The great Australian game has lost a little of its lustre today, with the untimely passing of Peter Bosustow.

By Tony De Bolfo

THE GREAT Australian game has lost a little of its lustre today, with the untimely passing of one of its most spectacular exponents, the two-time Carlton premiership forward Peter Bosustow.

Bosustow, 67, died in Perth early this morning after a long illness. He leaves behind his beloved wife Shelley, son Brent and daughter Brooke who were all with him to say their goodbyes.

The son of Carlton’s 20-game ruck-rover of the mid-1950s Bob Bosustow, ‘The Buzz’ set Princes Park alight when on the cusp of the 1981 season the Perth forward joined Claremont’s Ken Hunter in crossing the Nullarbor to follow his football dream.

Both were instant football sensations – Hunter with his caution-free high-flying, Bosustow with his spectacular acrobatics and canny goal sense. Under David Parkin’s watch as Senior Coach and Mike Fitzpatrick’s on-field leadership as Captain, the fellow Western Australians Hunter and Bosustow featured in the Blues’ famous back-to-back triumphs of 1981 and ’82 – and their names are forever associated with those coveted all-conquering teams.

Hunter, Carlton’s Best and Fairest winner in his maiden season of ’81, said today that in thinking of Bosustow, “I think of what a character ‘Buzz’ was and how much he took to the big stage”.

“I look back on him in his first year, winning Mark of the Year, Goal of the Year and a Grand Final – him being a half forward, me being a half back,” Hunter said.

“He used to joke that I was the extrovert and him the introvert, when it was obviously the other way around. He was a unique character and a rare football talent in equal measure. That talent was obvious in Perth but it went to another level when he came to Melbourne.

“The Carlton people loved ‘Buzz’ and he loved Carlton.”

Bosustow’s Carlton career lasted just 65 senior matches through three seasons – his father’s illness requiring him to return to his native Western Australia – and yet few players across the competition made such an impact through such a short tenure. ‘The Buzz’ effectively exploded onto the scene, and his on-field impact was seismic. As a truly energised competitor with the capacity to turn a match with a quarter or two of football magic, Bosustow’s impact was both dramatic and immediate.

Blessed with a precocious football talent and a healthy ego to match, ‘The Buzz’ was a football showman who unhesitatingly walked the talk. That his passing should follow Sunday’s meritorious victory over Geelong would not be lost on Carlton supporters with long memories, for it was against the Cats that he completed that extraordinary Mark of the Year/Goal of the Year double in his maiden season – the huge grab over John Mossop in the shadows of the Heatley Stand in Round 18 at Princes Park; and the instinctive snap over the shoulder after smothering Ian Nankervis’ kick from the pocket in the Semi-Final at VFL Park.

Parkin, in paying tribute to an enigmatic player “who took me to the ends of the earth in both directions”, recounted that goal at Waverley to in part tell the whole of Bosustow the footballer.

“Peter was an exceptional talent. I’ve coached some outstandingly talented players, but on his day Peter could do things on a footy field few could emulate – a case in point that smother, gather and goal.

“Peter had remarkable capacities in  the air and on the ground, and was probably as exciting a player to watch as we ever had.

“What was really good was that despite the ups and downs of a coach/player relationship we remained really good mates and shared so much over the journey. We used to call, text or email eachother a lot, particularly through the course of his illness which began 18 months ago. As a player he tested me like nobody else, but he was always quick to apologise to me and the players and it was just a bit sad that he decided to go home. But he was a gem of a bloke.”

On returning to Perth in 1984, Bosustow would again top the Western Australian Demons’ goalkicking table and represent his home state in contests with both Victoria and South Australia. A return to Carlton was later mooted, but neither Perth nor Carlton could come to terms on a clearance fee, and his ’84 year was brought to unfortunate finality when he put his fist through a sheet of plate glass.

The lure of returning to his Princes Park playground did however remain robust and in the summer of late ’85 he gave it another crack, at the time the Blues completed the recruiting coup of Bradley, Motley, Kernahan and Dorotich. But the comeback was short-lived and by the time season ’86 had rolled around Kernahan had claimed his old no.4 guernsey.

Notwithstanding his extraordinary achievements as a Carlton footballer, Bosustow also excelled with Perth from 1975-1980, 1984-1985 and again in 1987. There he put 375 over the goal umpire’s hat and earned the Redlegs’ goalkicking honours three-times. He was also named in Perth’s Team of the Century.

PETER BOSUSTOW

At Carlton

Player No. 888
Guernsey No.4
65 games, 146 goals, 1981-1983
First game: Round 1, 1981 vs Richmond, aged 23 years, 152 days
Final game: Round 21, 1983 vs North Melbourne, aged 25 years, 296 days
Premiership player 1981, 1982
Night premiership player 1983
Club Leading Goalkicker 1981 (59 goals) 

A lost photograph has been discovered of a former Carlton player.

By Tony De Bolfo

OF THE 1246 men to have represented the Carlton Football club at senior level since the VFL competition’s inception year of 1897, photographs of just 107 remain outstanding.

That number has now been revised to 106, with the discovery in the lead-up to Anzac Day of the first known image of former Carlton footballer Henry Charles (‘Harry’) Powell – appropriately enough in military uniform.

Thought to have been taken in late 1918, the damaged and worn sepia photo depicts Harry (with moustache) and an unknown fellow soldier mounted on camels in the shadows of the Great Sphinx and one of the Pyramids of Giza.

The precious image was supplied by Harry’s great-grandson Ken Brownrigg, who noted that Harry served with the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment from 1917 until his discharge after the war’s end.

Born in Malvern in July 1878, Henry Charles Powell’s first known footballing forays involved the inner-city Amateur club Fitzroy Crescent. Joining nearby Carlton in 1901, the then 22-year-old earned senior selection in Round 6, having been named on a half-back flank alongside the captain Ernie Walton for the match with Melbourne on the MCG.

This was the first of just eight senior appearances for Powell – each one of them losses – with the last of them in Round 2, 1902 against South Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval.

Fifteen years later, Powell, at 39 years two months, volunteered for active service. With The Great War nearing an end, Powell was allocated to a draft of reinforcements for Australia’s iconic Light Horse Brigade – and in early 1918 he bid farewell to his wife Margaret, and boarded a troop ship bound for the Middle East.

However, Pte. Powell saw little active service. Not long after his arrival in Suez aboard the Ormonde, he contracted malaria, and was rushed to hospital with a soaring temperature and a racing heartbeat. He later reported back for duty, but after a few weeks was struck down with pneumonia – and by the time he completed hospital stints in Port Said, Damascus and Cairo the guns had fallen silent.

In June 1919, Pte. Powell was finally discharged. At Kantara he boarded the ship Essex, and by late July completed the short walk down the gangway and back on to Australian soil.

Powell’s great grandson Ken Brownrigg, who graciously availed the photograph to the Carlton Football Club archive, was able to shed some light on the returned soldier’s post-war years.

“Harry was born in Malvern, but lived mainly in Northcote – in Gladstone Avenue, Clarke Street, Charles Street and Mansfield Street,” Brownrigg said.

“He had a number of jobs throughout his life – from bread carter to barman, railway worker and general labourer. He and his wife were parents to eleven children, not all of whom survived.  One son Henry, nicknamed ‘Goog’, later played for Fitzroy, but sadly smashed his knee on debut and never played again.”

Tragically, Powell’s life was brought to premature end in June 1930.

“Harry fell asleep on the last train out of the city,” Brownrigg explained.

“When the train pulled into Croxton Station he awoke and quickly got off the train, but it was one station too early. He tried to get back onto the train, but fell between the train and platform and was crushed . . . and he died of injuries in St Vincent’s Hospital shortly afterwards.”

Almost 100 years after his passing, and through the generosity of his great grandson and the emergence of a treasured sepia photograph, the life and legacy of Carlton footballer and returned serviceman Harry Powell can truly be acknowledged.

“My family is proud of Harry’s AIF service especially given he was nearly 40 when he enlisted. He must have been aware of the horrendous casualties the AIF suffered and therefore the dangers he might face after he volunteered,” Brownrigg said.

“Family folklore holds that he was a courageous bloke on the footy field too. Every time I sit in the stands at the MCG I think of Harry running on with his mates in 1901, and doing his bit for the Blues.”

Doug Ringholt, the former Carlton wingman/half-back flanker of the early ’60s, and nephew of the Blues’ 1947 Premiership rover Jack Conley, has died at the age of 82.

By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Doug Ringholt, the former Carlton wingman/half-back flanker of the early ’60s, and nephew of the Blues’ 1947 Premiership rover Jack Conley, has died at the age of 82.

Joining Carlton as a budding Under 19 player in 1960, Ringholt worked his way through the ranks to earn selection for his first senior match, as 20th man in Round 6, ’63, against Geelong at Princes Park.

It would be the first of just four senior appearances for Ringholt, who wore Conley’s No.35 in each of them – and as he later lamented, “five got you a club blazer”.

That said, he was incredibly proud to wear his maternal uncle’s 35 on his back.

In December 2019, Ringholt and his wife Dot completed an emotional homecoming from Yarrawonga to the place he remembered as Princes Park, and was photographed for posterity by his Uncle Jack’s locker.

“Gee the facilities have changed a lot,” Ringholt conceded at the time, “but even when I was playing back in those days we all thought what we had was the best available.

“They were great days, both in terms of football life and social life . . . and I guess we had a lot more freedoms than the players enjoy these days.”

Ringholt’s formative years were spent in the family home at 22 Campbell Street, Coburg. They took in schooldays at Moreland Primary and later Coburg Tech, where he chased the leather conveyance with an old teammate the late Wes Lofts.

At Coburg Tech, Ringholt’s football philosophies were shaped by the legendary Hawthorn mentor John Kennedy sen., the school’s resident coach at the time.

“‘Kanga’ (Kennedy) really left an impression,” Ringholt recalled. “When I laid injured on the ground in a school game he told me something about getting up. At the time I thought ‘He really means it’ and I learnt later on that his message was that you don’t let the opposition know you’re hurt.

Zoned to Carlton, Ringholt embarked on his football journey with the unswerving support of his father Stuart (a winner of Coburg’s Best & Fairest in 1940 and six-time West Coburg Premiership player) and of course Uncle Jack.

“I remember having a kick-to-kick with Uncle Jack in the street, and him telling me ‘can you hit the top rail of that fence with a stab kick?’. I said to him ‘I don’t really think so’ and he replied ‘when you can you might be a League footballer’.

“I ended up pretty good stab kick, but I don’t think I ever got to hit the top rail.”

Ringholt turned out for the Carlton Under 19 and reserve grade teams under the watch of the respective coaches Tom Booker and Jack Carney. He broke into the Ken Hands-coached Carlton senior team in that sixth-round match of 1963 with eventual Premiers Geelong. Starting on the pine with John Reilly, Ringholt got the chance to pit his skills with the likes of Denis Marshall and the late ‘Polly’ Farmer . . . and the Blues went down by a goal.

Ringholt’s next senior foray came a fortnight later, against Collingwood when 38,000 spectators crammed into Princes Park on the Queen’s Birthday weekend. The Blues went down by two points after resident rover Bruce Williams fluffed a kick for goal on the final siren – but the game was marred by an ugly incident in which the resident field umpire Ron Brophy was hit with a half-full longneck hurled from over the fence.

As fate would have it, Ringholt’s third appearance came against Collingwood, in the fifth round of the ’64 season at Victoria Park. Named on a wing alongside Ian Collins, Ringholt featured in Carlton’s best and earned a call-up for the following game against St Kilda at the Junction Oval – his last senior game for the club on a day the three-time Carlton Premiership rover Adrian Gallagher completed his senior debut.

“I thought I was doing very well up until half-time, before I got in the way of Gordon Collis and Darrel Baldock,” Ringholt said of the encounter.

“They hit me from behind and I ended up flat-out on the cricket pitch, which left me with a back injury and semi-concussion. Ken Hands said to me ‘How do you feel?’ and I told him ‘Not too well’, so I exited the game at half-time and have probably regretted it ever since.”

Through the Carlton network, Ringholt was sounded out about pursuing his career interstate – either to Tasmania or to Western Australia. Ringholt pitched for Perth because of the warmer weather, representing Claremont in 114 senior appearances in the WAFL and committing 46 years of his life to Western Australia life, which took in his experiences as a sailor involved in ocean racing.

On returning to the Garden State, Ringholt rediscovered his passion for all things Dark Navy. Of Carlton and what it meant to him, Ringholt replied that it was all about the people.

“The club was such a formative part of my life,” he said. “The friendships with the players I met have been ongoing . . . ”

Doug Ringholt was the 753rd player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level since the formation of the VFL in 1897.

Great conversation with former Carlton thirds player and country champion, Derrick Filo.

A precious photograph of one-game Carlton centre half-forward Gerald O’Halloran, complete in his dark Navy Blue matchday attire, has this week surfaced – 100 years to the round since he turned out for his only senior appearance.

By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

A precious photograph of one-game Carlton centre half-forward Gerald O’Halloran, complete in his dark Navy Blue matchday attire, has this week surfaced – 100 years to the round since he turned out for his only senior appearance.

The image is thought to have been taken in the backyard of O’Halloran family home at 7 Frank Street Coburg, on or at about the time that Gerald, wearing the No.19, lined up at centre half-forward in the third round match with Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday, May 16, 1925.

Gerald’s son Bob, himself a Carlton Under 19 and Reserve Grade player from 1960-’63, paid IKON Park a visit this week to share the never-before-published image and shed some light on his father’s short but  varied life.

“It’s quite an historic photo. I think my Mum might have taken it with her box brownie,” said Bob, a Carlton Member for almost 50 years who was accompanied by his wife and ardent Blues supporter Jenny.

“It’s precious in a sense, but there is no emotional attachment as I was only seven when Dad died.”

One of seven O’Halloran siblings, Gerald was born in the north-eastern Victorian town of  Benalla in 1902. His grandparents, both hailing from County Clare in Ireland, eventually settled in Benalla, having set sail for Australia in the early 1850s at the height of the potato famine.

Away from the game, Gerald found fame as an accomplished flautist and clarinettist, and, as Bob declared, was a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. “I don’t have any of his recordings,” Bob lamented, “but I do know he was for a time an accompanist to Dame Nellie Melba.”

Gerald’s musicianship took him to Sydney town where he also found time to kick a footy in local competition – and it was from Sydney District that he was recruited to Carlton between the wars. Beyond Princes Park, Gerald furthered his on-field career at Coburg, and he later served the VFA Lions as a committeeman and treasurer.

He also found work in a senior position with the taxation department, but illness cruelly brought his life to an end at just 47 years of age.

“Unfortunately Dad developed pancreatic cancer and died in early 1950. I was seven at the time and didn’t know much about Dad or his family because when he died my mother gravitated to hers, and lived in Port Fairy,” Bob said.

“About six or seven years ago I found Dad’s grave in Melbourne General Cemetery, and a memorial has since been placed there.”

Bob graciously availed to the club’s archive a list of Under 19 team rules for the 1960 season, including Round 10 which reads: “players must be financial at all times – especially before the end of season trip”.

He also shared another precious photo of the 1962 Carlton reserve grade team, pictured in front of the since-demolished Robert Heatley Stand. Bob features in the pic, together with the likes of Leo Brereton, Martin Cross, John Goold, Ken Greenwood, Doug Ringholt and Vasil Varlamos, and the resident Coach Jack Carney.

By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

BETTY Plumridge is now 90, her older sister Shirley Orbuck 93 – and while the passing years may have curtailed the ladies’ efforts to front up on matchdays, that shared love of all things Carlton has not waned.

For years the two girls followed their father George Armstrong to Princes Park (and anywhere else that the Carlton players ran out) – and although it’s more than 40 years since George passed on, Betty and Shirley have seen fit to honour his memory by donating the precious Carlton artefacts and publications he collected and safeguarded from as far back as the late 1800s.

Central to the lot of coveted items is a blue cap with distinctive white piping and wire-embroidered “VFL Premiers 1907” script on the front panel, which was awarded to an unknown member of Jack Worrall’s Grand Final-winning Carlton Premiership team that completed the back-to-back leg of the 1906-’08 Premiership hat trick.

Coincidentally, 1907 is the year Armstrong was first recorded as a Carlton Member. He later served the football club as a Board Member (1951-1964) and Vice-President (1960-’64); and was also honoured with Life Membership in 1957.

Similarly, Armstrong was a lifelong devotee of the Carlton Cricket Club. A Second XI team member through the 1920s, he also served as a Committeeman from 1949 and Vice-President from 1959 – combining duties with those as Chairman of Match Committee and Ground Management.

He was also honoured with Life Membership of the CCC in ’61 – all the while serving as Company Secretary of Sutton’s House of Music, which later amalgamated with Brash’s under his watch.

“Dad’s love of cricket was great, but his love of football was equally strong, and as with his brothers he loved Carlton,” Betty said. “Dad’s brother Uncle Wal used to walk around selling tickets at the ground, and Uncle Frank, who is also a Life Member, was on the door for many years.

“Like them, Dad was incredibly loyal to the club and he gave them a lot – and he also did a lot for the kids coming through in the Northern Junior Football League.”

(George Coulthard and Horace Clover, courtesy of the George Armstrong Collection)

As the Armstrong family home was located at nearby Coronation Street in West Brunswick, the sisters were regular patrons at Princes Park from as far back as the 1940s when Carlton Baseball teams shared the ground with their senior counterparts on matchday.

“My sister and I used to go to Carlton with our Mum Ada and Dad. It was handy having someone like Dad on the committee as you could always get tickets,” Betty recalled.

“I remember seeing players like Jimmy Baird walking into the rooms carrying their Gladstone bags. I remember old-timers like Charlie Davey and ‘Mickey’ Crisp, although I never saw them play. In the later years the whole family would gather in the Social Club for pre-match lunch.”

The  Armstrong sisters recently arrived at their decision to commit their father’s items to the Carlton archive due to changing circumstances. 

“About five years ago we thought about selling the cap in the hope that if Carlton made the Grand Final we could buy a couple of tickets and an overnight’s accommodation at the Hilton so that we could wander down to the MCG . . . but obviously that didn’t materialise,” Betty said.

“We stopped going to the football three or four years ago, and recently decided that maybe Carlton was the right home for the cap. It’s nice to known that the cap is there now.”

Included in the Armstrong collection are publications and scrapbooks from as far back as George’s childhood.

Within their sepia-toned pages are glorious photographs of former football club greats – from an incredibly rare image of George Coulthard, Carlton’s first genuine star of the pre-VFL years in civilian attire, through to a full length portrait of Horace Clover, the football club’s greatest player between the wars.

There’s even a postcard pic of “A Young Armstrong”, right arm over, sending down a cricket ball whilst wearing a cap and matching tie.

For the sisters, the preservation of such artefacts at Carlton serve to keep their father’s spirit alive at Carlton – and few have given Carlton more than George and his two girls.