Jim Allison, who accepted the role of Carlton's Chief Executive at a time when political unrest threatened to tear the club apart, has died at the age of 84 after a long illness.

Allison's early involvement with the game at League level took in 16 years at North Melbourne as team manager for the Under 17s, Under 19s and Seniors. He later served as General Manager of the then Footscray Football Club, and replaced the late Keith McKenzie as Carlton GM when the latter retired from the position just prior to the commencement of the 1980 season.

The previous December, in what was a Premiership year of 1979, Ian Rice was appointed Carlton President and Peter Jones Senior Coach after George Harris and Alex Jesaulenko relinquished their positions as President and Senior Coach respectively.

Allison, supported by the Business Development Manager Kevin Cooksley, "greatly assisted the Committee in this turnabout of the Club's financial position," as Rice declared in the 1980 Annual Report.

But Allison's and Cooksley's Carlton tenures were all too brief. Allison resigned on September 9, 1981 (and was later replaced by Ian Collins) while Cooksley quit on September 25.

During Allison's period in the chair, David Parkin was appointed Senior Coach, Ken Hunter and the late Peter Bosustow were recruited from West Australia, and the late Mario Bortolotto was invited to train after being shown the door at Geelong. All were subsequently part of the back-to-back Grand Final triumphs of 1981 and '82.

Jim Allison is survived by his wife Melinda, sister Heather and children Glenn, Sue-Ann, Fiona, Larissa, Lauren and Tania, together with 16 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.