The beauty of the Allan Jeans funeral held this week was that it was very much a celebration of a man who was beloved by two footy clubs - St Kilda and Hawthorn.

Three if you count Richmond, the club he coached for a year and which was also represented at the funeral.

The reason we're pointing this out is some of the discussion we at BPL noticed on the message boards about whether Jeans was more St Kilda or more Hawthorn. The point being that you had to be one or the other.

But the strength of Jeans, which cannot be said about too many people in the game, is that he remained on fabulous terms with both clubs to the very end. He was St Kilda's only premiership coach and revered by the club for that reason. At the Hawks, he was the architect of the club's golden era.

And for the reasons stated, he was was part of the furniture at both clubs till the day he died and his love for both clubs was equal. Jeans went to his grave pained at the knowledge that he was still St Kilda's only premiership coach. From all reports, he was left shattered by the club's Grand Final failures of the last two years.

He was counsellor and mentor to Saints coach Ross Lyon as he was to Hawthorn's Alastair Clarkson. He was shattered by the Saints' failure to salute in either if the last two Grand Finals. Equally, he was over the moon when the Hawks snuck past Geelong in 2008.

At St Kilda, there was genuine delight for Jeans when he emerged in the 1980s as the coach of the best team in the competition. And the Hawks were always mindful and most respectful of the storied place Jeans held in St Kilda's history. No attempt from either club at any stage to downplay the importance and respect with which he was held at the other.

For plebs like us, it is the done thing to only have one club. It is our club, the one that in most cases we were born into. But when you've done the hard yards at two clubs, you are entitled to barrack for both and to call both clubs home.

Only the special guys can do that and clearly, Allan Jeans was a special man.