Happy 60th to Rod Austin

A happy 60th birthday to Rod Austin.

 

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From the Blueseum:

 
Career : 1972 – 1985
Debut : Round 6, 1972 vs Geelong, aged 19 years, 100 days
Carlton Player No. 835
Games : 220
Goals : 20
Last Game : Round 12, 1985 vs Footscray, aged 32 years, 140 days
Guernsey Nos. 45 (1972) and 21 (1973–85)
Height : 180 cm (5 ft. 11 in.)
Weight : 80 kg (12 stone, 8 lbs.)
DOB : January 26, 1953
Premiership Player: 1979
Carlton Hall of Fame (1997)

Rodney Austin was born on Australia Day in 1953, and recruited by Carlton from the vaunted local college team Holy Child / St Dominic’s. With his thick mop of hair and an awkward kicking style, he was quickly dubbed ‘Curly’ by his team-mates – some of whom saw a resemblance to one of the Three Stooges. But there was nothing slapstick about the way ‘Curly’ went about his football. In time, he developed into a versatile, consistent defender who was rarely beaten for an entire game. One of the most popular players of his era, he won Premiership glory with the Blues in 1979, and was cruelly denied a place in both the 1981and ’82 flag sides by injury.

Austin wrote his name into Australian Football folklore in July, 1977 at Princes Park. Standing in for Geoff Southby at full-back against Hawthorn, he kept the Hawks’ champion full-forward Peter Hudson goalless on one of just two occasions in Hudson’s brilliant 129-game, 727-goal VFL career. Although he gave away eight centimetres in height and at least two kilograms in weight that day, Curly’s steely concentration proved too much for Hudson, setting up one of the great individual rivalries of the decade.

Two years later, Austin returned from injury on the eve of the finals, and was named as a reserve for the Grand Final against Collingwood. On a sodden MCG, in front of more than 112,000 fans, the Blues beat their fiercest rivals by five points, thanks to some desperate late brilliance by Wayne Harmes. With just a minute or so on the clock, Harmes’ committed chase, dive and swipe at the ball in the right forward pocket delivered the ball to Ken Sheldon, who goaled to seal Carlton’s twelfth Premiership. Curly was in a back pocket on the siren, having come off the bench early to allow Harmes to push forward.

The Blues finished the home and away rounds of season 1980 second on the ladder by percentage, only to crash out of the finals after successive defeats. Coach ‘Percy’ Jones was promptly sacked, and former Hawthorn captain and Premiership coach David Parkin appointed in his place. Austin blossomed further under Parkin’s coaching, playing solid, dependable football throughout 1981, in a rock-hard Blues defence.

After topping the ladder in ‘81, Carlton crushed Geelong by 40 points in the second semi-final. Curly was as solid as always in a back-pocket that day, before a groin muscle tear sent him limping off late in the game. That blow ruled him out of the Grand Final side, and he was watching from the stands the following week as his relentless team rebounded from 21 points down in the third quarter to skittle Collingwood for the second time in three years.

Carlton’s superb 1982 back-to-back Grand Final victory over Richmond came after one of the toughest finals campaigns in this clubs’ long and proud history. Ending the home and away rounds as the third of five finalists, Carlton beat Hawthorn in the Qualifying Final, lost to Richmond in the Second Semi, then faced the Hawks again in the Preliminary Final for a the right to play Richmond for the flag.

David Parkin knew the key to victory over Hawthorn was to limit the influence of their champion Leigh Matthews, and the man he turned to was Curly Austin. Barely five minutes into the game, however, Matthews hit Austin with a classic shirtfront, and knocked him senseless. After being revived on the field, Curly refused to be taken off. He ran back to his position, chested Matthews with an attitude that said; ‘is that the best you can do?’ then proceeded to cut the Hawks’ gun forward out of the rest of the game. Carlton won by five goals, Austin won the Blues’ Best Player award, and looked forward confidently to his Grand Final appearance – at least until midway through the next morning’s training run.

During one of the drills that Sunday, Curly was accidentally kicked in the thigh by team-mate Frank Marchesani. Deep bruising appeared and by Tuesday afternoon it was obvious that Austin wouldn’t be playing. On Grand Final day he was laid up in a hospital bed, as Carlton – led magnificently by captain Mike Fitzpatrick and ‘The Dominator;’ Wayne Johnston – upset the Tigers to win the Blues’ fourteenth Premiership. As a testament to the club’s regard for Curly, coach Parkin and a group of senior players made his hospital ward one of their first destinations that night, taking the Premiership Cup along with them.

That was to be Austin’s last chance at further Premiership glory. Nevertheless, he continued playing consistent and reliable football for three more seasons before retiring as a player after Carlton’s early exit from the 1985 Finals. Never one to take anything for granted, disappointment or regret over those two missed Premierships was never an issue with him. He has always maintained his gratitude at being a Carlton Premiership player, saying that only a comparative few experience winning a flag, and he treasures the achievement.

After hanging up his boots, Curly accepted an offer to be on the match committee in 1986 under Mick Malthouse, and later he would coach the Reserves team at Footscray, this included coaching the reserves to a premiership in 1988. In 1989 he was appointed senior coach at Fitzroy for two years, and in 1994 and ’95 he was in charge of the Victorian State of Origin team. Always a popular figure at Princes Park, Curly was elected to the Carlton Hall of Fame in 1997.

Austin’s son, Nick Austin played a reserves game for Carlton in 2002. Nick’s sporting prowess was with the Carlton Cricket Club in the Premier League as a left-arm opening bowler. Nick made history in November 2012 when he played his 200th game of cricket for Carlton. Nick and Rod became the first father-son combination to play 200 games of League football and 200 games of Premier Cricket.