On Wednesday night about 40 past players and officials gathered at Visy Park in what was a wonderful social occasion. In the past, regular social gatherings by past players were commonplace. Unfortunately due to various factors these regular past player only events began to disappear from the social calendar.
This year we are attempting to revive the tradition and started off with the first Past Players dinner.
It was a real pleasure to see so many happy faces and the camaraderie amongst old friends. The schedule for the night was delayed somewhat because everyone was enjoying the chance to catch up and chat.
Several generations of players were represented on the night; past players from the 1940s all the way through to the 1990s were present. Players such as Doug Beasy, Allan Greenshields, Paul Hurst, Ron Barassi, Vin Cattoggio, Ron De Iulio, Serge Silvagni, Ian Aitken, Ron Barassi, and Adrian Gallagher just to name a few. It was wonderful to see past officials of the club such as Kenny Kleiman and Frank Brosnan also in attendance.
MC for the night Dennis Munari gave the audience some information about the history of the past players association at Carlton and how the Spirit of Carlton Past and Present was trying to re-awaken the spirit around the club by providing social occasions to get the past players together again on a regular basis.
Rod Austin gave an informative talk about the current issues in the AFL related to the collective bargaining agreement, free-agency, and the draft and trading period.
Robert Walls gave the keynote speech of the night which was a passionate retelling of the story of his entire involvement with the club from a 15 year old to a premiership coach.
All in all we hope this was the start of something special that will grow from here. The approximately 40 players in attendance represent about 10% of the current population of past players. Next year we are hoping for many more to attend. So if there are any past players or officials out there that are reading this and are interested in future events please contact us at admin@spiritofcarlton.com to confirm if we have your contact details.