After 120 years, first images of former Carlton footballer surface

PAT PELLY was Caleb Marchbank’s age when he donned the dark navy lace-up with chamois yoke for his eighth and final senior game for the Carlton Football Club.

That happened almost 120 years ago, in the 11th round match of 1904 against St Kilda at Princes Park, when Pelly, then 26, was named on a half-forward flank for that contest – and Jim Marchbank, the brother of Caleb’s great grandfather, took on ruck duties.

Seven weeks earlier, Pelly had completed his Carlton senior debut at Princes Park, ironically enough against the Saints, and in both instances alongside his cousin Jim Flynn. Fate would deal Flynn a greater hand, as he would lead Carlton to its inaugural VFL Grand Final victory as captain in 1904 – the first of a Premiership hat-trick under Jack Worrall’s watch.

Pelly, as with Flynn, was recruited to Carlton from St. James (between Benalla and Yarrawonga). Together they would turn out for the local St James Football Club, whose President was George J. Coles. It was George who acquired his first retail business in St. James from his father George W. Coles, and his company, the Coles Group, would one day morph into the nation’s largest retail business.

Not much else is known about the life of Pelly, Carlton player No. 170 who died in Benalla at the age of 61 on February 20, 1939.

But it’s through the help of Jim Flynn’s descendants in Benalla that the club has for the first time sourced a portrait photograph of Pelly, 119 years after he last laced a boot for the old dark Navy Blues.

The photograph, professionally taken by a representative of Bourke Street’s Stewart & Company, is thought to have been taken around the time Pelly was chasing the leather for Carlton, and features a resplendent Pelly sporting a black tie. Another photo, supplied by the Flynns, captures the local St James team of 1909, featuring Pelly (third player standing from the right) and Jim Flynn (second player seated from the left) both wearing their treasured Carlton lace-ups. The fair-headed player wearing a cravat and seated to the right and front of Flynn as you look at that image is Gordon Green, a member of Carlton’s back-to-back Premiership teams of 1914 and ’15.

The St James team, 1909. Pat Pelly is the third player standing from the right, proudly wearing the old Carlton lace-up with chamois yoke. Seated second from the left, also wearing the Carlton lace-up, is Pelly’s cousin Jim Flynn, Carlton’s inaugural Premiership captain and three-time Premiership player of 1906, 07 and ’08. In front of Flynn and to his left sporting a cravat is Gordon Green, later a member of the Blues’ 1914 and ’15 Premiership teams.

Since its inaugural VFL season of 1897, the Carlton Football Club has been represented by 1236 footballers, of which 115 – Pelly included – was not identified by a single photograph.

Thanks to the Flynns, that number has now been whittled down by one.