WHEN Carlton ruckman Mark Pittonet readies himself for the 2023 finals campaign he’ll do so in the knowledge that he’ll be upholding the tradition set by a three-time club premiership great of almost 120 years past with whom he has a newfound connection.

Pittonet, who tonight chests the banner for his 50th Carlton game, recently discovered that his partner of two and a half years Elise Franetic is the maternal great granddaughter of ‘Ted’ Kennedy – one of 11 players to have famously featured in each of the Club’s hat-trick of Grand Final victories of 1906, ’07 and ’08 under the watch of the legendary Secretary/Coach Jack Worrall.

“I knew that my partner Elise’s great grandfather played for Carlton, but I didn’t realise how good he was. Knowing what I know now, it’s made me wonder: ‘Had I been listening? How did I miss all this?’,” Pittonet said.

“Elise reckons she told me about Ted Kennedy a while ago and that I brushed it off thinking that he might have only played one game. Then on a visit to her grandparents’ house a couple of weeks ago, they mentioned that they had a bit of stuff on Ted and I asked if I could have a look. I then realised he was a great figure in Carlton history.

“I’ve always known that Elise’s granddad was a diehard Carlton supporter. Now I know why. Elise herself was an Essendon supporter, but she’s now a converted Carlton fan.”

Born to Scottish migrant parents in Parkville in 1877, Edwin Page Kennedy chased the leather for St Jude’s in his early football life, before accepting an invitation to take part in a trial match with Essendon. In no time Kennedy found his niche in the ‘Same Olds’ senior team, but injury cost him his place in its 1901 Grand Final victory over Collingwood – and though he played in the 1902 Grand Final contest, the Magpies turned the tables and won the flag.

The following year, Kennedy severed ties with Essendon after 43 games and joined Carlton on Worrall’s recommendation. This would prove a masterstroke on Worrall’s behalf as Kennedy set foot on Princes Park with a point to prove.

Ted Kennedy, Carlton player No.163, lined up in the opening round of the 1904 season, against Fitzroy at Princes Park. The old dark Navy Blues were on the end of a frightful 94-point thumping on that Autumn Saturday afternoon and would lose to the same team in the 1904 Grand Final.

But Carlton, under Worrall, was on the rise.

The following year, Ted’s younger brother Jim (later Sir James) Kennedy joined him at Princes Park – but his 23-game Carlton career would be overshadowed by his post League years as a chartered accountant, Mayor of Brighton and State Minister for Transport, whose overall service to community was rewarded with a knighthood.

As a fleet-of-foot wingman, Kennedy, in tandem with Rod McGregor and George Bruce, formed part of the most acclaimed centrelines ever to take the field. Though injury deprived McGregor his place in the 1907 Grand Final victory, Kennedy and Bruce were there for the premiership three-peat – the 1906 Grand Final victory over Fitzroy, the ’07 win over South Melbourne and the ’08 triumph at Essendon’s expense.

Kennedy, McGregor and Bruce took their places in the Carlton 18 which met South Melbourne in the 1909 Grand Final – coincidentally the earliest known VFL game to survive on film – and cruelly fell two points adrift of a fourth flag on the trot.

That game would be Kennedy’s 109th and last at Carlton – and after nine seasons with two clubs, he’d participated in six Grand Finals.

Having served as Carlton Players Delegate in 1908, Kennedy accepted the role of Vice-President in his final year as a player – the same year the club committee presented him with a cheque and silver kettle (and the players a dinner set) in recognition of his marriage to Gertrude Lewin.

Kennedy served as Carlton Vice-President through to the end of 1913. He died at the age of 70 in July 1948 – 10 months after the Blues’ Fred Stafford sunk Essendon by a point with his trusty snap in the dying seconds of the 1947 Grand Final.

Pittonet’s historic football connection does not begin and end with Ted Kennedy. The Blues’ big man also revealed that his own maternal great grandfather Frank Gibson represented Fitzroy in the ruck through 63 games between 1928 and ’32 – a truism that has piqued the 27 year-old’s interest in the game’s rich history and his own League lineage.

“I’ve known about my connection with Frank Gibson for years but never really talked about it,” Pittonet said. 

“I’m not sure if it’s a fable, but I was told as a kid that Frank originally played as a ruck-rover who brought about a change in the rule – that only ruckmen could compete at the centre bounce because he used to run in and grab the ball before it hit the deck. Whether that’s true or not I have no idea – but I’m going to run with that.”

FORMER Carlton footballer Matthew ‘Skinny’ Lappin, thesedays domiciled in Queensland, had hoped to be at Carrara’s Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon to see his Blues potentially lock in a finals berth for the first time in a decade with victory over the Suns.

But football has ironically deprived him of that opportunity, as Lappin is the resident coach of QAFL outfit Surfer’s Paradise, which meets Aspley at the Hornets’ Graham Road Oval in Carseldine at 2pm.

“The timing isn’t great, but it is what it is,” Lappin said. “In any event our place on the ladder can’t change so I’ll have my phone handy in a corner of the coach’s box to keep tabs on what’s happening.”

Watching on from afar these past eight weeks, Lappin has been “blown away like everyone” with Carlton’s incredible metamorphosis.

“I didn’t see this coming,” said the Blues’ prodigiously-gifted 196-gamer. “It’s been a total 180-degree turnaround and a real credit to everyone involved who stuck fat and kept it together – and they’re playing a sustainable brand of football by the look of it.

“I’ve loved watching it and I’ve been pretty vocal about it on my Twitter account. They’ve kept building with the addition of the right pieces.”

Originally drafted by St Kilda at selection 40 in the 1993 AFL Draft, Lappin strung 55 games together before being traded to Carlton with selection No.58 (later used to draft Ian Prendergast) in exchange for its selections Nos.22 and 53 (later used to secure James Begley and Troy Schwarze) in 1998.

The Blues knew what they were getting with the prodigiously gifted Chiltern footballer, whose Carlton tenure would cover 196 games through nine seasons – amongst them the 1999 preliminary and Grand Finals – and would result in him earning All-Australian and international honours.

Following his on-field retirement, Lappin remained with Carlton as an assistant coach, and as a playing assistant coach with the Northern Bullants.  He served as Carlton’s forward line coach from 2008 until 2010 before completing four years as an assistant coach at Collingwood from 2011.

Lappin relocated to Queensland and in early 2015 was appointed Gold Coast’s Head of Development. In August of that year he again donned the boots, this time for the Suns’ reserve grade team as a result of the team’s player shortages due to injuries.

In 2018, Lappin pursued his coaching interests as Head Coach of Southport Sharks’ Junior AFL Academy before accepting the coaching role with Surfer’s Paradise, and as self-confessed sun-lover he considers he’ll be in Queensland for the long haul.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

BRIAN Walsh – a member of Carlton’s 1973 Grand Final team, and the Club’s leading goalkicker and Best Clubman in the same year – has passed away in Bendigo after a long health struggle. He was 72.

Joining Carlton from Sandhurst on the eve of the 1970 premiership season, Walsh was amongst the Club’s solid intake of Bendigo Football League recruits in the days of zoning. While he would never savour premiership glory, he was part of a solid core of Bendigonians central to Carlton’s on-going on-field successes – Sandhurst’s Trevor Keogh, Geoff Southby and Paul Hurst; Golden Square’s Ray Byrne and Greg Williams; Eaglehawk’s Greg Kennedy, Rod Ashman and Des English; and South Bendigo’s Peter Dean.

When he signed on at 18 in late 1969, Walsh had just earned the Bendigo League’s Best and Fairest award, so the Carlton recruiters knew what they were getting. By the opening round of 1970 Walsh was ready to go, and together with his old Sandhurst teammate Hurst, he completed his senior debut under coach Ron Barassi’s watch.

Named alongside Alex Jesaulenko in a forward pocket for the season opener, Walsh contributed two goals to Carlton’s winning scoreline of 21.19 (145) – and ‘Jezza’ booted a lazy nine.

As a canny forward, Walsh played his part in many a Carlton victory and he knew where the goals were. In Round 8, 1973, against South Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval, he put eight goals over the umpire’s hat, and in Round 16, 1974, against Collingwood at VFL Park, he booted another seven – five of them in the second quarter.

Trevor Keogh, Carlton’s two-time premiership player and dual best and fairest, knew Walsh from their secondary schooldays.

“Brian was a couple of years younger than me, but we went to school together,” Keogh said.

“We were friends at Marist Brothers in Bendigo where we played school football and later at Sandhurst with others like Kevin Higgins, Kevin Sheehan and Geoff Southby. Our schoolboy teams were always pretty good, but not in the same class as Assumption.

“When we were playing juniors and seniors we’d go by bus to grounds at Echuca or Rochester. I reckon I played three years in the seniors and Brian played two. He won the Michelsen Medal for the Bendigo League in 1969, the same year he won the Sandhurst Best and Fairest. I was the B and F at Sandhurst in 1968 and Southby in ’70.”

Keogh remembered Walsh as “a very smart footballer” both in Bendigo and at Carlton.

“He wasn’t quick, but he was clever with his hands and feet, and he could kick either foot. He played close to the goals – he mainly played as a forward, with the occasional run in the centre,” Keogh said.

“He was a good bloke too.”

On the eve of the 1975 season, Walsh saw fit to change clubs. He made the short diversion to Windy Hill and tallied another 51 senior games through four seasons for Essendon.

Walsh ended his on-field career at Werribee, earning was crowned best and fairest in 1981 when he was also captain-coach.

On the strength of his friendship with former Carlton premiership player and coach Robert Walls, Walsh accepted a role as Walls’ assistant at Fitzroy, and coached the Lions’ reserve grade teams between 1982 and ’84.

He later gave something back to the Bendigo League, taking Golden Square to the premierships of 1988, ’89 and 2001 – and there would also be coaching stints with Wangaratta, Campbells Creek, White Hills and Kyneton.

In October 1997, Walsh was one of 19 Carlton players named in Bendigo’s 23-man VFL/AFL All Stars Team.

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.

IN THE long and storied years of both Carlton and Collingwood, Heath Scotland’s connection with each of the game’s greatest rivals is truly unique.

History records Scotland as the only footballer to have featured in the final AFL games for both clubs at their respective inner-city venues.

In his maiden season as a League footballer, ‘Scotto’ represented the Magpies in their last hurrah at Victoria Park in Round 22, 1999 – and he was there for the Blues when the curtain came down on Princes Park in Round 9, 2005.

In the first instance, Scotland, together with the likes of the-then captain Nathan Buckley, Paul Licuria, Mal Michael and Paul Williams, heard the-then Collingwood coach Tony Shaw reflect on Victoria Park’s rich history in his pre-match address prior to the match with Brisbane. “The era stops today,” Shaw told his players at the time, “and you have been given the greatest honour of all time to represent your club”.

The Magpies, with just four wins from 21 starts, were propping up the ladder back then, and in third-placed Brisbane they encountered a Leigh Matthews-coached outfit boasting captain Michael Voss and Craig McRae – today’s Carlton and Collingwood Senior Coaches respectively.

Not surprisingly, the Carringbush couldn’t go with the Lions (8.4 (52) to 13.16 (94)) – and when the final siren sounded the old ground’s death knell, the black-and-white flag flying between the Sherrin and Rose Stands was lowered for the last time.

As with Collingwood in 1999, Carlton ended the season in last position with just four wins to show for 2005 – and on that historic Saturday afternoon in May, Scotland – having crossed to Carlton two years previous – heard Denis Pagan pay homage to Princes Park and its people in his pre-match address.

Sadly, Scotland experienced another defeat in that historic moment in time, with Carlton falling 18 points adrift of the Neale Daniher-coached Demons (amongst them the late Colin Sylvia and the best afield Brock McLean) 13.14 (92) to 15.20 (110) – and at game’s end he joined the likes of Anthony Koutoufides, Eddie Betts, David Teague and Lance Whitnall in forming a guard of honour for the great John Nicholls as he raised the match-day ball in the shadows of the Robert Heatley Stand.

In recalling his very personal dates with destiny at both Victoria Park and Princes Park, Scotland conceded: “It’s a great trivia question, isn’t it?”.

“It’s a long time ago now, but what I do remember about those final AFL games at Victoria Park and Princes Park was the raw passion and emotion of the supporters who saw their grounds as religious places,” Scotland said.

“The last game at Victoria Park happened in my first year as a player and I was energised and excited, but as with the game at Princes Park the team lost, and having played in both of them I was disappointed we couldn’t get the job done.

“Looking back, it was great to be involved in those final games. It was real privilege to play at those venues period, let alone for the last time.”

For the record, Scotland, then an 18 year-old Western Jets hopeful, was taken by Collingwood with its third selection (No.44 overall) in the 1998 national draft. He would represent Collingwood in 53 senior matches between 1999 and 2003 and earn the Joseph Wren Memorial Medal for reserve grade best and fairest in 2001.

At the end of season 2003, Collingwood traded Scotland to Carlton in exchange for the Blues’ third round selection (No.35 overall) in that year’s AFL draft. The Magpies nominated South Fremantle’s Brent Hall with selection No.35, but Hall managed just one senior appearance for them – the Round 16 match of 2005 against Essendon on the MCG.

But Scotland represented Carlton with distinction in 215 senior appearances between 2000 and 2014, during which time he earned the John Nicholls Medal in 2012.

Scotland said people have often asked how both the Carlton and Collingwood clubs compare, and he has a stock response.

“To be honest the clubs are very similar – so much history and tradition, so much expectation.”

“When I first joined Collingwood and then Carlton the venues were all run down, but even then I was mindful of the history of both of them and I found them eerily similar.”

Scotland is one of 30 players known to have played senior VFL/AFL football for both Carlton and Collingwood since the League’s inception in 1897.

The following is a senior Carlton-Collingwood combine of the 22 players including Scotland (plus four emergencies and a further four top-ups):

There are also seven further players who have represented both sides at AFLW level: Christina Bernardi, Lauren Brazzale, Brianna Davey, Alison Downie, Amelia Mullane, Nicola Stevens and Amelia Velardo.