Former Carlton footballer’s memoirs released

By Tony De Bolfo

SimmonsBallArticle_620X370.jpg

Tom Simmons during his playing days with the Blues. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Tom Simmons, whose football prowess at Princes Park in the post-World War II years of Henfry and Deacon was more than matched by his prodigious talents as a professional athlete, was also it seems a man of letters.

A little over 12 months since his passing at the age of 84, Tom’s written recollections penned in his final days have been forwarded to the club by his son Tony.

The letters offer a unique insight into Tom’s formative years in East Brunswick and his all-too-brief Carlton playing career.

Recruited to Carlton from Northcote District juniors in Melbourne’s inner-city north, Thomas Edwin Francis Simmons’ reputation on the track preceded him. Standing six foot in the old measurement, he had taken the 100 and 200-yard championships of Melbourne Technical Schools, together with the high and long-jump titles, and had also triumphed in the 220-yard dash at the Inter-Technical schools championship at Olympic Park.

With the permission of son Tony, Tom’s personal memoirs of another time at Carlton and in the neighborhood can now be reproduced, in the first of two parts.

Part 1 – My early life

This record of my life begins before I came into the world! My mother was hit by a cable tram in Sydney Road Brunswick just after she became pregnant. She was caught under the front bogie of the tram. A crane had to be used to lift the tram in order to release my mother. She was not badly injured. This incident typified the toughness and endurability of my mother’s life until she passed away at the age of 99 years 11 months.

I was born at home in a rather small 2-bed room tenement house in East Brunswick. We had a “wash house” in which was installed a tin bath, two concrete sinks (one of which had a wringer attached), a wood fried copper for boiling up the washing. In order to have a bath, hot water from the copper had to be bucketed into the tin bath and cold water from the tap was used to adjust the temperature. I lived in that house for 18 years with my parents and younger brother Harry.

My father served in the Great War from 1914-18 and participated in the Gallipoli Campaign. He was exposed to nerve gas that had an effect on his health until his death in 1956.

I had a happy, uneventful childhood in a rather poor working class suburb. For 10 years I attended the South Brunswick State School and I suppose I was an ordinary student. At the age of eight I broke my leg and for seven weeks I was pulled to school by my brother in a two- wheel box cart.

During summer evenings and weekends I joined a group of carefree neighbourhood kids playing street cricket, using a telephone pole as the wicket. We would often play a game, which was popular amongst street-kids called “Tip-Cat” and it involved striking a wedged shaped piece of wood about six inches long to make it leap far enough above the ground to enable it to be hit as far as possible down the road. Avoiding windows was a problem.


Tom Simmons during his days with the Blues. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

During the football season, us street kids could not afford the luxury of a proper leather football but we had heaps of fun in the street kicking around a paper ball made by rolling up newspaper into an elongated ball three inches wide and six inches long wrapped with string.

When my brother and I were about seven years old we had a paper delivery round. We did that for 10 years. We signed in at the newsagent shop at 5am, got our stack of newspapers and did our deliveries on foot to houses in about ten streets. After completing the paper rounds at 6am, I would eat a few sausage rolls and go back to the newsagent to get some more papers (The Sun, The Age, The Argus and The Sporting Globe) to sell on the trams. I would jump on a tram and sell papers. After two stops I would get off and wait for the next tram. I would do this for 5-6 stops then cross the road and work the trams on the other line until I got back to the shop. We were home by 7am so we had to chase breakfast and do cleaning chores because our mother had an early morning cleaning job (which she did for 40 years!)

Another of my jobs as a kid was with a rather large bread factory (this was before the present hot-bread shops). My job was to help a bread-carter with home deliveries, which were done from a horse- drawn cart. When we got back to the factory, I had the responsibility to unsaddle the horse, hose him down then lead him to his stall and make sure he had enough chaff.

My mother, who was not all religious, made me attend from the age of nine Sunday School at the Anglican Church in Brunswick. My friends and I would muck around and I do not recall learning anything about God! The church formed a basketball team in 1944. Although I was only 15 years I played for two years and the team were champions. Some players in the competition went onto to play VFL football.

I attended the YMCA in City Rd, across the bridge in Swanston Street from the age of eight to 15. There was a heated pool but no bags were allowed. I played basketball and did athletics. I attended summer camps at Shorten on Westernport Bay. At the age of 16,  I won the State Championship for 200 yards.

Part 2 – My football career

I was not involved in competitive football until the age of 18 when I joined Northcote Juniors Football Club.

In the VFL in those days, clubs were allocated zones. If you lived in a certain zone you could not join a football club in another zone. I lived in East Brunswick, which was a Carlton zone. That restrictive system was abandoned in 1960.

During my first and only season with Northcote Juniors, a Carlton scout Jim Francis attended one or two matches looking for potential Carlton recruits. The next year I couldn’t believe I was invited to attend training at Carlton and was given the opportunity to become a member of the senior list of players. In those days each VFL club had a team playing in each of the three grades – the Thirds for kids from 14 to 18 years, the Seconds for players aged 16 to 30 and the Firsts where the players ranged from 18 to 33. In my case I was asked to train with the senior team in mid-1949 and went straight into the Firsts team without playing any matches in the Seconds or Thirds competition.

Carlton was a famous football club and I was greatly honoured and found that when I first ran out onto Princes Park with my teammates most of them were seasoned stars.

I enjoyed the training sessions each Tuesday and Thursday from 4.30pm to 6.30pm. as the youngest member of the team I was determined to improve my skills and earn the respect of my teammates. Fortunately I had a high level of physical fitness and in fact I was the fastest player in the team. My friends thought I had an obsession with fitness. They were probably right! In 1949 very few of the team possessed a car. In the streets I would be doing running and I enjoyed doing broad jumps over driveways on the footpaths.

The football season comprised 20 home and away games. I was fortunate to play 17 games in my first season and was awarded the best first year player.

In my second season I was seriously injured in a match against Collingwood during the 11th game. My right knee was badly damaged in a collision with an opposing player. I had two torn cartilages. Surgery was performed by a top orthopaedic surgeon to remove the cartilage, but I missed the remainder of the season.

During the summer months I regained my physical fitness but my knee did not regain its strength. I was not confident that my knee would allow me to play out a match with my former vigour and strength so reluctantly I retired from football.

I was devastated.

My short career of 28 games ended abruptly during that match against Collingwood. In those days playing for a VFL club was all about loyalty and team spirit. The only financial reward was a payment of £4 [about $8] per game.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *