Spirit of Carlton Past and Present
We represent the past players and officials of the Carlton Football Club
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Notice of Annual General Meeting Notice is given that the 2012 Annual General Meeting of the Spirit Of Carlton Past And Present Inc Will be held on: Date: Monday, 4 February, 2013 Time: 6.00pm Address: George Harris Function Room,Visy Park, Royal Parade, Carlton North |
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The detailed Notice of AGM and Proxy form can be downloaded from the following links: |
A very happy 40th to Kouta!
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From the Blueseum:
Career: 1992 – 2007
Debut : Round 13, 1992 vs Adelaide, aged 19 years, 147 days
Carlton Player No. 985
Games : 278
Goals : 226
Last Game : Round 17, 2007 vs St Kilda, aged 34 years, 191 days
Guernsey No. 43
Height : 190 cm (6 ft. 2 in.)
Weight : 95 kg (15 stone, 0 lbs.)
DOB : 18 January, 1973
Premiership Player: 1995
Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA MVP) : 2000
Best and Fairest: 2001, 2005
All Australian: 1995, 2000
Leading Goalkicker : 1997
Club Captain: 2004 – 2006
Throughout the history of VFL/AFL football, few individual players have actually changed the game. However, such was the impact of Anthony Koutoufides – “Kouta” to the masses of Blues supporters he thrilled during his celebrated 15-season career at Princes Park between 1992 and 2007 – that today he is recognised as the prototype of the 21st century footballer.
A 191 cm powerhouse with pace, endurance and sensational all-round skills, Koutoufides starred in Carlton’s 1995 Premiership victory over Geelong, won two club Best and Fairest awards, and was twice selected as an All Australian. In 1997 he was Carlton’s leading goal-kicker, and in 2000, was voted the AFL Players Association’s Most Valuable Player. Late in his career, amid his club’s darkest hours, he stepped up to the captain the Blues for three seasons, before retiring one year later as one of the most respected and admired men ever to have played the game.
Kouta’s heritage spanned four cultures. His father; Dimitrios (‘Jim’ to his friends and family) was born in Egypt to Greek-Cypriot parents, while his mother Anna came from northern Italy and met her future husband while on holiday down under. As part of the vast post-World War II migration from Europe to Australia, the couple settled in Melbourne’s northern suburbs at Lalor, and Anna produced three sons. The two eldest, Paul and Anthony, became keen schoolboy track athletes from their early teens, while they also embraced the Australian code of football. Before long therefore, a choice had to be made.
Anthony was an outstanding junior prospect who represented his state in three disciplines; the 100/110 metre hurdles, high jump and decathlon. From the age of 15 he was being talked about as a potential Olympian, although he and Paul were also enjoying success on the football field with Lalor Juniors. The crunch came in 1989, when the brothers were approached by Carlton scout Wayne Gilbert with an invitation join the Blues’ Under-19 squad. Despite the fact that both were keen Collingwood fans at the time, there was no hesitation. Paul and Anthony couldn’t wait to get to Princes Park.
Paul went on to play a couple of seasons of Under-19 football and one Reserves match for Carlton, without progressing to senior level. Anthony followed the same pathway, but from his earliest games his mature physique, outstanding agility and appetite for the contest marked him as something special. At first he was seen as a key defender, especially when he moved up to Reserve grade in 1992 to take on the full-back role, and won the Carlton Reserves Best and Fairest. Considering that he also made his senior debut the same year and played six first-grade matches, it was an outstanding achievement.
Having played through the lower grades in guernsey number 46, Anthony requested a change to his favourite number 43 when he was promoted to Carlton’s senior squad, and made an eye-catching debut against the Adelaide Crows at Princes Park in round 13, 1992. Sitting on the interchange bench until just before half-time, he ran onto the field and became involved in the play straight away with a clever shepherd that allowed Ron De Iulio an easy goal. Shortly afterwards, he kicked a smart goal himself from deep in a pocket with the second kick of his career, after his first attempt had been smothered. The Blues won by 23 points, and Anthony’s career was up and away.
Later in the year, in round 23 against Collingwood at VFL Park, Waverley, spectators got a glimpse of the future when Koutoufides shrugged off an opponent, swooped on the ball and picked it up with one hand. A gob-smacked Carlton coach David Parkin later said to him; “I’ve been waiting twenty years to see what you just did.” A few weeks later, Anthony finished off an impressive first season by collecting 19 possessions, four marks and his first Brownlow Medal vote as Carlton lost to West Coast at Subiaco in the last round of the year. He carried the ball in one hand that day too, and it rapidly became his trademark.
Koutoufides’ second season in 1993 started full of promise, only to be derailed by the first in a long series of injuries. After playing the first five games in defence, he damaged ankle ligaments in round 6 against Collingwood, and spent 10 weeks on the sidelines. Back to match fitness late in the year as the Blues tuned up for the finals, he was running into form again on the eve of the Grand Final against Essendon, but on selection night was overlooked in favour of Mark Athorn. Two days later, Anthony could only watch in despair as Essendon’s ‘Baby Bombers’ demolished Carlton by 44 points to win the flag.
Carlton’s fan base began to really embrace Koutoufides in 1994, especially when coach Parkin decided to play him on a wing and see if the opposition had anyone with the size and speed to match him. Invariably, they didn’t, and by mid-year the first cries of “Kout-ta, Kou-ta!” were echoing from the stands. Against Richmond at Princes Park in round 23, he provided a constant avenue to goal for the Blues, picking up 27 effective possessions as the home side destroyed the Tigers by 113 points. A few weeks later, his blossoming career reached a new level when he experienced his first two senior finals. Carlton lost both however, going down in successive weeks to Melbourne and Geelong.
Anthony’s fourth season in 1995 was simply sensational. In 25 games he kicked 22 goals, and collected 25 possessions (or more) on six occasions. He took more marks, earned more Brownlow Medal votes (12) than any other Blue, and was selected as an All Australian, before he almost single-handedly demolished Geelong in the Grand Final. Playing on a wing, but ranging far and wide through the midfield, Kouta racked up 31 possessions and eight telling marks on that unforgettable afternoon, as a remorseless Carlton ground the Cats into the dust and claimed the Blues’ 16th Premiership. Among a host of Navy Blue stars, Greg Williams was awarded the Norm Smith Medal as best on ground – but Koutoufides too, would have been worthy winner.
Kouta’s form in 1996 mirrored that of his team – occasional lapses, indispersed with regular successes. He didn’t miss a match all season, and kicked 24 goals while averaging 21 effective disposals and six marks per game. He produced an absolutely stunning performance against the West Coast Eagles in round 5 at Subiaco, hauling down 18 big marks (amid 35 possessions) as Carlton won a thriller by one point. At the end of the home and away season, he finished equal with Fraser Brown as the club’s top vote-catcher in the Brownlow Medal with 12 votes, before being one of his team’s best in a disappointing final series that saw the Blues eliminated by straight-sets losses to West Coast and Brisbane.
In 1997, after four consecutive finals campaigns, Carlton crashed to eleventh place on the ladder. Kouta played his 100th game in round 15 against Melbourne, as a raft of stars including long-serving captain Stephen Kernahan,Greg Williams, Justin Madden, Earl Spalding and Mil Hanna all reached the end of their careers. While the next generation of leaders – including Koutoufides – continued their progress, coach Parkin sometimes asked his star mid-fielder to play up forward, and Anthony generally delivered.
Playing on a wing against Collingwood at the MCG in round 4, 1997, Kouta racked up 32 possessions in a solid win. Later in the year, during the return game in round 19, Parkin sent him to full-forward, where he took a couple of screamers and kicked 6.4 from 22 possessions and 7 marks. Carlton came out on top again by 16 points, and that big haul helped him reach a total of 28 goals for the season. It was a modest return, but good enough to win him Carlton’s Leading Goalkicker Award, ahead of Justin Murphy (26 goals) and Stephen Silvagni (25).
Under a new captain in Craig Bradley, the Blues aimed for real improvement in 1998 – until the awful news broke that Jim Koutoufides had been diagnosed with lung cancer at the age of just 58. His death in March devastated his close-knit family, and by association, everyone involved at the Carlton Football Club. A stricken Anthony still played 21 games for the year, although he and the team as a whole were never really in finals contention, and once again finished eleventh.
Eventually, with the support of his many friends, colleagues and team-mates, Kouta returned to something near his brilliant best in 1999, averaging 20 possessions and 6 marks per game to finish runner-up to Matthew Allan as Carlton’s Best and Fairest. Standout games included 27 possessions and 7 marks against St Kilda in round 6; 25 disposals and 12 marks against Brisbane in round 11, and 23 possessions and 10 marks against Hawthorn in round 14. But those numbers were all but forgotten after the Blues qualified for the finals in sixth place, and fought their way through to a Preliminary Final showdown against minor premiers and hot flag favourites Essendon. The Bombers were gunning for their 16th flag to equal Carlton’s record, and the Blues had set themselves to stop them. What transpired that day produced one of the greatest finals matches of all time.
In front of 80,000 at the MCG, an under-manned, bloody-minded Carlton simply refused to be beaten. Trailing by 11 points at three-quarter time, the Blues kicked 6.2 to Essendon’s 4.2 in a frantic last quarter, to win by a point – largely due to 30 minutes of football from Koutoufides that was described by a stunned Stephen Kernahan as “the greatest quarter of football ever played.” Running hard to all parts of the field, Kouta had ten kicks, four clearances, three defensive rebounds, six marks and kicked two great goals in an epic quarter that brought a truly famous victory. Such was the euphoria around Princes Park in the days after that sensational game, that the following Saturday’s Grand Final loss to North Melbourne was almost an anti-climax. Sure, Carlton hadn’t won another flag – but neither had Essendon!
Kouta played his 150th game in round 2, 2000 in a 42-point win over Hawthorn at Princes Park, and was enjoying another prolific season when he picked up a career-best total of 39 disposals, 13 marks, 4 hit-outs and 2 goals in Carlton’s big win over Sydney in round 8. Demonstrably at the peak of his form, he was a clear favourite for the Brownlow Medal, before the Blues hosted North Melbourne at Princes Park in round 11. When that game began, Kouta was stunned to be manned up in the midfield by the Kangaroos’ champion centre half-forward and captain Wayne Carey.
It was a match-up for every football lover to savour, but Koutoufides rose to the challenge and turned it into a non-event. Leading the Roo captain a merry dance, Kouta kept Carey under a tight wrap and won the football himself 38 times – earning 17 kicks, 21 handpasses, 8 marks and kicking five terrific goals in a vital win that cemented a top-two ladder position the Blues. Kouta later conceded that this was in fact, his best-ever individual effort. “When people ask me which was the best game I ever played,” he said some time afterward, ”It would have to be the one against North Melbourne.”
By round 20, 2000, Carlton was comfortably sitting second on the ladder when disaster struck in the form of a posterior cruciate ligament strain to Kouta’s left knee. The surgery required ended his season, but he had been so good during the previous five months that he was still named as an All Australian, as well as the AFL Players Association Most Valuable Player (now known as the Leigh Matthews Trophy). Carlton responded by offering him an unprecedented 5-year contract (rumoured to be worth one million dollars) which was quickly accepted. From then on, Kouta would be a Blue for life.
After a busy day we managed to upload five new youtube videos highlighting Carlton past players. We are still going through the 1960s archives which are quite scarce and as a consequence for some players we only have a total of one minute of footage that exists. As we move into the 1970s we will see some more extensive highlights packages.
By Tony De Bolfo
Sixty years ago, after he had forged his own handsome reputation as a Carlton footballer, the late Bert Deacon saw fit to take on the comparatively less frenetic sport of golf.
It happened in or around 1952, at a time when the club’s dual premiership player and inaugural Brownlow Medallist turned his hand to coaching at Preston, the VFA outfit from which he was originally recruited.
Bert’s son Bob can’t be crystal, but he knows the idea came in the summer when the Deacons holidayed at Rosebud.
“I know that Dad and a couple of others got the golf game going when they were down the beach. Together with Bob Foley and Kevin Chard who both played under him at Preston, they decided to take part in a golf game at Portsea and invite their partners down for lunch.
“The next year they did it again, a few more got involved and it’s been a ‘who’s who’ ever since. In fact, it’s become a bit of a tradition – everyone wants to play and four generations have played it.”
From humble beginnings, the fully-fledged tournament, which has been held at a variety of courses from Balnarring to Flinders, has traditionally been open to footballers of any allegiance – from the great John Nicholls through to Collingwood’s Neil Mann (a regular for 30 years), the Richardson brothers Wayne and Max, and Graeme “Jerker” Jenkin, a two-time tournament winner.
Fittingly, Fred Stafford junior recently got the chocolates “courtesy a generous handicap” when the tournament was held at Flinders over the 2012 Christmas/New Year period.
Fred’s father, who famously snapped the winning goal with seconds remaining in the ’47 Grand Final, said he was honoured to earn the trophy cast in Deacon’s name.
“I’ve been hacking away for the past five or six years, and this year I finally got home by one shot,” Stafford said.
“It’s an honour for me to win this because Dad was a teammate of Bert’s. I don’t recall ever meeting Bert Deacon, but I can remember being with Dad when he shared a beer with Ron Clegg at the Fenwick Inn after Bert’s funeral.”
Bert Deacon was only 51 when he died suddenly on Balnarring Beach just a few days after participating in the ’73 golf day. On his passing, old friends saw fit to cast a tournament trophy in his honour.
Son Bob has seen the tournament go from strength to strength, and he’s thrilled that his father’s name is perpetuated in this way.
“Up to 100 played when the old man was alive and in his day they’d get on at six in the morning and take over the joint,” Bob recalled. “Dad was a Brownlow Medallist, everyone wanted to be around him and he got away with murder really . . . and it’s always been a good fun day.
The Bert Deacon Trophy now remains with Fred Stafford junior for the next 12 months and hopefully for 12 months more if he can successfully defend the precious trinket.
Our deepest sympathy goes to Greg Lee, (Carlton Director & SOC Member) and his family with the recent loss of his wife Debbie after a long battle with cancer.
The Spirit of Carlton offers sincere condolences to Alex Jesaulenko and his family following the recent passing of his wife Anne after a short illness.
The Spirit of Carlton would like to extend our deep sympathy to the family of Bernie Baxter who sadly passed away on the 28th December after a short illness .
Bernie played 28 games for the Blues from 1949 to the1951 before going on to kick 692 goals for the Port Fairy Football club where the local scoreboard is named in his honour .
http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Bernie+Baxter
http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Guernsey+34
http://www.standard.net.au/story/1207109/port-fairy-mourns-larger-than-life-premiership-great-bernie-baxter/?cs=74
UNRAVELLING THE BIZARRE ESSAY Number 13 – Ted Hopkins
###Was Juddy tall enough for the Carlton Captaincy?
Whichever way, ‘pushed’ or ‘relinquished’ is immaterial. Chris Judd is no longer the Carlton Captain and not even a member of the team’s leadership group.
The move appears like the Prime Minister mysteriously announcing she is no longer interested in the job; instead of heading to Cabinet, she chooses to sit on the backbench.
How bizarre!
All teams thrive on good captaincy, and in Carlton’s case, premiership captains are revered.
In the modern era—at least from 1968 onwards—the typical profile of a Carlton premiership captain is a celebrated ‘big bloke’ who can play tall and fill a key position role; viz, John Nicholls (Big Nick) three times (1968, 70, 72), Mike Fitzpatrick twice (1981, 82), and Stephen Kernahan twice (1987, 95).
Although Alex Jesaulenko (1979), was a mere ‘six footer and a bit,’ overhead he was unstoppable and could dominate in the key positions of centre-half-forward or full-forward.
On face value, it appears there is a direct correlation between height and overhead ability and Carlton premiership captaincy success.
Judd does not fit the mould, prompting the question: Was he ever tall enough for the captaincy?
Oddly, he is a surprisingly tall 189cm—the same height as Big Nick—yet has played almost exclusively as a rover, an indication of the changing shape of our game. In his five seasons with Carlton and 105 games he has taken only 33 contested marks. His contested mark average of o.3 per game is #38 for all Blues players during this time.
Following this logic, he could never have succeeded as a Carlton premiership captain. His successor should be Matthew Kreuzer, not the current favourite candidates, all shorties, Marc Murphy, Kade Simpson, and Andrew Carrazzo.
However, beware!
Just because something correlates doesn’t means it’s true.
There are a myriad of reasons Judd has not become a premiership captain at Carlton and has now stepped aside; some obvious, some that can only be guessed at, some that will never be divulged, and plenty of pure bad luck.
He is a gold-plated player and individual serving the Blues and the role with great distinction. And he is a proven premiership captain at West Coast (2006, having assumed the role from the disgraced Ben Cousins).
As someone who is credited with igniting the modern day statistics revolution in Australian sport (The Stats Revolution published by Slattery Media), I am constantly bewildered by the selective use and misuse of data by coaches and commentators who are either statistically naive or pushing barrows.
Without the hint of a smile and headlined by major media outlets, newly appointed coach, Mick Malthouse, recently launched the Carlton Blueprint, including statistical benchmarks guaranteeing unprecedented success.
He claimed his superior game plan would improve the team by five to seven percent, “which I think is realistic. I won’t say 10 percent.”
He attributes another three to four percent improvement due to young players getting, “a year older, which is in my favour.”
His special understanding of the AFL fixture and preparation methods is expected to yield him “another two to three percent.”
And finally, better team selection policies and game day rotations will account for an additional, “two to three percent” improvement.
Based on these projections, it would appear Carlton is certain to win every game next season. The premierships cup is already in the cabinet.
How bizarre!
The wonder is the new coach and club is not officially pinged for false advertising.
More convincing than the Blueprint would have been a proper explanation as to why Judd is no longer captain.
So far, all that is offered are diplomatic niceties and weasel words.
The value of captaincy is one of those things that cannot be statistically verified. Only the views of the protagonists can provide insight.
Game theory attributes two main attributes for captaincy.
Firstly, consistency mixed with bursts of inspiration. In this domain, Judd is supreme. He rates highly for the leader who declares “come and follow me into the heat of battle.”
If there is criticism of this form of leadership, it is because teammates can become too dependent upon the leader, or retreat because they cannot meet the high expectation he has shown.
It which case, it is not Judd’s problem. It is a sign others surrounding the captain fall short.
If this is how the new coach and club see it and they are now throwing down the gauntlet by disconnecting the captain, then it should be said.
Otherwise, unfair speculation falls upon the capability and contribution of Judd.
The other main attribute for captaincy is strategic thinking and organisation.
The past three premiership captaincies are rated high in this regard—Nick Maxwell (Collingwood) Cameron Ling (Geelong), and co-captains Adam Goodes and Jarrad McVeigh (Sydney).
How a captain or team leaders deploys this attribute is mostly experienced internally. External observers can gain some insights when the captain is demonstrative on and off the field.
However, reticence and subtle demeanour can also be just as effective (which may be the case with Judd). Unless you are involved intimately with the club and the individual, it is difficult to know the score.
At Carlton (29 games 1967 – 1971), I had the privilege of playing under our revered captain, John Nicholls. Privately, he appeared introverted. On the field, he loomed large.
In the dressing room before my first game, the experienced and debonair centre-half-back, John Goold, sat quietly beside me and said, “If Big Nick says something to you on the field, do it.”
As second rover, for the first centre bounce I attended, Big Nick said, “stand over there.”
The ball hit me on the chest and I was away.
The second time I attended, again Big Nick issued instructions where I should stand.
The ball never came to me.
Afterwards, I asked ‘Gooldy’ what happened.
‘Gooldy’ said, “You were the decoy.”
You can’t put a price or a stat on good captaincy and leadership, but you know when it happens.
The SOC past and present has given over $400,000 of donations to the Carlton Football Club over the last five years. The majority has benefited the current playing group who is striving for premiership number 17 for the old navy blues. This major goal is what motivates every past player and official when they are officially part of the club and it motivates every past player and official when they are no longer officially part of the club.
The following list is the amount that the past players and supporters have provided in the past five years. It is substantial and important and was raised by past and present players of the club as well as passionate supporters of the club. It should not be forgotten that the past players association has been donating funds to the club and past players and officials in need for several decades.
We are here to not only support the present and future but also the past and present.
We are all Carlton and every single person who bleeds Carlton should give in their own personal way whether it is by volunteer time, money, attendance or otherwise, we are all Navy Blues and all have a common bond.
Support the club you love in the way you feel most comfortable with and we can all grow the club and each other together.
ALLOCATION OF SOC FUNDS TO CFC SINCE JUNE 2007
Management System (Ipad) $29,000
Altitude Room Equipment (Oct 2012)
systems for gym x 2 @ $6k ea. $12,000
Oct, 2012 Total $436,050
By Ted Hopkins
Stemming initially from University research centres, IT houses, business conferences and webinars, the name Big Data has started bobbing up and is spreading fast.
Typical is a recently glossy business magazine, Momentum, produced by the University Of Queensland that is headlined: ‘Big Data, Get it and get it right.’
How bizarre!
Since much of it is huge, difficult to grasp, and then assess.
Getting it is one thing, unravelling it is another.
I should know.
As early as 1995 I saw some of this phenomenon coming.
Instead of Big Data I called it Champion Data, the name of the small sport statistics company specialising AFL that I found and directed, from back then until October 2009.
The enterprise and my involvement subsequently triggered The Stats Revolution, which is the title of the book I have written on the subject, published by Slattery Media.
So much has changed in that period of almost 20 years—the humble statistic is no longer the humble statistic.
A vast difference now exists between Bruce McAvaney quoting archival statistics as embellished punctuation; compared to how numbers are collected, read, interpreted, and presented today.
In many respects, the numbers gathered now by armies of well-trained statisticians, their numbers available in real time, have now become the game and its language.
Players and teams are subjected to constant measurement by coaches, commentators, policy makers, consumers, and more recently fantasy football enthusiasts and betting interests.
The story of how statistics have infiltrated and evolved in AFL, their usefulness and abuse, is similar to other fields of endeavour.
Big Data is going to get bigger, more persuasive, and will not go away. At times it can be fruitful, and often dangerous. In between, there is lots of superfluous and meaningless junk.
To get the picture, let’s start with coaching an AFL team.
There are around 200 full-time coaching professionals spread around the 19 clubs. Add sports scientists, recruiters, and other specialists and the count is in excess of 500 on football department payrolls.
Game day commitments, recovery sessions, RDO’s and ensuring players are not subject to repetitive strain injuries means the actual time spent on the training track is limited.
What happens during the rest of the week?
Play table tennis? Eat lots of toast and jam?
Perhaps!
Mostly, the in-between time is spent sitting in front of computer screens poring over an ever-expanding array of statistics and multiple vision sources, or attending meetings in which PowerPoint has taken over as the Head Coach.
Legions of football coaches, commentators and their respective support staff have now become ‘Professional Analysts’ searching spreadsheets for the ‘data nuggets’ that will confirm their particular point-of-view.
There are even desktop applications that can do it ‘easily’ for them. Suddenly, coaches, commentators and officials can claim the title of ‘data savvy.’ Correlation and data mining are now lingua franca.
But this is just one way of looking at the Big Data question, albeit in its most obvious form.
Like an iceberg, there’s another thing happening under the surface.
It involves teams of highly skilled mathematicians, statisticians, code-cutters, visualisers, interpreters and their respective managers interrogating vast amounts of data.
Their collective priority is listening to what the data says.
Opinion is set aside because it can prove a distraction on the path of discovery. It is far too easy to mistake correlation with causation effects and to find misleading patterns in the data.
The sporting field and databases are rife with imperfections. Error and chance are also vital players.
In this alternative approach to Big Data, knowing the error rate is essential before any declaration of certainty is possible.
AFL season 2013 and the Grand Final provide a choice example of the differences between data used for spruiking or for knowledge.
From season start until the grand final a chorus of coaches and commentators declared ‘contested footy’ was the most critical factor for winning games.
Accordingly, it seemed players willing to use their heads as battering rams, became the way to ultimate success.
However, those who had been ‘listening to the data’ for discovery purposes knew otherwise.
Winning the contested footy count was obviously an advantage, but historically there were several other measures that rate significantly higher.
For example, kicking long to advantage proved consistently highest on the winning radar and poor kicking in the backline the worst thing.
As legendary coach Allan Jeans famously observed long before the advent of computers and Big Data, “there is no point winning the ball unless it is put it to good effect.”
In the grand final Sydney won the long kicks-to-advantage 78 to Hawthorn 53 and lost the contested footy count 140 to Hawthorn 170. They won the flag by 10 points.
How bizarre!
Big Data was right and wrong at the same time, depending on who was listening and who was spruiking.
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His latest enterprize is TedSport, delving into the secrets of Big Data.