FORMER Carlton forward Tony Thiessen, who turned out in 13 senior matches through the Blues’ Centenary year of 1964, has died at the age of 77.

Originally hailing from the Huon Valley and an on-field rep for the now-defunct Sandy Bay Football Club, Thiessen crossed town to Princes Park on the eve of the ’64 season after a brief seven-game stint with Melbourne.

Thiessen’s cousin and Carlton Member Jeremy Thiessenrecalled that his lifelong friend was recruited to the Redlegson the recommendation of the three-time Premiership player Peter Marquis (then acting as the club’s Tasmanian scout) – and that he earned two Brownlow votes on debut at the MCG (Round 4, 1963) when he took the honours on Fitzroy’s Kevin Murray.

Jeremy added that on the Demons’ ’63 end-of-season trip to Honolulu, Tony was advised by the resident coach Norm Smith that he had been earmarked for centre half-back the following season – which didn’t sit well with the player who considered himself a forward. However hewas eventually delisted.

Jeremy said. “He then met up with the Carlton coach Ken Hands, a deal was struck and he was recruited to the club as a centre half-forward.”

As fate would have it, Thiessen earned his first senior call-up for Carlton for the Round 3 match against the Redlegs on the MCG. Wearing the No. 24 now featured on Nic Newman’s back, he was named on a flank in a front six comprising Kevin Hall, the Gill brothers Barry and John, Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller and the late Maurie Sankey.

Tony Thiessen and John Gill thwart Mike Delanty’s marking attempt, in the 12^th round match of 1964 between North Melbourne and Carlton at Arden Street. The Blues went down by a point.

Regrettably, the visitors managed just four goals for the afternoon in what was a 46-point hiding inflicted by Smith’s men.

Thiessen would get to belt out the Carlton song just three times through the course of the ’64 season, until his last hurrah in the 17th round against St Kilda – the same game in which the future club best & fairest and three-time Premiership wingman Garry Cane completed his senior debut in dark navy.

The Saints got up by 16 points in that one, in what would be their last triumph over the Blues for the next 29 years.

Gordon Collis, Carlton’s Best & Fairest and Brownlow Medallist in the ’64 season, remembered Thiessen as a physically robust footballer.

“He wasn’t overly quick, but he was a fit and strong young bloke. He stood around six one in the old measurement and he was pretty well-built. I got the impression that he was as hard as nails,” Collis recalled.

“He was also a great toiler. You couldn’t say he was one of those blokes who didn’t get the best out of himself. He was pretty honest and a good team player.

“I suppose ‘Barass’ came in with his standards. He was always looking at the big picture and considering which players, Tony included, would be part of a future Premiership side. On that basis, perhaps Tony found it a bit hard to go on.”

The Carlton team, 1964. Thiessen is in the second back row on the far left. 

When 1965 rolled around and Barassi took the helm as Carlton captain-coach, Thiessen’s papers were effectively stamped. 

Thiessen then relocated to Arden Street, where he managed four more senior appearances for North Melbourne to round out his League career.

In 1966, Thiessen furthered his football with the VFA’s 1st Division reigning Premier Waverley, then coached by the three-time Melbourne Premiership half-back and (later) Carlton coach the late Ian Thorogood. On returning to Tasmania, he played on, memorably representing his state in a match against ‘Polly’ Farmer’s Western Australia. Ironically playing at centre half-back, Thiessen took six towering marks over the West’s Mal Brown in the last quarter and, according to Jeremy, was the chief reason the Taswegians got up.

“ . . . and if he’d listened to Norm Smith and Barassi in the first place he probably would have been a great centre half-back,” Jeremy added.

More than 30 years later, Thiessen watched on with pride as his son James, the seven-game former Richmond wingman, played his part in Adelaide’s comfortable Grand Final victory of 1998 over the Kangaroos.

Tony Thiessen was the 761st player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level since the VFL’s inception in 1897.

He died on Tuesday (September 3) after a short illness. He is survived by his wife Virginia, sons Peter (a regular VAFA representative player through his years at Old Haileybury) and James, and daughter Hermione (who represented Victoria in softball). He is also survived by his daughters-in-law, son-in-law and grandchildren; as well as his sister Megan and brother Roger. Older brother Brian pre-deceased him.  

A service to celebrate the life of Anthony (Tony) Thiessen will be held at the Boyd Chapel Springvale Cemetery, 600 Princes Hwy, Springvale on Tuesday, 10 September 2019 at 2pm.

FORMER Carlton Premiership coach David Parkin has paid heartfelt tribute to the club’s property steward of 30 years, the late Ken Kleiman.

Parkin acknowledged Kleiman’s lifelong love for the club, following a magnificent eulogy delivered by Ken’s son Mark and deeply personal reflections from grandchildren Samantha and Joel, at a funeral service at Tobin Brothers Reflections of Life Chapel in Doncaster on Monday (August 12).

Amongst those in attendance to bid farewell to Ken were former players Rod Austin, Craig Bradley, Jim Buckley, Ian Collins, Des English, Kevin Heath, Ken Hunter, Phil Pinnell, David Rhys-Jones, Warren Jones (who jetted in from Sydney), Ken Sheldon, Dennis Munari, Sergio Silvagni, Stephen Silvagni and Geoff Southby.

Also present were members of the club’s board, administration and coteries past and present, including Paul Brody, Alan Espie, Wayne ‘Bulldog’ Gilbert, Laurie Hayden, Col Kinnear, Bob Lowrie, Dick Merton, Bob Moore, Shane O’Sullivan, George Varlamos and Lionel Watts.

Neil Balme and David Buttifant, who formed associations with Ken’s son Mark when he was football operations manager at rival club Collingwood, were also there to pay their respects. Balme and Geoff Southby were on-field adversaries through those heady days of the early 1970s, but they too came together for Ken.

The Carlton players wore black armbands into last Sunday’s match with Richmond, in tribute to Kleiman, who died at the age of 93 after a short illness.

Less than 24 hours later, ‘Parko’ delivered the following tribute.

I’d like to thank the family, Mark in particular, for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of so many people obviously part of the Carlton family. I’m very honoured to speak on behalf of so many people here today who are so intimately associated with the life of Kenny Kleiman and the Carlton Football Club.

I’ve been around VFL/AFL clubs for the past 60 years and I can’t think of another man more loved than Kenny Kleiman. In my mind’s eye now and whenever I was in his company, even of late in the clubrooms at our regular morning teas, his amazing and genuine smile was unforgettable.

Ken had time for everyone. In conjunction with Ken Monk, he formed a special partnership as the club’s property stewards for just on 30 years. That’s an unbelievable record when you think it through. It was ‘Hard Monky’ and ‘Soft Climax’ – a duo that seemed to work beautifully. When you add Wayne Gilbert, Peter Newbold and Frank Finn in later years, it was a very special team within the team. As Col Kinnear reminded me, when it was a training session or matchday they were always there first . . . and certainly always last to leave well after we’d gone.

Together they were genuine contributors to the most successful period in Carlton’s great history, with the Premierships of 1968, 1970, 1972, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987 and 1995.

The players worked Ken over unmercifully with their unreasonable demands and practical jokes. But his demeanour never ever varied – it was all just in good fun.

Ken’s ongoing support for the Navy Blues never diminished. He and Pam attended the staff functions religiously over the past 30-plus years. The newspaper eulogy summed Kenny up perfectly. “It was a privilege to be his friend. One of the more endearing and enduring characters. A magnificent man who was Carlton to the core” . . . rest in peace dear friend.

LONG-SERVING and much-loved former property steward Ken Kleiman, a Life Member of both the Carlton Football Club and Spirit of Carlton, has died after a short illness at the age of 93.

Born on Christmas Day 1925, Kleiman often quipped that “there were only ever two half decent blokes born on that day and I was one of them”.

A lifelong supporter, he joined the club in 1965 at the time George Harris’s Progress Party was swept into power and Ron Barassi signed on as Captain-Coach. A famous photograph of a euphoric Barassi at siren time of the 1970 Grand Final features an equally jubilant Kleiman in the frame.

In terms of his allegiance to the old dark Navy Blues, few were as passionate or as endearing as Kleiman, as his friend and former club runner Bob Lowrie attested.

To quote Lowrie: “He loved Carlton and Carlton loved him”.

“Kenny’s life was just full of fun, and you never had a conversation with him without the Carlton footy club coming up. The people he really respected at Carlton were Jack Carney and Jack Wrout – they were his two favourites,” Lowrie said.

“I remember at one point that Kenny was battling with a badly bruised arm that he copped after a knock in the course of his work. His arm was quite blue, but when I questioned him about it his response was: ‘I’m a Carlton supporter – blue blood in the veins’.”

Siren time, 1970 Grand Final – Ken Kleiman can be seen to the immediate right of Ron Barassi as you look at the photograph.

For years, Kleiman supported the late Carlton property steward Ken Monk. Awarded Life Membership in 1985, he was recognised in the club’s Annual Report of that year as one of “Carlton’s most faithful workers” and the 1995 Premiership saw him out in terms of his official commitments.

But this lovable identity with a twinkle in his eye never strayed too far from Princes Park, where he invariably found himself on the receiving end of good-natured gags from players and officials alike.

For years, the following poem, devised by Blue Diamonds Coterie President Dick Merton, was cheekily adopted by those who knew Kleiman whenever they crossed paths with the follicly-challenged old-timer.

Kenny Kleiman met a pieman

Going to the fair,

Said the pieman to Kenny Kleiman

‘Where’s you’re f… hair?’.

Four-time Carlton Premiership player David McKay, now recovering from recent triple bypass surgery, fondly talked of his relationship with the two Kennys this week.

“Kenny Monk and Kenny Kleiman were very good mates of mine. They used to let me hide in the property room so I wouldn’t have to partake in the psych stuff which I thought was all a bit silly,” McKay said.

“I’ll never forget the Snappy Panties Bedford van Kenny used to ferry our gear to our away games. Kenny was a real Carlton person who will be sadly missed.”

Kleiman, who was recently acknowledged at the Carlton Life Members Luncheon as the oldest member within club ranks, was admitted to Heidelberg’s Austin Hospital on  Friday and died the following Monday (August 5).

He is survived by his beloved wife Pam, son Mark, daughter-in-law Carolyn and grandchildren Samantha and Joel.

As a mark of respect to Kleiman, the Carlton players will wear black armbands into Sunday’s match with Richmond at the MCG – and while funeral arrangements are yet to be finalised, he’ll be laid to rest in an old woollen Carlton guernsey signed by Barassi and surviving members of the 1968 Premiership team.

Clearly, Kleiman was a revered figure at Princes Park. As Lowrie said: “He was a great Carlton man in every sense. He’d never say a bad word about the club”.

ROGER Hoggett, the 12-game former Carlton centreman through the Hands/Barassi transitional seasons of 1964/’65, has died peacefully in Wonthaggi at the age of 77.

Recruited to the club from Longford in the northern midlands of Tasmania, Hoggett was adjudged Blues best and fairest at reserve grade level in his maiden ’64 season. That same year, having strung together half a dozen stand-out performances in the twos, Hoggett got his first senior call-up and was named 20^th man in the 11^th round match involving Geelong.

That winter Saturday, Hoggett took his place on the pine with John Comben, as fellow team members, including the then captain Sergio Silvagni, John Nicholls, the late Wes Lofts and the ’64 Brownlow Medallist Gordon Collis, took their places on Princes Park.

Wearing the No.36 later worn by Mark Maclure and (now) Patrick Kerr, Hoggett was only called upon in the remaining few minutes of that contest and was omitted by Senior Coach Ken Hands for the following game.

However he soon won a senior recall and turned out in the 13^th and 14^throunds with Hawthorn and Melbourne respectively.

By season’s end, and with Carlton having completed its worst ever finish (tenth) in its Centenary year, George Harris and his Progress Party completed an audacious boardroom coup and sensationally landed Ron Barassi as Captain-Coach.

In the ensuing summer months under Barassi’s watch, Hoggett and fellow members of the playing list were subjected to a searching pre-season regimen. Unfortunately, Hoggett’s papers were stamped after the 11^th round of 1965, when Carlton met St Kilda for the first time at Moorabbin. In a tight, even contest involving the two top four teams, former Carlton player Bruce McMaster-Smith broke the deadlock with a crafty match-winning snap – precipitating five Carlton omissions, Hoggett included – and he never again turned out in Dark Navy.

Collis remembered Hoggett as a solidly-built midfielder, “but probably a casualty of the Barassi revival”.

“‘Barass’ was always big on pace and height in players, and was always looking for that archetypal type. Roger was a solid player, but wasn’t real quick, which probably didn’t help, and he was a bit stiff in not being able to land that regular spot in the team.”

Garry Crane, the three-time Carlton Premiership player, Best and Fairest, and Team of the Century player, completed his senior debut in the same season as Hoggett. He remembered the Tasmanian recruit as “very powerfully built, strong and hard at the ball”.

“Roger wasn’t real quick, but he made himself known. Anyone who was hard at the footy earnt respect at Carlton and that’s the way that he was,” Crane said.

“I didn’t really get to know him well, because in those days there weren’t as many functions where you got to collaborate with the players, and me being in hotels at the time meant that I’d train then dash back to the pub. But I do remember him making an impression, more than anything else because he was a good bloke.”

Three years after parting company with Carlton, Hoggett was appointed captain-coach of New South Wales powerhouse Western Suburbs and duly led the Magpies to a Premiership in his first season.

Hoggett, whose wife Lyn predeceased him, is survived by his children Dyson, Mycalie and Shahn, son-in-law Boo, and four grandchildren.

His funeral is to be held at the Anglican Church of Ascension in Inverloch next Tuesday (August 6).

With both Don Hyde AM and the ‘49ers captain Alan ‘Alby’ Mangels sen. late apologies for the pre-match Luncheon, Cornell flew the flag in fine style. Now 88, Cornell was formally welcomed by Mark LoGiudice to an audience which included the great John Nicholls, and he later took his place in the stand to see the home team prevail by 24 points.

“I really enjoyed the experience. I give the club a rating of 100 per cent on everything. The people on my table were very pleasant and I even got the chance to share a few words with Chris Judd,” Cornell said.

“I actually got the first ‘49ers reunion going – a 50-year reunion back in ’99 – with the help of the late Chris Pavlou who was with the Spirit of Carlton. To then be invited back by the Club after 70 years was most appreciated.”

Hugh Cornell, a member of the 1949 under-19s premiership team, at Marvel Stadium on the weekend. (Photo: Supplied)

For the record, Hugh’s under-19s team prevailed against a committed Geelong – 9.8 (62) to 7.9 (51) – to secure the ’49 pennant in a tight contest.

The ’49 triumph completed back-to-back Grand Final victories for the thirds, whose members also included Ian Clover and Dick Gill, the sons of Carlton greats Horrie Clover and Frank Gill. Jim Francis, the Carlton Premiership player at senior level in 1938, served as coach throughout that period, having taken control of the junior outfit when it was first admitted to the Northern District Football Association in 1944.

Francis, who succumbed to a knee injury the previous season, imparted his football nous on the players, with University High School sportsmaster Mr. Gaynor offering his services as an administrator.

The then Secretary Harry Bell, in his season overview for the 1944 Annual Report, somewhat prophetically reported:

“Mr. Gaynor and Jim Francis formed the ideal combination for the control of the boys, and it is hard to assess their value to your club, but it is thought that full realisation of the plan may be expected in two or three years, when five or six of these boys will be regular First Eighteen players, and when this is achieved it may then be recognised that the fielding of an under-18 years team in the N.D.F.A. was one of the most progressive steps ever undertaken by the Carlton Club”.

Cornell recalled that in those fledgling years of the under-19 competition, Collingwood was the only team not represented, “which is somewhat surprising when you think about it”.

“I think the 12^th team at that time was a TAA team,” he recalled.

Cornell also remembered his old mentor with great affection.

“Jim Francis was a wonderful coach. He asked his players to play hard and fair,” Cornell said.

“He was a real gentleman. He was always very measured and he never lost his temper.”

For the record, Carlton’s Trophy winners in the ’49 Premiership year included Harry Sullivan (Best and Fairest), Tom Jones (Most Consistent), Keith Robinson and Noel Rundle (who tied for Best Team Man), Max Thomas (Most Serviceable Player) and George Ferry and Gerald Burke (who tied for Most Improved Player).

With the exception of Rundle, all award winners later represented Carlton at senior level – Ferry in 139 games, Burke (87), Sullivan (31), Thomas (24), Jones (seven) and Robinson (two).

Until recently, Cornell had dutifully convened reunions of the Carlton ‘49ers in every year since 1999 – the 50^th anniversary of their famous victory at the old Princes Park ground.

Those reunions have ended with the ‘49ers’ advancing years – not that Cornell is letting Old Father Time have his own way. As a retired industrial chemist who turned his attentions to the food industry, the former RMIT Associate Professor is in the throes of completing a book which explores the many and varied human diseases and how they can be remedied through healthy lifestyle.

Previously, Hugh committed his energies into coeliac disease result, with the result that a tablet to assist coeliacs – of which there are one in 70 sufferers – is now on the market.

Hugh also had a book published by the English company Minerva Press, entitled Mostly Mozart, which in part explored the therapeutic qualities of the famed composer’s music.

Why Mozart?

“I discovered Mozart when I was 14 after my uncle, himself a musician, played Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony to me. That was like a conversion,” Cornell said.

“Back then I was interested in American big bands like Glenn Miller’s and Tommy Dorsey’s, but when I heard the pastoral symphony that was great music, not good music – and that in turn led me to Mozart.”

The Carlton 49ers

3^rd row: Jim Johnson, Brian Amarant, Ray Clover, Keith Robinson,

Harry Sullivan, Tom Jones, Ron Price, Don Hyde, Dick Gill

2^nd row: Ambrose Curtis, Hugh Cornell, George Ferry, Alan Mangels (c.), George Stafford, Noel Rundle, George Handley

front row: George Crowley, Max Thomas, Maurie Rossi, Charlie Blake, Gerald Burke, Ken Reed

Coach Jim Francis stands is in the back row, fifth from the right.