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Carlton history was on show at Marvel Stadium’s Victory Room, as more than 500 Members and supporters joined Captain Patrick Cripps and the entire senior playing group to celebrate the Club’s best and fairest winners across the past eight decades.

By Tony De Bolfo,

More than 500 Members and supporters – together with Captain Patrick Cripps and all Carlton current senior players – have gathered in Marvel Stadium’s Victory Room in celebration of the VFL/AFL club’s best and fairest players of years past.

Twenty-three winners across eight decades – from the only surviving best and fairest of the 1950s John Nicholls through to the reigning John Nicholls Medallist George Hewett – were in the house for the Spirit of Carlton’s much-anticipated annual luncheon under the ‘Club Champions’ banner.

Nicholls and Cripps – Carlton’s only five-time winners of the Club’s most prized individual award – brought real gravitas to the event, as did three-time winners and former captains Stephen Kernahan and Chris Judd, and two-time winners Geoff Southby, Wayne Johnston, Anthony Koutoufides and Jacob Weitering.

Also present was the 2003 best and fairest and former captain Andrew McKay, as well as the 2004 winner and former coach David Teague. McKay was the last recipient of what had been known as the Robert Reynolds Trophy since 1934, with Teague the inaugural beneficiary of the rebranded medal in Nicholls’ honour.

Nicholls himself participated in a Q and A with resident MC Jason Bennett at the luncheon – and guests later heard from Jacob Weitering, Hewett and Judd as speakers forming the first of two panels; with Peter Jones, Adrian Gallagher, Stephen Kernahan and Anthony Koutoufides forming the second.

Spirit of Carlton Manager Shane O’Sullivan said that the Luncheon importantly served as a fundraiser for the well-being of all past players – a charter established when Geoff Southby, David Rhys-Jones and a core of others came together to form the Spirit in the early 2000s.

“From 2007-2018 the Spirit of Carlton mainly supported the club with gymnasium equipment for the current players at a time when it was in a difficult financial situation,” O’Sullivan said.

“Since 2018, particularly as a consequence of the issues around concussion, the Spirit of Carlton has been more attuned to past player welfare – anything and everything from meals and rental issues through to medical expenses and even funerals – which is why the Spirit sees the importance in looking after its own.”

Of the 40 players to have earned Carlton’s best and fairest award across the 67 seasons since Nicholls in ’59, only two are deceased – the 1955 winner John James who also took the honours in 1960 and ’61) and Sergio Silvagni (1962 and ’68).

Carlton backman Max O’Halloran, a community champion of Australia’s Far North, has passed away in Cairns at the age of 74.

By Tony De Bolfo,

Max O’Halloran, a five-game Carlton backman in John Nicholls’ final season as Captain-Coach, and a giant of football in the Far North, has passed away in Cairns.

O’Halloran, aged 74, died unexpectedly at his home in Parramatta Park on Wednesday (July 15).

Hailing from Ulverstone on Tasmania’s northern coast, O’Halloran turned out for Footscray in 13 matches across three seasons from 1972. He joined Carlton in 1974, in a trade that saw the Bulldogs acquire the three-time Premiership wingman Ian Robertson.

Wearing the No.22 vacated by Neil Chandler and (now) Harry O’Farrell, the blond-haired and moustached O’Halloran first ran out in Dark Navy for the Round 15 contest with the then reigning Premier Richmond on the MCG, on an afternoon in which Alan Mangels also completed his Carlton senior debut.

The Richmond game was the first of O’Halloran’s five successive appearances – the last of them the Round 19  match with his old team the Bulldogs on the Western Oval. The late Robert Walls led O’Halloran and his fellow players out as newly-appointed captain, Nicholls having announced his retirement as a player the previous week.

In 1975 O’Halloran chased the leather for VFA club Oakleigh – as fate would have it alongside Robertson – but his football journey would take him to Cairns in the Far North where he forged a reputation built over five decades as a prominent player, Premiership coach and QAFL administrator.

O’Halloran was a force as a Captain-Coach, guiding North Cairns Tigers to two flags from 1979, and another in 1995 as Coach of Cairns Saints. An AFL Cairns board member from 1998 to 2007, O’Halloran championed the fortunes of the game in the region, chiefly in assisting with the removal of the debt owed on Cazaly Stadium.

A Life Member of both the North Cairns Football Club and AFL Cairns, O’Halloran was presented with a Merit Award in 2011, in recognition of his services to Queensland Football.

His commitment to community was also recognised as Patron of Cairns Bands and the Rondo Theatre and Life Member of Tobruk Pool, and form more than a decade he served as Councillor representing the regions of Edge Hill and Whitfield, as well as parts of Manoora, Manunda and Brinsmead.

During his time in office, Cr O’Halloran helped deliver $1.5billion in capital works projects to the city, including the Cairns Performing Arts Centre and Munro Parklands redevelopment.

A measure of the depth and breadth of O’Halloran’s great sense of community was put best by the former local Mayor Bob Manning, who told The Cairns Post: “No matter where you went with Max, he knew more people than you knew”.

“It’s rather fitting that he and Sam Neil (the late actor) are going together,” Manning said.

“They’ll give a bit of class to the mob up top.”

O’Halloran was the 848th player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level since Jimmy Aitken led the first team out in the opening Round of VFL competition in 1897.