Five members of Carlton’s feted 1972 premiership team came together for the launch of a new book.
FIVE members of Carlton’s feted 1972 premiership team, and a further member of the ’73 Grand Final outfit, have shared their reminiscences – both palatable and unpalatable – at the launch of a new book chronicling the team’s bitter rivalry with Richmond through those halcyon years.
Carlton’s ’72 premiership greats Peter Jones, Andy Lukas, David McKay and Geoff Southby, together with ’73 Grand Finalist Vin Catoggio, joined author Dan Eddy at the launch of his book Blue Brilliance in the 1864 Function Room at IKON Park.
1972 Carlton Premiership player Andy Lukas with his daughter Jo and grandchildren at the launch.
Eddy’s tome examines with forensic detail the stories behind the stories that in part tell the whole of the Carlton-Richmond enmity through a five-year period which took in three Grand Finals – most notably the ’72 Grand Final when the Blues booted a record score of 28.9, and the ’73 Grand Final when the Tigers’ brutality, coupled with the late losses through illness and injury to Carlton’s key midfielders Barry Armstrong and Trevor Keogh – chiefly contributed to “a hollow victory”, as McKay put it.
Dan Eddy launches Blue Brilliance at Ikon Park.
McKay, who bravely played out the second half of the ’72 Grand Final with a broken jaw, and Southby – who took no further part in the ’73 GF after being knocked out in the second quarter – were both recipients of Neil Balme’s indiscretions: indiscretions for which Balme was never suspended.
While Southby declared he was prepared to forgive but not forget after 50 years, McKay was less than forgiving.
“Just thinking about it now, in some ways the 1973 Grand Final was pretty much a hollow victory for Richmond. To do what they did to Geoff early in the game . . . and to explain it away as ‘that was football back then’ is really a pretty weak excuse,” McKay said.
“That was nothing short of thuggery – and it wasn’t just the on-field guys responsible, it was the off-field guys who sent them out to do it. That was sanctioned by the club I’m sure and it’s pretty tragic when you think about it, that you’ve got to go to those lengths to win a football game.”
From left to right Vin Catoggio, David McKay, Andy Lukas, Geoff Southby and Peter Jones.
Lukas and Jones talked fondly of their experiences in ’72 – Lukas as a contributor to the win off the bench, Jones having turned in the best of his 249 games for Carlton as No.1 ruckman in his one-on-one with Craig McKellar.
Blue Brilliance is available at The Carlton Shop.
