Craig Kimberley was inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame in 2012.

Craig Kimberley

Club President 1975-1977
Board Member 1989-1994
Sydney Swans Foundation Board Member 2006-Present
AFL Life Member

Bio 

Triple Brownlow Medallist and former Swans coach Ian Stewart describes Craig Kimberley as the most generous person he’s ever met in football. Countless others would echo that sentiment.

The Kimberley family has barracked for the Bloods since the club’s inception during the 1870s. A member of their third generation of supporters, Craig’s contributions stretch far beyond fervent; they’ve been fundamental to the Swans’ survival.

Kimberley attended Scotch College in Hawthorn. When his dad Geoffrey, a bank manager with the State Savings Bank, transferred to Nagambie, Kimberley remained as a boarder. Upon leaving school, his mum Berry wrote to the boss of Hicks Atkinson department store, suggesting they take him on as a cadet.

That call set Kimberley on a life-changing path, working in various departments and completing an accounting course at night school. Soon, he was travelling overseas as the company’s buyer of men’s trousers. At 21, he joined sportswear manufacturing business Aywon and started a men’s clothing wholesale business. On a trip to America eight years later, Kimberley noticed the growing number of specialist jeans stores. It gave him an idea.

“So, I came back to Aywon and said we ought to get into this,” Kimberley told The Age. “They said, far too risky. So, I spoke to friends. I spoke to Myer. But in the end, I got my brother Roger, my wife, Connie, my wife’s sister, Chrissie, and talked to them about it. The result was that they all left their jobs.”

Soon after, they founded the iconic Australian brand Just Jeans. Connie came up with the name and designed the logo. They opened the first store on 19 December 1970 on Chapel Street, Windsor. They took $36 on the first day of trading, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As their business flourished, their family grew. Two sons, Jason and Marcus, and a daughter, Chloe, enriched Craig and Connie’s lives. And, like their ancestors, the kids joined the Swans’ flock.

Following South Melbourne’s last-placed finish in 1975, Kimberley was approached to lead a campaign committee to challenge the Swans’ board and, ultimately, gain control of the club. While undoubtedly passionate about the club’s plight, the family was grieving for seven-year-old Marcus, who’d passed away earlier that year.

In late October 1975, Ron Carter wrote in The Age, “Craig Kimberley, 34, managing director of the clothing group Just Jeans, is the man one of the rival South Melbourne election groups wants as the football club’s new president.”

Known as the New Generation Group, the majority of the South Melbourne playing squad publicly backed their ticket, and following the dissolution of the previous committee, Kimberley began his presidency as the youngest ever to do so.

Afterwards, Swans captain Peter Bedford exclaimed, “I’ll definitely be staying. I’m elated with the result.” Kimberley promised a “strong and totally united committee that never looks back.”

Ron Joseph was appointed to the newly created club administrator role, Ian Stewart arrived as senior coach, and the red-and-white community looked forward to a fresh start. However, after three weeks, Joseph resigned, citing the Swans’ worse-than-expected financial situation. Kimberley defended the club’s position and set to work on steering South to safer waters.

In April 1976, Kimberley secured the largest sponsorship deal in Victorian sport when Swann Insurance Limited signed on. The on-field performances improved, too, with Stewart leading the team through an impressive 1977 season, playing finals for just the second time since 1945.

After that finals appearance, Kimberley arranged a post-season trip to Fiji for all players and partners, aiming to maintain team unity despite relentless attempts by other clubs to poach South’s players.

Behind the scenes, adversity was never far away. On one occasion, Connie received a visit from the sheriff, banging on the front door, to reclaim furniture, a car and a TV from the family’s Brighton home after Craig had gone guarantor for a failed South loan.

Australian football underwent a period of monumental transformation during the 1970s. Keeping clubs afloat took a mountain of work accompanied by a strong serving of stoicism.

Kimberley’s eldest son Jason, the Sydney Swans number one ticket holder in 2025, recalls a family discussion late in 1977: “It was all-encompassing. I remember we had a family chat about it and dad said, ‘I’ll step down as president’. What mum, my sister and I didn’t realise was that he’d still actually be as involved as ever, just without the title. I think he pulled a bit of a swifty on us!”

Subsequently, Kimberley’s official role was the club’s director appointed to the VFL board. But, in a much broader capacity, he helped shape the club’s future. From 1977 to 1979, Kimberley met the difference between the club’s financial obligations to players and what it could actually pay.

A former employee and Swans Hall of Famer, Tony Morwood, remembers players often collecting their Swans payments from the Just Jeans offices rather than the Lake Oval.

In Shake Down the Thunder, Kimberley told Jim Main, “There were times when I helped with player payments, but it was something that I was happy to do as the club was really scrambling to get dollars. They were really tough times and I was helping out in a small way.”

When the Swans’ relocation saga reached its tipping point in 1981, Kimberley, alongside Jack Marks and Graeme John, drove the Sydney move, believing it the only hope for the club’s survival. Kimberley later said, “My heart told me it would be wonderful to stay at the Lake Oval, but I knew the financial reality, and my head told me we just had to make the move.”

Kimberley remained ever-present throughout the embryonic phase of the club’s existence in Sydney. Since 1982, they’ve filled an eight-seat block in the SCG’s Brewongle Stand. Kimberley was intimately involved when Basil Sellers sought the Swans license with a private ownership bid in 1985. Unfortunately, they were overlooked, but the True Believers showed up when the group fronted by Dr Geoffrey Edelsten went broke in 1987.

After joining the Swans’ interim board in 1988, Kimberley joined a consortium including Sellers, Peter Weinert, and Mike Willessee that ultimately spent millions erasing debt, paying license fees and trying to safeguard the club’s financial future.

Eventually, despite its best intentions and unyielding commitment, the ownership group approached the AFL for financial and draft assistance. The situation was dire. In October 1992, Weinert and Kimberley won a three-year reprieve at a specially convened meeting of all AFL club presidents to vote on the Swans’ continued existence.

In Shake Down the Thunder, Kimberley said, “It was one of the best days of my life. I genuinely feared for the future of the club, and, at the last minute, we had been saved. The relief was incredible, and Peter Weinert, Andrew McMaster, and everyone else involved in the exercise to save the club deserve nothing but the highest praise.”

In 1997, Kimberley joined the AFL Commission, serving until 1999. In 2001, the family sold Just Group, which consisted of more than 500 stores. Then, in 2005, Kimberley witnessed something he once thought inconceivable — a Swans premiership. He stood on the MCG during the presentation and shed a tear or two.

The following year, Kimberley began his long-standing tenure on the Sydney Swans Foundation board, continuing his lifelong care for all things red and white. In another premiership year, 2012, Kimberley became the club’s first non-player or coach inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame.

Now, Kimberley’s grandkids continue the Swans lineage, and their grandfather’s dedication has given them that opportunity. Jason, who describes his childhood surrounded by Swans as “the time of our lives”, says, “For us, it’s always been about the footy.”

“We’ve loved being a part of it and helping wherever we can. People respect the Swans now and want to emulate them. Certainly, when I started going to the footy with dad, that wasn’t the case. It’s a massive part of our family, and we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this club.”