Dual Carlton premiership player Mario Bortolotto passes away

Mario Bortolotto, the former Carlton defender whose 30 games included the David Parkin-coached back-to-back premierships of 1981 and ’82, has passed away overnight after a short illness. He was 65.

With Bortolotto’s passing, the first member of the Blues’ successive Grand Final-winning teams of that glorious era is gone.

Originally hailing from Koondrook in Victoria’s northwest, and recruited to Carlton after 14 senior appearances for Geelong through 1979 and ’80, Bortolotto first piqued the Blues’ interest when he kept Mark Maclure in check in a match-winning display in Round 12 of ’79 at Kardinia Park. Though he wasn’t to know it then, Bortolotto’s showing on Maclure was pivotal.

“We got bundled out in 1980 and going into ’81 we thought we needed a big-bodied, physical player who could knock a few blokes around going into 1981 . . . and (Chairman of Selectors) Wes Lofts thought Mario would fit the bill,” the-then Match Committeeman Shane O’Sullivan said.

“We went down to Geelong, saw Mario and told him we needed him to make a decision. He said yes and actually signed a serviette, which went in with his contract to the VFL. He then came to Carlton and fitted in straight away because everyone liked him.”
One of Bortolotto’s closest friends was the 1982 Carlton premiership ruckman, Warren ‘Wow’ Jones. Of Bortolotto, Jones said: “Mario was just a great fellow”.

“When he first came across from Geelong he turned up in a Commodore with an ‘Italian Stallion’ sticker on it. He was Italian through and through, a great family man and his folks were lovely old school people.”

Bortolotto completed his Carlton senior debut in the opening round of the 1981 season, against Richmond at VFL Park – coincidentally, the same game in which Western Australians Peter Bosustow and Ken Hunter also wore dark navy for the first time.
Sporting the No.6 now worn by Zac Williams, Bortolotto pitted his size and strength against the game’s key forwards, amongst them David Cloke on Grand Final day ’82. Having spent all of the ’81 GF in the dugout – and later earning an apology from his coach as a consequence – Bortolotto played the game of his life on his Richmond opponent, having negated Hawthorn’s Michael Tuck in the previous week’s preliminary final.

To think that an ankle injury almost put paid to Bortolotto’s ’82 season.
“Earlier that year, Mario went over on his ankle during training on the No.1 Oval and a couple of us had to carry him in. The sock was the only thing holding his foot in place,” Jones recalled.

“Mario missed a lot of football, played a few reserves games towards the end of ’82, but wasn’t named in the 25-man squad for the finals. He went to David Parkin saying ‘You haven’t included me, can I help out?’ – and ‘Parko’ included him in the squad to train through the finals to get him ready for the following year.

“But when Frank Marchesani ran into ‘Curly’ Austin in a game of soccer on the Sunday after the preliminary final, the selectors suddenly had to find a replacement – and the man who was available was Mario.”

In the post-match victory lap, Bortolotto was famously photographed hoisting the silverware as his premiership medallion catches the sun. The year before he ran the lap in the training top he never got the chance to remove.

A lighter off-field moment involving Bortolotto was also captured on film. The footage, taken on Lygon Street, shows Bortolotto emptying a bucketload of spaghetti over the head of the former Collingwood rover and The Sun columnist Lou Richards – after yet another of Richards’ renowned Kiss of Death predictions spectacularly backfired on him.
In July 1983, Bortolotto featured in Carlton’s pre-season Grand Final victory, again at Richmond’s expense. Then in August, in what was the penultimate home-and-away round of the season, he was reported for striking North Melbourne’s Donald McDonald, which resulted in a two-match penalty and effectively ended his Carlton career.
Bosustow also copped a four-match penalty for an on-field transgression in that contest, and as with Bortolotto he never represented Carlton again.

Regardless, Bortolotto’s three seasons at Princes Park brought him a lifetime of memories shared with some of the greatest players of his or any other era – Fitzpatrick, Ashman, Doull, Harmes (with whom he later ran a sports store), Hunter, Johnston and Marcou to name but a few. Such was Bortolotto’s popularity amongst his contemporaries at Carlton that in 1982 he was also declared Best Clubman.

“He was very down-to-earth and the fact that he was named Best Clubman in ’82 gives you an indication of the quality of the man,” Jones said.

“He was part of an era when we had a lot of talent in the team, and he could come out and player a ripper of a game if given a job. He was tenacious and he played a very physical game. He couldn’t put many games together but give him a job like that one on Cloke and he’d follow it through . . . he really did his job for the team.”

Bortolotto always made it back for the premiership reunions – as was the case in the opening round of this season when he joined fellow members of the ’82 team in the 40-year reunion gathering at the MCG.

But his absence at the Spirit of Carlton reunion of the 1972, ’81 and ’82 teams at Marvel Stadium in late July rang alarm bells for Marcou, who placed a call to Bortolotto’s mobile – only to be told be a family member that his old teammate had become desperately ill with what was later identified as septicemia.

“It’s a very sad day for Carlton. Mario’s passing is a great loss,” Marcou said.
“After he came to the Club from Geelong he lived with me in Thomastown. We lived there for the best part of five years and we had some great times together.

“Mario was a true friend who was always there when you needed him . . . and ‘Parko’s’ move of him onto Cloke in the ’82 Grand Final was one of the great ones.”

Bortolotto spent his final three weeks in St Vincent’s Hospital, during which time his loved ones got to say their goodbyes.

Mario Bortolotto was the 887th footballer to represent Carlton at senior level in League competition.

Awarded Life Membership in 2003, Mario Bortolotto is survived by his wife Birgit, son Marcello and daughters Bella and Stephanie, to whom the Carlton Football Club extends its deepest sympathies.

Carlton’s AFLW players will wear black armbands into Sunday’s Round 3 match with Port Adelaide at IKON Park as a mark of respect.