Geoff Southby
Career: 1971- 1984
Debut: Round 1, 1971 v North Melbourne
825th Carlton Player
Games: 268
Goals: 31
Last game: Round 20, 1984 v North Melbourne
Guernsey No. 20
Height: 188cm
Weight: 86kg
DOB: 27 October, 1950
Best and Fairest: 1971, 1972
Vice-Captain 1974, 1981-83
Victorian Representative Player
Team of the Century: Back Pocket
Premiership Player: 1972, 1979
Most of the current Carlton faithful agree that Stephen Silvagni was deservedly named as the AFL’s Fullback of the Century. However there are plenty of Blues’ supporters of a more mature vintage willing to argue that Geoff Southby could just as easily have been given the nod. That’s how good this rangy, mop-haired, consumate defender was.
From Bendigo League club Sandhurst, Southby arrived at Carlton in late 1970 as a 20 year-old, and was revelation from his first practice game. At 188cm and 87kg he was the perfect build for a key defender of that era. Wearing the number 20 guernsey, he forced his way into the reigning Premiership team for round one of 1971, and a star was born.
Southby had stopped playing footy in his mid teens (U/15’s) and concentrated on his first sporting love – baseball! He was coaxed back into playing footy by mates at the hostel he was staying at in Melbourne whilst studying. He didnt take long to make his mark by winning the best and fairest with amateur club Powerhouse FC in 1969, and then at Sandhurst in 1970. In 1972, after his first two years at VFL level, he had won best and fairests in his last four seasons of football, an extraordinary effort in anyone’s language.
Beautifully balanced and with wonderful reflexes, Southby was a strong mark and a gloriously long kick. But his defensive instinct and coolness under pressure were perhaps his greatest attributes. He invariably made the right decision to mark, or to punch the ball away, and he always seemed to have that split-second longer to dispose of the ball – as all champions do. Indicative of his impact at Princes Park, he won Carlton’s Best & Fairest in his first season as the Blues missed the finals, then won the same award again in 1972 as Carlton crushed Richmond in the Grand Final. It was Carlton’s eleventh VFL Premiership.
By 1973, Geoff was firmly established among the elite of the competition. He had refined his game to become more attacking whenever possible, and his soaring torpedo punts were a real offensive weapon. Such was his influence that at times some opposing teams actually placed a defender at full-forward in an attempt to nullify him!
Following their defeat in ’72, Richmond were burning for revenge when they met Carlton again in the 1973 Grand Final. Led by ruckman Neil Balme, the Tigers went head-hunting on a day when an act of sheer football bastardry occurred that has never been forgiven. Southby was crashed to the ground by an elbow to the head that he didn’t see coming, and the resulting concussion was so severe that he was a passenger for the rest of the day. In fact it was well into the next season before he fully recovered. Richmond won the flag, but lost all respect.
A teaching colleague of mine and an avid Geelong supporter, declares that Southby was the best fullback he ever saw. He remembers the first day he saw Southby at Kardinia Park when he stood the great Doug Wade and mastered him with a cool efficiency that was to become his trademark. My colleague is still appalled by Neil Balme’s unprovoked and cowardly attack upon one of football’s fairest and best players.
Thankfully, by 1975 Geoff was back to his brilliant best and was selected in the Victorian State team for the third time. Carlton made the finals in ’75, ’76 & ’78 without progressing past the semi-finals, before new captain-coach Alex Jesaulenko led a resurgent Blues outfit into the 1979 Grand Final against Collingwood. When Wayne Harmes‘ desperate slide and swipe at the ball in the dying minutes of that game led to a Ken Sheldon goal and a famous victory, Carlton had won its twelfth flag and Geoff Southby his second Premiership medal.
Peter Bosustow
Career : 1981 – 1983
Debut: Round 1, 1981 vs Richmond, aged 23 years, 152 days
Carlton Player No. 888
Games : 65
Goals : 146
Last Game: Round 21, 1983 vs North Melbourne, aged 25 years, 296 days
Guernsey No. 4
Height : 183 cm (6 ft. 0 in.)
Weight : 85 kg (13 stone, 5 lbs.)
DOB : 27 October, 1957
Premiership Player 1981, 1982
Club Leading Goalkicker 1981 (59 goals)
In the summer of 1980-81, Peter “The Buzz” Bosustow arrived at Princes Park for pre-season training – and a relatively short, yet unforgettable career was cleared for lift off. Peter was the son of Bob Bosustow, who came from WAFL club, Perth to play 20 games for Carlton in seasons 1955 and ’56. So it was that when Bob‘s 183 cm, 85 kg son began to dominate the WAFL competition in the late 1970’s, the Blues had the inside running for his signature. After flying him to their round 9 Sunday game against Essendon in Sydney, the Blues signed him under the Father-Son rule then in place.
Bosustow simply gatecrashed a strong Carlton squad that just two years previously had won the flag, and in 1980 should have made it two in a row. Under new coach David Parkin the Blues were hell-bent on claiming our 13th Premiership in 1981, and had assembled a team that was the envy of every other club in the competition. Parkin‘s coaching style demanded discipline in all aspects of the game, but to his credit he realised that in The Buzz he had a rare talent. One that flourished under less restraint; that responded to a personal challenge, and that more often than not could wrest the initiative from any rival with just a quarter or two of football magic.
Often unstoppable as a free-running half-forward, Bosustow was a freakish mark, a brilliant ground-level player and a deadly snapshot at goal. The highlight tapes of seasons 1981 to ’83 are filled with his exploits, including awards for Mark of the Year and Goal of the Year. Bosustow himself talks about his great mark here
.
Legend has it that the Buzz promised Mark Maclure that he would give him a ride in his new car before he took his 1981 screamer. He was a crucial part of our glorious 1981 and ’82 Premiership double, and our Leading Goalkicker with 59 goals in 1981. People flocked to see him in action, and he was one of the brightest stars of his era.
In only his second game – during the second quarter of Carlton’s Round 2, 1981 match against Hawthorn at Princes Park, Carlton was kicking to the scoreboard end. ‘Buzz’ marked on the wing, chip-passed to Wayne Johnston and sprinted hard to create the loose man. His opponent – Hawthorn’s tough man Robert Dipierdomenico – ran in to block him, but Bosustow crashed through the beefy Hawk with a punishing, legitimate shirtfront, right in front of the old press box. A resounding crack was heard (to the roar of an adoring throng) and Dipper’s season was prematurely ended by a broken sternum.
The Round 21 game against North Melbourne would turn out to be a last hurrah for the Buzz. He was reported for striking North Melbourne defender John Law, and subsequently rubbed out for four weeks. This meant that he could only have played again that year if Carlton had made the Grand Final – but it was not to be. In what turned out to be a prophetic statement, a clearly upset Bosustow mentioned after his tribunal appearance that “I am absolutely shattered, when the sentence was delivered I thought my career in Melbourne was all over”. He was just 26 years old, and at the peak of his career.
Thanks to the Blueseum for player pics and bios.