Riley Beveridge gives readers a peek inside as Carlton champions past and present gather to celebrate the Club’s 160th year.

By Riley Beveridge for afl.com.au

OUTSIDE, in the bustling heart of Lygon St, a middle-aged man in a Carlton beanie peers through the window of an old school Italian restaurant. Almost instantly, his eyes seemingly pop out of his head.

From the outside, you could sense commotion happening within. But on a drizzly Tuesday morning in the middle of winter, no pedestrian – especially not one wearing a Blues bobble hat – could have anticipated what was actually going on inside.

There stands legends of the football club he is proudly representing. Anthony Koutoufides is holding court with Charlie Curnow, Craig Bradley is exchanging tips with Sam Walsh, Syd Jackson is laughing with Patrick Cripps.

Jacob Weitering is sharing a coffee with Bruce Doull, Sam Docherty is lamenting the weather with Ken Hunter, while Eddie Betts is describing a couple of his best goals to an audience of Jesse Motlop and Lachie Fogarty.

To the Carlton fan outside, the scene must have felt like a dream. But, as AFL.com.au experienced, the occasion was the culmination of months spent planning and preparing for the club’s 160th birthday celebrations.

Jacob Weitering is the first one to pull the strip out of a Carlton shopping bag.

The navy blue heritage guernsey, set to be debuted against Hawthorn in round 22 to celebrate the famous club’s 160th birthday, encompasses several eras of the club’s rich and successful history.

It’s marked by a popped collar and the vintage AFL logo of the ’90s. Even the club’s major sponsors, Puma and Hyundai, have bought into the fun and altered their logos to the looks of yesteryear.

“When you first arrive at Carlton as a player, it’s hard not to hear about the incredible history. You see not only the cups when you walk in, but the memorabilia of past players, from Norm Smiths to boots and jumpers,” Weitering says.

“We are a big club with a storied history, so to have some of the champions of the game come back and be involved with the club and something like this, it’s great. The guernsey looks fantastic. It’s going to be great to run out in a collared shirt, I know all the boys are pretty excited about it.”

Weitering holds the jumper up and admires its features. But his attentions are immediately diverted elsewhere, as David ‘Swan’ McKay wants a chat. The duo has been paired together on what is a unique day for the football club.

Weitering on meeting Doull, Heritage guernsey

Key defender Jacob Weitering joined Carlton Media for a chat at the Club’s Heritage guernsey launch.

As part of the birthday bash, Carlton has spent months partnering past and present players to celebrate the history of a club that has won a joint-high 16 V/AFL premierships.

Three members of the last flag-winning team – Anthony Koutoufides, Craig Bradley and Dean Rice – are in attendance, joined by Hall of Famers like Ken Hunter and Bruce Doull, premiership stars like McKay and Syd Jackson, as well as more recent club greats such as Matthew Kreuzer and Eddie Betts.

There is Blues memorabilia stacked everywhere around Johnny, Vince and Sam’s Ristorante in the beating heart of Carlton’s Lygon St and, on various occasions across the morning, the old film photographs and vintage VFL records are perused by the likes of Adam Cerra, Tom De Koning and Matt Kennedy.

Players, both past and present, are whisked away at random times to partake in a photoshoot displaying the fresh jumper. Each time a new group is asked to step into the back room, a different quip inevitably rings out from a former teammate.

“Looking sharp,” Carlton’s current skipper, Patrick Cripps, says to Koutoufides. The topic of that conversation quickly turns to Cripps’ dominance in 2024, the type that is reminiscient of Koutoufides way back in 2000.

Just metres away, Charlie Curnow is enthusiastically pumping the tyres of his former teammate Betts and his recent goalkicking exploits in the country leagues with Wangaratta Rovers.

Much of the organisation for the day’s event owes to the work of the club’s long-time administrator Shane O’Sullivan and the Spirit of Carlton association he’s heavily involved in, a group whose mission statement is to “bring together past players and officials” with the current crop to “renew and build the Carlton spirit”.

O’Sullivan’s work is evident throughout the morning. Past players have been asked to gather at 10am for a coffee, with current Blues players arriving around an hour later after a light session at Ikon Park earlier in the morning. As each of the current crop arrives, the respect they show to the club legends around them is noticeable.

Each player takes the time and care to renew acquaintances with every Carlton great in attendance. Even if it means delaying their scheduled photoshoot for a couple of minutes, no conversation is ever halted.

We've been waiting to share this one with you. And now, finally, the worst-kept secret in Carlton is out.

𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.

— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) July 22, 2024

The morning almost has the feel of a reunion and that’s because, for most of the players involved, it is. Of course, the older players have spent decades in each other’s company. But the new guys are just as familiar with those who have worn the navy blue jumper before them, owing much to O’Sullivan’s work.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of the club legends come through in the past and we look up to a lot of these guys,” Walsh tells AFL.com.au. “It’s pretty cool for the club to celebrate its history like this.”

There are hugs, laughs, war stories and even a few tips shared. Lachie Fogarty, in particular, spends much of the morning in the presence of Betts, eager to absorb any lessons that the 640-goal champion – and his former teammate – might be willing to share.

Carlton’s current crop would have been silly not to soak it all in. After all, there were seven premiership players and 17 V/AFL flags worth of experience in the room. But more would arrive shortly.

With the festivities starting to wrap up around lunchtime, in came a few surprise late arrivals. Unbeknownst to many in the room, Jackson had decided to follow the morning with a meal to celebrate his 80th birthday, opting to dine at the same restaurant the event had been held at.

And so, in walked a series of Carlton’s premiership greats of the 1970s – Geoff Southby, Percy Jones and Robert Walls among them – to celebrate their great mate. It was a slightly crazy and unexpected, though fitting way to end the morning.

You can celebrate with us early by joining the Spirit of Carlton Committee and past players at the annual Spirit of Carlton Luncheon on Friday 9 August. Purchase your ticket here.

But a more fitting way to celebrate Carlton’s 160th birthday celebrations, and to celebrate a season that has already promised so much, would be for the current crop of Blues players to add another premiership to the collection later this year. For Walsh, that remains the ultimate goal.

“That’s the motivation for all of us,” he says, admiring the photos of Carlton’s premiership teams of the past.

“‘Braddles’ was saying before, you go through ups and downs and you can’t look too far ahead. We want to be known as that sort of really tough, gritty team. You see the collars we’ll wear in this game and you want to be known as hard workers. We know we’ve got a lot of guys who are wanting the same thing.”

Achievements of two Premiership captains and a Premiership captain-coach acknowledged with induction into Hall of Fame.

By Tony De Bolfo,

THE CARLTON Football Club has seen fit to acknowledge the achievements of two Premiership captains and a Premiership captain-coach in the tumultuous years between two World Wars.

Accordingly, Billy Dick and Alf Baud, who led their teams to the respective back-to-back Premierships of 1914 and ’15 respectively – and Brighton Diggins, who commandeered the drought-breaking Premiership team of 1938 – have each been inducted into the Carlton Football Hall of Fame.

The Inductions of Dick, Baud and Diggins bring to 21 the number of Inductees so honoured in 2024 to mark the 160th year of Carlton’s existence.

Back in May, Carlton saw fit to Induct ten prominent figures of the 19th century Challenge Cup/pre-VFA period – Jack Baker, Jack Conway, John Donovan, John Gardiner, Billy Goer, Harry Guy, Robert Heatley, Tommy Leydin, Orlando O’Brien and George Robertson.

Then in June, the Club Inducted eight members of each of its famed Premiership teams of 1906, ’07 and ’08 under Coach/Secretary Jack Worrall’s watch – Les Beck, Jim Flynn, Fred Jinks, George ‘Mallee’ Johnson, Edwin Kennedy, Alexander Lang, Billy Payne and George Topping.

All Inductions were ratified by the Club’s Board on the recommendation of its Heritage Sub-Committee – as were the Inductions of Jack Carney, Neil Chandler and Brendan Fevola (the only surviving member of the coveted 24) in March.

Alf Baud

Born Nagambie, Victoria, September 20, 1892 – died West Heidelberg, Victoria, December 5, 1986

Recruited to Carlton from Eaglehawk (Bendigo Football League)

Carlton Player No. 276

At Carlton

53 matches, 16 goals 1913-1915

Premiership Player 1914 & 1915

Captain 1915

The legendary Roy Cazaly, in an article penned for The Sporting Globe newspaper in June 1937, wrote of Alfred Miller Baud: “He (Baud) could play anywhere. I think that Baud by comparison would have made (Haydn) Bunton look ordinary. Baud would have been a football sensation had it not been for the war.”.

Cazaly’s view reflected the universal respect Baud commanded, in a playing career interrupted by global conflict.

Baud made his way to Princes Park in 1913, on the end of a brief but beneficial period with Eaglehawk. He was adjudged best afield for the Hawks in the 1911 Bendigo Football League Grand Final – which in turned piqued the interest of a Carlton talent scouts – and by early 1913 Baud was fronting for training at the old Carlton ground.

Baud completed his Carlton senior debut in May 1913 – the 5th round match with the long gone University team at the MCG – and was prominent in the Blues’ 16-point victory. Finding his nice as a half-forward flanker (with the occasional run in the centre), Baud impacted significantly in his maiden season, contributing 12 goals from 14 matches and earning selection in the Victorian state squad.

However, Baud was relocated to half-back on the sayso of the three-time Premiership player Norman ‘Hackenschmidt’ Clark, who was appointed Carlton Senior Coach in 1914. Clark’s canny call proved correct, as Baud, playing alongside his captain Billy Dick, contributed to his team’s steady rise up the ladder.

Carlton accounted for Fitzroy by 20 points in the 1914 Semi-Final, but a bout of influenza cost Baud his place in the Preliminary Final team which surprisingly lost to South Melbourne the following weekend.

Under  the then competition rules, Carlton, as minor Premier, was entitled to challenge South in the Grand Final, and when Baud was pronounced fit he earned an automatic recall.

Carlton set a League record by naming nine first-year players in that 1914 Grand Final, and famously prevailed by six points in a low-scoring thriller.

That Jubilee Premiership was, however, tinged with apprehension and uncertainty. Only three weeks previous, Great Britain and France had declared war on Germany, and as a consequence Australia and the rest of the British Empire followed suit.

As thousands of young men answered the call of King and country through 1915, the VFL found itself in crisis,  with attendances plummeting and all clubs struggling to field competitive teams.

Carlton was not untouched – and in Round 10 of that troubled season also lost its captain Billy Dick for a mammoth ten-match ban imposed after he appeared on report for striking Fitzroy’s Jack Cooper. Suddenly Baud, at just 22, found himself captain of the reigning Premiership team.

That September, as Carlton prepared to defend its title, Baud, a telegraphist by profession, enlisted in the Army Signals section. Whilst waiting for the inevitable call-up, Baud magnificently led his contemporaries to a first-up semi-final victory over Melbourne and a tough Preliminary final win over Fitzroy – thereby ensuring a second successive Grand Final outing, only this time involving the competition minor Premiers and unbackable flag favourites Collingwood.

When Carlton toppled Collingwood by 33 points in the 1915 Grand Final – a contest described as “one of the grandest that had ever been seen in the finals,” it set the seal on Baud’s reputation as a player and leader of the highest calibre. Two days shy of his 23rd birthday, he etched his name into the record books as the youngest player to captain any club to a League Premiership – a record that would endure for 43 years until Collingwood’s Murray Weideman, at 22 years 216 days, completed the deed in the Grand Final of ’58.

The 1915 Grand Final would be the first of five won by Carlton at Collingwood’s expense, with the conquests of 1938, ’70, ’79 and ’81 to follow.

But the 1915 Grand Final would also prove to be Baud’s swansong. He was called into uniform in 1916, and by March of that year was on his way to war.

Mercifully, Sergeant Baud survived the horror – but only just.

In September 1917, his battery was locked in combat at a feature later known as ANZAC Ridge, when an enemy shell exploded nearby. A shrapnel splinter smashed into the side of Baud’s head, fracturing his skull and severely impacting the sight in his left eye. Quickly ferried to hospital, his life hung in the balance for some days – and were it not for his vim and vigor he wouldn’t have made it. But make it he did, and in March of 1918 he was repatriated to Australia and duly participated in the Armistice celebrations that November.

Baud died in December 1986 at the ripe old age of 94, having maintained a great connection with the game as a member of the Australian Football Council and a much-respected Tribunal panelist.

He is remembered as a modest, humble man who maintained a great love for Carlton and the game, and he thought much of both.

Billy Dick

Born Stawell, Victoria, July 16, 1889 – died Cheltenham, Victoria, November 18, 1960

Recruited to Carlton from Fitzroy (VFL)

Carlton player No. 255

At Carlton

100 matches, 35 goals 1911-1918

Premiership player 1914

Captain 1914-1917

William John (‘Billy’) Dick to this day remains a poster boy for the player who overcame physical disability to compete in the highest level of League competition. A renowned high mark, Dick was noted for his curious habit of turning his face side-on to the right as he leapt for the football – a perfectly understandable trait considering he lost sight in his left eye as the result of an accident in his schooldays.

Despite that obvious physical handicap, Dick strung together 153 senior League appearances (the first 53 of them for Fitzroy) topped the goalkicking tables at each club, and ultimately led Carlton to the 1914 Grand Final triumph.

It’s a little known football fact that when Dick was playing with bayside outfit Brighton at the time of Carlton’s 1906-07-08 Premiership three-peat, he actually wrote to the club requesting an opportunity to test himself at the highest level by way of a trial – only to be turned down by the then powers that be.

Following up with Fitzroy, Dick was quickly welcomed, and rewarded the Maroons’ faith with his aerial strength, versatility and competitive drive in three seasons through to 1910.

Carlton then launched a spirited effort to land the player it had effectively overlooked, and in 1911 it got its man.

By 1912, Dick’s leadership qualities were recognised with his appointment as Carlton Vice-Captain to Jack Wells – and he was called upon by Coach Norman Clark to take over the key defensive post at centre half-back. This was the making of Dick – an outstanding contributor in Carlton’s dramatic six-point win over South Melbourne on Grand Final day 1914.  The Argus correspondent covering that contest noted that throughout the torrid encounter, Dick was “cool and sure in defence’ and clearly the Blues most effective player.

Six months later, during Carlton’s round 10, 1915 clash with the Maroons at Brunswick Street oval, Dick was reported for striking Fitzroy’s Jack Cooper, and for using insulting language to the field umpire. At the subsequent VFL hearing, the second count brought a reprimand – but the first charge resulted in a 10-week suspension that effectively ruled Carlton’s captain out of the 1915 finals series. Club delegates were incensed by the penalty, and vigorously appealed the suspension on the grounds that it was unconstitutional – all to no avail. The League stood its ground, forcing Dick to watch on from the stands on Grand Final day as his Blueboys went back-to-back with an emphatic win over arch-rivals Collingwood.

Though the loss of vision put paid to his wartime enlistment aspirations, Dick continued to turn out for Carlton through those wartime years – and in July 1918, after handing the Club captaincy to Rod McGregor, Dick ended his on-field career where it had begun – at the Junction Oval.

In 1919, Dick chased the leather for VFA club Brunswick, in a landmark player swap that involved a talented wingman named Newton Chandler heading to Princes Park.

Forty-one years later, Chandler was still very much a part of Carlton when Dick passed away at the age of 71.

Brighton Diggins

Born Victoria Park, Western Australia, December 26, 1906 – died Mt Eliza, Victoria, July 14, 1971

Recruited to Carlton from South Melbourne (VFL)

Carlton player No. 540

At Carlton

31 matches, six goals 1938-1940

Debut : Round 1, 1938 vs Hawthorn, aged 31 years, 118 days

Carlton Player No. 540

Premiership player 1938

Captain-Coach 1938-1940

Brighton Diggins represented Carlton in just 31 matches through three seasons – yet he is forever remembered as one of the most influential football figures of his time.

He was born John Bryton Diggins in the inner Perth suburb of Victoria Park on Boxing Day 1906. He adopted his middle name after his family started using it, and he preferred the spelling of ‘Brighton’ after an uncle of the same name.

Diggins reportedly led a carefree, typical bush kid existence and grew into a tall, superbly fit physical specimen.

After representing his local junior club Jolimont, Diggins was invited to train with Subiaco, and first ran out in 1927. By 1929, the budding ruckman was universally considered a star of the WAFL – and when the Depression hit he accepted an overture to join South Melbourne, and he crossed the Nullarbor in late 1931.

Diggins joined a club on the rise as part of its famed ‘Foreign Legion’ of players recruited from all parts of the country. Not surprisingly, South swept to the 1933 Premiership, knocking Richmond over by 18 points, and Diggins and Bob Pratt were listed amongst the best afield.

The Swans continued as a footballing force, but through the ensuing three seasons stumbled at the last hurdle to be beaten in successive Grand Finals by Richmond and Collingwood (twice). Their cause wasn’t helped through injuries to key players – amongst them Diggins who broke a leg above the ankle – and as a consequence they went into a tailspin.

Carlton’s then Vice-President Kenneth Luke identified Diggins as a future club leader and set out to get his man. Luke’s doggedness was ultimately rewarded when Diggins overlooked a more lucrative offer from the Perth Football Club, and agreed to terms to Captain and Coach the Blues in 1938.

Diggins’ positive presence impacted from the outset. A teammate Creswell (‘Micky’) Crisp observed that “from the moment he walked into that training room, he showed himself a gentleman”.

“He (Diggins) was determined. He was forceful if needed. He never was a bully. His soft way of speaking might have suggested to some a lack of leadership (but) that was their funeral. Diggins was a man’s man – that’s where he succeeded. He drove us, he led us, but he always went with us. He was game. He never once asked us to go in where he would not go himself. I might have said in a shorter fashion that he won our confidence”.

By this time, Diggins was 31 years old, but he pushed himself as hard as he pushed his team. Training was relentless, yet innovative and when the ’38 season rolled around the Blues were fit and ready. The turning point came mid-season, when Carlton rallied late in the game to snatch a one point win over arch-rivals Richmond in a fierce, physical encounter. Brimming with confidence, the Blues completed the home and aways on top of the ladder and three weeks later faced Collingwood in the Grand Final.

Before the encounter, Diggins told his players: “Every man has a job to do and will not let Carlton down. We have no champions. Every player helps his teammate and puts the team first”. In the end, and before a record crowd of 96,834, Diggins’ team won a thriller by 13 points – securing a drought-break Premiership after 23 years.

Prior to the ’38 Grand Final, Diggins had declared that win or lose, it would be his last game. Luke would not hear of it however, and convinced his on-field leader to push on for two more seasons. In the end, he managed just five more matches before World War 2 intervened, and duty called, and his brief but successful time at Carlton was over.

During the war, Diggins served as a Warrant Officer with the Army. At war’s end he coached Mornington Peninsula League outfit Frankston, commandeering his teams to three successive Grand Finals. For a time he also covered League football as a correspondent for The Argus.

Brighton passed away in Mt Eliza at the age of 64 in  1971. Forty-one years later his daughter the late Lauraine Diggins became the first female to be elected to the Carlton Football Club Board of Directors. 

Leon Berner passes away at age 88.

By Tony De Bolfo,

FORMER CARLTON centreman Leon Berner, an 18-game player who completed his senior debut for the club almost 70 years ago, has died at the age of 88.

Originally recruited from Melbourne High School, Berner was just 13 when he broke into Essendon’s Under 17 outfit in 1949. Four years later, he joined Carlton, turning out for the Under 19s team under the watch of coach and former forward Harvey Dunn. The “unders”, which included fellow future senior players Brian Buckley and Vic Garra, and the Olympic and Commonwealth Games high jumper and Dallas Cowboys punter Colin Ridgway, reached the Grand Final in 1954 – only to  fall three points adrift of Footscray in controversial circumstances.

Berner made the cut for the Percy Bentley-coached Carlton seniors as a 19 year-old the following season, completing his debut against Richmond at Punt Road Oval in Round 11, 1955 – on the same afternoon Keith Warburton and the late Dave Browning played their last.

Carlton’s 4th Round match of 1957, against Geelong at Princes Park, would double as Berner’s 18th and final senior game, although in five instances as 19th and 20th man (pre-interchange) he failed to get a run.

In 1958, Berner headed north along Sydney Road to Coburg, where he represented the VFA team under the watch of coach and former Essendon footballer Doug Bigelow. The following year he crossed the border, joining Deniliquin in the Murray League,  and was part of the Rams’ team which lost the ’59 Grand Final against Les Mogg’s Cobram. In the ensuing years he chased the leather for Richmond and Carlton Rovers in the Sunday League, and in 1962 Vermont then coached by a former Carlton teammate Doug Beasy.

In 1964, Berner accepted the role of captain-coach with Metropolitan League club Fairfield – a three-year tenure abruptly ended in 1966 when he broke down with a knee injury. Five years later, the Vermont-based Berner imparted his football knowledge with Heatherdale Juniors. Away from the game, Berner pursued his career as Chief Clerk for the Melbourne Harbor Trust.

Berner’s daughter Joanne Bloomer remembered her father with great affection, and acknowledged his loyalty to his old club.

“Dad was an amazing man. He was loveable, caring and thoughtful. Family was everything and Carlton was everything,” Bloomer said.

“He grew up in Brunswick and lived with his family at 63 Laura Street, so he was within walking distance of the ground. He was a senior player at Carlton for just three seasons – 1955, ’56 and ’57 – but he always supported Carlton, his children have always supported Carlton and so too have his grandkids.”

Bloomer recalled joining her father at IKON Park for a past players gathering a few years ago, during which time he was photographed at his old No.20 locker – a locker later used by Premiership players Wes Lofts, Geoff Southby and Fraser Brown, and now Elijah Hollands.

But that wasn’t Berner’s only cameo appearance, for as Bloomer explained “he loved coming back” – and a photograph dated 2016 shows Berner and Browning standing shoulder to shoulder on the hallowed turf during a Spirit of Carlton past players reunion.

Berner died at Rowville Manor after a short illness on Monday. His wife of 65 years, Dawn, died in 2020.

He is survived by husband daughters Julie and Joanne, son-in-law Glen, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

He was the 694th player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level since the formation of the VFL in 1897.

JOIN THE SPIRIT OF CARLTON COMMITTEE AND THE GREATS OF THE CARLTON FOOTBALL CLUB AS WE CELEBRATE OUR LIVING LEGENDS.

Tickets are on sale now for this annual luncheon, with a special match-day package also available where we will celebrate our 160 years as a Club!

FUNCTION DETAILS:

Date: Friday 9 August 2024

Time: 12pm – 3pm

Location: Victory Room, Marvel Stadium

Dress code: Smart casual

PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS BELOW.

Event ticket | $195 per person

Spirit of Carlton Annual Luncheon Ticket

Includes:

Two-course meal including beer, wine and soft drinks

Live entertainment

Reconnect with Carlton greats

BUY NOW/ENQUIRE

Eight former players have been acknowledged for their incredible achievements.

By Tony De Bolfo,

THE CARLTON Football Club has seen fit to acknowledge the incredible achievements of eight former players who played their role in each of the Club’s history-making hat-trick of Grand Final victories in 1906, ’07 and ’08.

The Club has recognised that in this its 160^th year of its existence, a moment presents to fittingly acknowledge Worrall’s hat-trick heroes by inducting them into its coveted Hall of Fame.

It’s more than 125 years since the Carlton teams, under the watch of legendary Secretary/Coach Jack Worrall earned the 1908 pennant to complete the first Premiership three-peat a little more than ten years after the then VFL’s formation.

In what was the Club’s first golden era in League competition, Worrall’s teams were universally lauded. The former Richmond ruckman (and later President) Barney Herbert, writing for The Sporting Globe six years after Collingwood completed the Premiership four-peat, noted of Worrall’s teams: 

“ . . . to be fair and honest, and looking impartially at team strength and balance in every part of the field, I say without hesitation that the best team I have ever seen playing football anywhere or at any time was that of Carlton in the years 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910 and 1911.

“I do not think that that side will  ever be excelled in the League for strength, balance and brilliance. No team playing today can show the football genius of the Blues in those seasons.”

Worrall himself, writing for The Australasian in 1932, deserves the final say.

Of the three Carlton Premiership teams under his watch, the great man wrote: “They were a band of athletes, with many special all-rounders, perhaps the best combination that has ever been seen on the field”.

The “Hat-Trick Heroes” Inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame are as follows:

Les Beck;

Jim Flynn;

Fred Jinks;

George Johnson;

Ted Kennedy;

Alexander Lang;

Billy Payne; and

George Topping.

It should be noted that a total of 11 players represented Carlton in each of its three successive Grand Final victories, with George Bruce, Norman ‘Hackenschmidt’ Clark and ‘Champagne’ Charlie Hammond having been previously Inducted in 2006, 1989, and 1991 respectively.

Worrall was also Inducted in 2006.

The recent Induction of Carlton’s eight Hat-Trick Heroes follows the Inductions in March of Jack Carney, Neil Chandler and Brendan Fevola and the Inductions in May of prominent 19^th century figures Jack Baker, Jack Conway, John Donovan, John Gardiner, Billy Goer, Harry Guy, Robert Heatley, Tommy Leydin, Orlando O’Brien and George Robertson.

A further three Inductees – a Carlton Premiership Captain-Coach and two Premiership Captains post-1897 – will be so honoured later this year.

All Inductions have been ratified by the Club’s Board on the recommendation of its Heritage Sub-Committee.

You can learn more about our new inductees here. 

Carlton is mourning the loss of dual premiership player, John Goold.

By Tony De Bolfo

THE CARLTON premiership player John Goold – the long-locked, long-striding centre half-back whose overt flamboyance on the football field was more than matched by his glitz and glamor off it – has died after a long illness at the age of 82.

Goold featured in two of the most famous of all Carlton victories – the drought-breaking Grand Final win of 1968 over Essendon, and 1970’s come-from-behind Grand Final conquest of Collingwood, in what was his 108th and final on-field appearance for the Club.

Through the swinging sixties, the sartorially-elegant Goold forged a glorious reputation as football’s first fashionista. A fashion designer away from the game, Carlton’s cravat-collared clothes horse was once depicted by The Age cartoonist Sam Wells in his dark Navy Blue guernsey, shorts, socks and boots – and an accompanying top hat, cane and spats.

Wells dubbed Goold ‘Mr. Debonair’ and Lou Richards went with ‘Mr. Elegant’ – but Goold is forever remembered as ‘Ragsy’ – a moniker given him by his Carlton teammates in homage to his involvement in the rag trade.

Hailing from Healesville in the heart of Victoria’s idyllic Yarra Valley, John William Crosbie Goold was, from the outset, a sportsman of renown. At Melbourne Grammar he excelled at tennis, athletics, football and cricket, but he also developed a penchant for the traditional field pastime of polo and the rough and tumble of fox hunting as an adept horseman.

A fervent Melbourne supporter, Goold somewhat surprisingly lacked a genuine confidence in his footballing ability.  “If I thought I was good enough I would certainly have gone to Melbourne,” he said in an interview years later, “but I honestly didn’t think I would ever amount to anything in this game. Cricket and tennis were the games that really interested me”.

After graduating from Grammar, Goold headed home to Healesville, and chased the leather for the Yarra Valley Bloods. In 1962 he featured prominently in their Grand Final victory – which in turn attracted the discerning eye of many a talent scout.

“Incentives were offered elsewhere,” Goold recalled, “but I gravitated to Carlton – partly because the deep blue of their guernsey attracted me, but mostly because of the good advice I got from people who even then were longsighted enough to predict that big things were ahead for this club.”

A little known tale told by the late Ken Hands involved rival club Richmond’s overture to Goold, at a time when the player was still very much a free agent.

“Goold came to training with us at Carlton and had made arrangements to go to another club (Richmond) for dinner that night,” Hands told this reporter some years ago.

“I asked the secretary to leave out a recruiting form for me, but he didn’t do it – he’d already gone home and locked up his office. So I parked my car outside the window of his office, got on the roof of the car and climbed up a water pipe to get in his window to grab the paperwork.

“John (Goold) then signed the form and I made certain it was lodged at Harrison House that night before he met up with the other club.”

Goold himself corroborated Hands’ version of events. “He (Hands) wasn’t a young man at the time, he held down quite a responsible job and here he was climbing up a pipe”.

At Princes Park, Goold was handed the woollen No.11 previously worn by the likes of Rod McGregor and Laurie Kerr, and later by fellow centre half-backs Bruce Doull and (now) Mitch McGovern. 

He donned the guernsey for the first time into Round 7 of 1963 – the match with Footscray at the inhospitable Western Oval – having been named on a forward flank alongside two Brownlow Medallists John James and Goold’s fellow Healesville recruit Gordon Collis. 

Goold booted a goal on debut in the visitors’ hard-fought eight-point win, but the future rebounding defender would put just two more over the goal umpire’s hat in his eight-season senior Carlton career.

By his own admission, Goold found his feet after Ron Barassi was sensationally appointed Carlton captain-coach – particularly so after Collis’ health issues created a vacancy in the key defensive post in the second half of season ’65.

Goold always believed Barassi’s investiture served as the catalyst for a football cultural revolution, of which he was incredibly fortunate to be a part.

“I think you could say that 1965 was my first year of League football,” Goold said. “That’s the way I felt – that’s the way I reacted to Barassi.”

Goold’s wind-catching ebony mane, juxtaposed with the pristine white anklets and wrist guards, earned him cult status amongst those behind the fence – but it was his hard-running rebounding, take-the-game-on panache that endeared the left-footer to the good football judges more than any aesthetic.

Not surprisingly, Goold was adjudged third behind John Nicholls and Sergio Silvagni in Carlton’s 1965 Best and Fairest count, and backed it up in ’66 with state selection for the Hobart Carnival. In Hobart he was adjudged runner-up to the West Australian Barry Cable in the Tassie Medal for the carnival’s best, and he capped it off with selection on a half-back flank in the coveted All-Australian team.

The premierships of 1968 and 1970 bookended Carlton’s 1969 Grand Final loss – and Goold played under real duress through the ’69 and ’70 September campaigns. In ’69 he laboured through with shin splints, and in ’70 he was only cleared to play on Grand Final morning, having copped a burst blood vessel and serious swelling to the shin after copping a wayward kick in the previous weekend’s prelim.

In the euphoric aftermath of the 1970 Grand Final, Goold was ferried off to hospital for further treatment to the injury. Within the sanitary confines of the ward, he resolved to give the game away.

After changing tack to pursue a career in farming in Victoria’s western district, Goold formed a diversified pastoral company and purchased a magnificent complex called Ballangeich Run at nearby Ellerslie. As his passion for farming and livestock grew, he began breeding top quality polo ponies, represented Australia in international competition, and further built on his already handsome reputation as a Hunt Master of the hounds – hounds he also bred.

As for his footballing prowess, Goold earned the greatest of praise, beginning with John Nicholls no less.

“He was a good player,” said Nicholls, Goold’s captain in the 1968 and ’70 Grand Finals. “He played centre half-back and he played on the best of them, Royce Hart included . . . and he more than held his own with them all.”

Former Carlton President Ian Collins, who with Robert Walls, Wes Lofts, Barry Gill, Kevin Hall and Goold made up the back six on Grand Final day 1968, considered his late teammate as one of a kind.

“They broke the mould with ‘Ragsy’. He was unique. He was flamboyant, he had flair and he was ‘Mr Elegant’ on and off the field,” said Collins, who shared in the experiences of 75 senior Carlton matches with Goold.

“I was at Carlton before ‘Ragsy’ and it took him a while to break into the seniors, but he was great company from the outset. I used to board at ‘Vonny’ Curtin’s place at 19 Berry Street, Coburg with Maurie Sankey, Gordon Collis and John Reilly, and John Goold and Wes Lofts always lobbed on Sunday nights for dinner. ‘Vonny’ used to cook for us and she called us her boys.”

Collins recalled that Goold and Collis, with the support of a well-heeled club sponsor, pursued an off-field venture in nylon stocking sales – thereby introducing Goold to the clothing industry.

“‘Ragsy’ then went into business with a Jewish woman who took him under her wing, and he started producing his own range of lingerie. That’s when Lou dubbed him ‘Mr Elegant’,” Collins said.

“As a teammate he was fantastic. I loved ‘Gooldy’ as a footballer because he could always do the extraordinary. He stood around 6’2” in the old measurement, he was scrawny like Michael Tuck at Hawthorn, and he could play on the big blokes and the small blokes.

“He was loyal to a fault and I think he liked me because I always tried to protect him.”

Three years ago, Collins and Nicholls were part of a troupe of football club identities – amongst them Carlton premiership players Ken Hunter and Mark Maclure – who completed a three-hour bus trip to Goold’s rural property to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Nicholls said that those in attendance truly savoured the moment with their extravagant host, as together they reminisced about the golden years of Barassi and spoke with great optimism of today’s Carlton under Voss.

“It was a great catch-up. We talked about old days and the culture of Carlton, and I talked about how positive I am with things at the Club now looking up,” Nicholls said.

Until the end, Goold kept a fervent interest in his football club’s fortunes and those of its on-field custodians of today. As Collins said: “He wanted Carlton to succeed in the extreme, and he called a spade a spade”.

An address delivered by Goold to the players at a 2008 Spirit Of Carlton event truly reflected his genuine empathy for his football club – and the message he imparted to the players on that occasion could so easily apply to today’s participants, in keeping with Michael Voss’s “play your role” edict.

“The environments, social values, ambitions and outcomes of a football club can be easily explained by drawing on the simple analogy of a wheel – and the fundamental importance of the axle to the structural impact it has on the pure performance of the wheel to move forward,” Goold said at the time.

“All 22 spokes are attached to the axle and are in turn attached to the wheel’s circumference. If one of the 22 spokes does not perform, the wheel will immediately wobble and fail.

“Players. Look upon yourselves as a single spoke. With a small singular drop in attitude by one spoke the wheel will immediately start to wobble and games are lost.”

John Goold was the 754th player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior League level. He was awarded Life Membership of the Club in 1970 and inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

He is survived by his partner Deborah and sons Ed and Jock.

The Carlton senior players will wear black armbands into Sunday night’s match with Essendon at the MCG as a mark of respect to the late John Goold.

A special agreement which translated into an historic arrival at Princes Park.

By Tony De Bolfo,

ON GRAND Final day 1979, Greg Kazuro was part of the Bryan Quirk-coached Carlton Under 19 team that landed a Premiership in the curtain-raiser to the seniors’ Grand Final when “Jezza’s Blues” rolled Collingwood on a heavy MCG deck.

Amongst those with whom Kazuro savoured Premiership success was a kid from the same neighbourhood to which he was zoned – Thomastown’s David Glascott – whose 173-game senior career would take in the Premierships of 1981, ’82 and ’87.

From 1980 to mid-1983, Kazuro turned out in 49 games for the Carlton reserves, mainly as a key defender – and in getting a call-up for a couple of AFC night series appearances came as close as anyone could possibly get to earning a senior call-up for the home and aways.

“Yes, I was close,” said Kazuro of is prospects of breaking through to the ones. “But I remember reading something in the paper along the lines of ‘Greg Kazuro is finding it hard to get a game ahead of Bruce Doull and Geoff Southby’, which is probably the reason why the club decided to move me on.”

Regrettably, Dame Fortune didn’t deal Kazuro the hand he’d hoped – but the son of a Belarusian-born father and English-born mother was a pivotal figure in this club’s relentless and ultimately successful cross-state pursuit of a scrawny 19 year-old key forward whose Carlton CV would one day read two Premierships, longest-serving captain and highest career goalkicker, the great Stephen Kernahan.

Kazuro’s part in the Kernahan play happened a tick over 40 years ago, after the then Carlton Chairman of Selectors the late Wes Lofts issued Shane O’Sullivan with the now famous edict, “Find me another Royce Hart”.

Kernahan was promptly identified, but the player had no real interest in traversing the South Australian border until the Bays landed the SANFL Premiership – mercifully in 1985 to end a 12-year drought.

Which was why the Blues were hell-bent in helping get Glenelg over the line, and offered the outgoing Kazuro a football lifeline to realise the objective.

“It happened in 1983 mid-season, Kazuro recalled on a visit to IKON Park this week. “Wes Lofts came up to me and said, ‘Look, there’s an opportunity to go across to Glenelg and gain some senior experience.

“At the time Graham Campbell, who had actually coached me to an Under 11 Premiership with the Lalor/Thomastown Community Youth team whilst coaching Fitzroy reserves and later seniors all in the one year, was coach of Glenelg . . . so the move worked out very well for me.

“Disappointingly I didn’t stay on after that ’83 year, but I played with Stephen and David Kernahan over there and it was nice to be connected with Stephen Kernahan coming to Carlton.”

Beyond his brief tenure at Glenelg, Kazuro chased the leather for VAFA outfit Bulleen-Templestowe, and then turned out in the Diamond Valley League. Years later he watched his son Nathan represent the Northern Blues and be part of a Premiership with St Bernard’s Old Collegians, “and ironically the A-Grade Premiership  they won happened here at the old Princes Park ground”.

More than forty years after the event, Kazuro bears no malice to Carlton for moving him on.

As he said: “Things have to fall your way, it’s often about the timing – you know, right time, right place – and I was blessed to be at Carlton, in esteemed company with some of the legends of the game”.

Thesedays you’ll find Kazuro in the outer at Carlton games – either at the MCG or Marvel – cheering on his beloved Blueboys as he’s done for most of his 63 years.

Why Carlton? Kazuro puts it  down to the seismic influence of one man, the late great Ronald Dale Barassi, whom he saw in action for the Redlegs in the 16th round match of August 1964.

“The first game I ever saw was Melbourne versus Essendon at the MCG when my grandfather took me,” Kazuro said.

“I saw this bull running around named Ron Barassi and I thought to myself ‘I really like this player’ – so much so that when I started playing junior football I wore a pair of Ron Barassi plastic footy boots and when Ron crossed to Carlton I followed him.”

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Brownlow Medallists met when Gordon Collis linked up with Patrick Cripps at IKON Park.

By Tony De Bolfo

IT’S 60 years this August that Gordon Collis was declared the winner of League football’s highest individual honour. Today, Carlton’s oldest surviving Brownlow Medallist returned to the old stomping ground where he posed for an historic photograph with the Club’s most recent Medal recipient Patrick Cripps.

Now 83, Collis – the former Carlton centre half-back – rubbed shoulders with Captain Cripps, coach Voss (Brisbane’s 1996 Medallist), assistant coach Aaron Hamill and a number of current players including Tom De Koning, Alex Cincotta and Mitch McGovern – a fellow key position defender with whom Collis compared notes.

Collis also viewed the current squad’s training session at IKON Park with another welcome visitor, the four-time Carlton premiership ruckman and Club best-and-fairest Peter ‘Percy’ Jones. He later posed in front of locker No.17 – the number he wore on his back in 95 games through seven seasons under coaches Ken Hands and Ron Barassi.

“It’s been quite memorable,” Collis said of the experience. “To have been made to feel welcome is a big thing and the players and coaches I have met have been so engaging.”

By his own admission, Collis – a Carlton Life Member and Hall of Fame Inductee – maintains a fairly low profile – and part of the motivation in returning to his former Club was to be pictured with Cripps to appease a long-time business acquaintance across the Nullarbor.

“My friend in Albany has an interest in football history and had asked if I had a photograph I could share,” said Collis, who tomorrow heads to Albany on a five-week road trip.

“So I thought a bit outside the box and have been very fortunate to jump in a photo with Patrick Cripps.

“I’ve always been impressed with Patrick as a leader. He’s been quite outstanding. There’s no doubt he sets a terrific example on the field, both at ground level and in the air.”

Recruited to the Club despite Fitzroy’s advances, Collis joined Carlton on the eve of the 1961 season and ironically completed his senior debut against the Lions in the second round of that year.

Collis learned of his 1964 Brownlow victory by way of a radio broadcast from VFL headquarters at Harrison House – the votes having been called by the former Carlton dual Premiership coach Perc Bentley, the then chairman of the League’s Permit and Match Arrangement Committee.

Then 23 and a game short of his 70th for the Blues, Collis secured the coveted Charles Brownlow Trophy (the club’s third after Bert Deacon and John James) with 27 votes from Hawthorn’s Phil Hay and Esssendon’s Ken Fraser, the joint runners-up with 19.

Six days later, Collis was named Carlton best and fairest ahead of Ian Collins and John Nicholls.

Having earned the respect of the football world for his consistent showings at centre half-back, Collis was destined to turn out in just 26 more senior matches for Carlton, before illness precipitated his retirement at just 26 following the 1967 Preliminary Final loss to Geelong.

It’s a little-known fact that Collis actually laboured with a duodenal ulcer from his teenage years and through the duration of his entire League career.

“I played my whole career with the ailment and it was pretty destabilising at times,” Collis recalled.

“I actually had a haemorrhage at the time that I played and there was no cure for it, so all I could do was somehow control it with diet. I would have dearly loved a longer playing career, but with that issue and a stress fracture in the foot I was quite proud of the fact that I was able to live with that adversity.

“With medical science advancements as they are, I was fortunate in the long run, as in around 1990 it was discovered there was a bug in the system that caused the issue, and if it was knocked out there was a good chance of recovery. A gastroenterologist at St Vincent’s named Greg Whelan, set me up on this course of antibiotics and I haven’t had a problem since.”

In pondering the 60th anniversary of his Brownlow victory, Collis conceded “I sometimes have to scratch myself as a realisation that this time has actually gone by”.

And as he said: “I actually doubted whether I’d actually reach this age, because I had a bit of a chequered run with my health”.

Old contemporaries have paid tribute to former Carlton centreman, Berkley Cox.

By Tony De Bolfo

OLD on-field contemporaries have paid wonderful tribute to the uncompromising former Carlton centreman Berkley Cox, who died in Launceston General Hospital on Monday 13 May at the age of 90. 

Wearing the No.9 of the current captain Patrick Cripps, Cox represented the club in 102 senior matches between 1958 and 1965, including the 1962 Grand Final. He was named amongst the Blues’ best players afield in all four matches of the ’62 finals campaign and in ’65 was named Best Clubman and awarded Life Membership.

Cox was recruited to Carlton from NTFA club City-South, the club having unsuccessfully sought to lure his father Albert ‘Tracker’ Cox 32 years earlier. In an interview with this reporter nine years ago, Cox recalled sharing digs with a number of Tasmanians who had crossed Bass Strait to try their luck at Princes Park.

“We lived in a house in Melbourne with another friend of ours who’s passed away called Allan Wilson. It was called ‘The Tasmanian Embassy’ because all the Tassie players who used to come over went there,” Cox said.

“There were a few blokes over from Tassie at the time – Maurie (Sankey), John Heathcote, Johnny Chick and myself.

“One thing I remember is that when we had to move out of the flat in Coburg we had to get rid of the empty bottles (longnecks) – and when the chap came to collect them he said he’d never seen so many. He said, ‘Do you mind if I ring The Herald (evening newspaper)?’, to which we replied ‘You better not’.”

Cox was selected for his first Carlton senior match against the old enemy Collingwood, on the afternoon of Saturday, August 9, 1958 at Princes Park. He was named on a half-forward flank in the starting 18, which included the club’s greatest footballer John Nicholls in a back pocket.

“Berkley was a lovely man. He was four years older than me and he wasn’t all that young when he came over,” Nicholls said.

“His best place was in the centre and by gee he was tough. He was a clone of Ian Collins and he had a bit of trouble at the Tribunal on occasions. I reckon he got four weeks for accidentally bumping a boundary umpire named Cliff Green.

“Berkley was always a great Carlton man. Even after returning to Tassie he remained a great Carlton advocate and he always kept an eye out for a future Carlton footballer.”

A case in point – the prodigiously-gifted Campbell Town footballer and future dual Carlton Premiership player Brent Crosswell. Though Crosswell and Cox never met, the former acknowledged the latter as “the man who alerted Carlton of my existence”.

The three-time Carlton Premiership rover, club Best & Fairest and Team of the Century rover Adrian Gallagher recalled Cox’s welcome presence when ‘Gags’,  then 18, ran out for the first time as a senior player, against St Kilda at the Junction Oval in May 1964.

In that particular game, Cox whacked St Kilda ruckman Carl Ditterich of all people – an offence which later earned him a four-match suspension – and as Gallagher reminded in a previous interview: “Berkley was my size, but he looked after me. He was at locker number 9 and I was at 10”

“Cox’s Clone” – the Carlton Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Legend, 1968 Premiership player and former CEO and President Ian Collins – vouched for Nicholls’ assessment of the Tasmanian’s on-field physicality.

“Berkley used to throw more punches in a game of football than a boxer in a ten-rounder,” Collins said.

“Not long after Berkley got to Carlton he broke a leg in one of those practice matches in the sticks, so he had to overcome that setback. He played half-forward and in the centre, and in the ’62 Grand Final he was part of the centreline of Kick, Cox and Collins.

“Berkley was always popular amongst his teammates. He was a good friend of Bob Crow’s. Unfortunately another has fallen from the perch.”

Cox’s on-field Carlton career was bookended by years of sterling service to City-South, and his contributions to the Redlegs and to the game in Tasmania speak for themselves –

140 matches 1954-57, 1966-69;
Captain-coach, 1968-69;
NTFA premiership player 1954, 1956, 1966;
City State premiership player 1954, 1966;
Club Best and Fairest 1967;
Tasmanian National Carnival representation 1966 (Hobart);
Six-time Tasmania state representative 1955-66;
City-South Team of the Century (centre); and
Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductee 2005.

On his return to the Apple Isle from Carlton, Cox married his beloved June Keep – a fellow Tasmanian who died last year – and together they raised five children; Felicia, Jennifer, Linda, Stuart and Sarah. Linda was born with Down Syndrome which prompted Cox to coach the football team at St George’s special school, and he was a lifelong supporter of the Special Olympics.

As indeed he was of Carlton.

“Dad loved Carlton. Being a Life Member was a source of great pride,” Felicia said this week.

“He maintained friendships all of his life with old footballers and those associated with football like Ian Collins, ‘Bobby’ Crowe, Paul ‘Badger’ Luttrell, Graeme Wilkinson and Wesley Lofts. My brother is named Stuart Wesley after him and his four sisters; Marie (deceased), Joyce, Barbara and Suzanne are all staunch Carlton supporters.

“Like a lot of ex-footballers he became a publican. He taught us children a lot of life skills – like how to use your elbow to disable your opponents without alerting the umpire! In later years he enjoyed collecting Apple labels and oil paintings, growing tomatoes and strawberries.”

In April 2019, Cox jetted in from Launceston with his son to for what would be his last official Carlton engagement – a gathering of Life Members at Kew Golf Club. On that occasion he was photographed for posterity with another fellow Taswegian, the four-time Carlton Premiership ruckman Peter ‘Percy’ Jones.

Perhaps the Carlton Secretary Gerald Burke put it best in the 1965 Annual Report when, in noting Cox’s recognition as Best Clubman, he wrote: “This newly innovated award has been won this year by a player who is renowned for his value as a Clubman in all respects, and as a player who gives support and encouragement on the field when it is most required. To Berkley we trust this award conveys the attitude of all at the Club towards him”.

The Carlton senior players will wear black armbands into Friday night’s match with Sydney at the SCG as a mark of respect to the late Berkley Cox.

Tom Carroll, Craig Davis and Mark Maclure inducted into the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame.

By Tony De Bolfo,

FORMER Carlton forwards Tom Carroll, Craig Davis and Mark Maclure are amongst the 100 players, coaches, administrators, umpires and media personalities recently inducted into the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame.

The Inductees and Legends were formally inducted at a function attended by more than 350 people at the SCG last Friday night.

Tom Carroll was a leading goalkicker in both the Riverina and the VFL. In 1956, and at the tender age of 17, Carroll lined up at full-forward for Ganmain and was part of its ’56 and ’57 back-to-back Premiership teams. He booted 103 goals for the club in 1960 and was recruited to Carlton on the cusp of the ’61 season.

Carroll represented the old dark Navy Blues in 55 senior matches from 1961-63, and earned Carlton’s first Coleman Medal (awarded retrospectively) in his maiden season with 54 goals. He was the Club’s leading goalkicker in each of his three seasons – 54 goals in 1961, 62 in 1962 and 27 in 1963 – before returning to the family farm in Ganmain.

Carroll accepted the role of Ganmain Captain-Coach and led the Maroons to premierships in 1964 and 1965, topping the goalkicking in both seasons. He took on the Grong Grong Grong Matong coaching role from 1968 to 1970, and then returned to Ganmain as non-playing coach in 1980.

Eighty-four year-old Carroll was unable to attend Friday night’s ceremony, but in reflecting on his induction declared: “You play your footy, you finish your career and they give you a tick”.

Hailing from Ross and recruited from Launceston in 1972, Craig Davis followed his cousin Brent Crosswell to Carlton – and there he inherited the No.23 worn by Bert Deacon, the club’s inaugural Brownlow Medallist and then Secretary. Davis represented the team in 42 senior matches through three seasons, was a member of the 1973 Grand final team and took out the club’s goalkicking honours with 45 in his final season. 

A head-knock sustained in the pre-season period of 1976 put Davis’ playing career on hold, and he ultimately resolved to pursue his playing career with North Melbourne for what was a ten-game cameo through 1977 and ’78. He then represented Collingwood in 102 matches and booted 251 goals through five seasons for the Magpies, and rounded out his League career with nine appearances for the Swans.

Davis spent the better part of two decades putting his heart and soul into New South Wales football. Following an Assistant Coaching role with the Swans, he assumed the role of NSW AFL development manager from 1988-90 before stepping up as its General Manager from 1991-2000. More recently, he coached and mentored young players at the Maroubra Saints Junior Football Club, amongst them the Swans’ Errol Gulden.

“What a great night it was,” said Davis of the induction ceremony at the SCG. “Forty-eight of the 60 living Inductees fronted up, including ‘Plugger’ (Tony Lockett), and I got a photo with him. I told Plugger that between him and I we kicked 1400 and if we’d kicked straighter it would have been 2000.

“Mark Maclure was also there, which took me back 50 years. I remember in ’74 when Maclure came to Carlton and I was his mentor. I was 19, he was 18 and it seems like only yesterday.”

Mark Maclure was first identified by East Sydney after taking out the Sydney competition reserve grade best and fairest award as a 17-year-old. Recruited to Carlton, Maclure completed his senior debut in Round 13, 1974 – the first of 243 through 13 seasons – amongst them the Grand Final triumphs of 1979, 1981 and ’82.

Maclure earned the Best Clubman Award in 1981, and again in 1986, the year he captained Carlton. Following his retirement, he gave back as an assistant coach at Brisbane and Sydney, and maintained his involvement with the game through his radio and television work. In 2019, Maclure was named on interchange in the New South Wales AFL’s greatest team.

In his appreciation of the Induction accolade, Maclure reflected on his years with East Sydney and the local League.

“I there as a junior, played Under 19s at 13 then Reserves at 15 and the main games at 16. East Sydney was a terrific football club and the president Jack Dean was a legend,” Maclure said.

“In those days, work took players there from WA, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland, so there was a good cross section of players. Does it seem like yesterday? No, it seems like 50 years.”

Nine of the 100 inductees were elevated to Legend status in the Hall – Haydn Bunton Snr., Richard Colless, Terry Daniher, Jack Dean, Harry J. Hedger OBE, Tony Lockett, Paul Kelly, Jim Phelan and Ralph Robertson.

In 2020, AFL NSW/ACT established the New South Wales Australian Football Hall of Fame to commemorate the 140-year anniversary of the NSW Australian Football Association.

According to its charter, the Hall of Fame recognises and enshrines players, coaches, umpires, administrators, volunteers and media representatives “who have made a most significant contribution to the game of Australian Football in NSW since its inception in 1880”.

Inductees of the NSW Australian Football Hall of Fame cover all levels of football in New South Wales, from the elite to the community.