 1983, 1986, 1988 and 1989 from seven consecutive grand finals.
Finally, he had a short-lived one-year stint at Richmond in 1992, winning only five out of 22 games.
Jeans, following his retirement from his job as a Senior Sergeant with Victoria Police, became an avid social lawn bowls player at Cheltenham Lawn Bowls Club. His most recent public appearance was during the post-match presentations at the 2006 American Federation of Labor-Congress Grand Final. He died following years of ill-health on 12 July 2011.