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MORE never-before-seen photographs of the immediate aftermath of the 1987 Grand Final have surfaced on the eve of the 30^th anniversary reunion of members of the Carlton premiership team.

The first four images captured moments after the final siren were featured on the Club website on Tuesday. A further nine photos, which surfaced this morning, were captured on the Melbourne Cricket Ground moments after the final siren signalled the Blues’ 15^th premiership victory – 15.14 (104) to Hawthorn’s 9.17 (71) – on a sweltering last Saturday in September.

Featured among the glorious black and white images is a siren-time photograph of Tom Alvin, Craig Bradley, Stephen Silvagni and Peter Dean in wild embrace. Another, in which an exhausted, elated Wayne Johnston falls into the arms of the then physical education instructor Chris Jones, is set against the backdrop of the since-demolished Smoker’s and Olympic Stands.

Also featured is the jubilant Carlton coach Robert Walls, arm-in-arm with the then Stephen Gough, who this year announced his retirement after 17 years as CEO of the MCC and the stadium it manages, the MCG.

1987 premiership coach Robert Walls – together with 19 of the 20 who played their part in the victorious Grand Final team – will be in attendance for the Spirit of Carlton reunion luncheon on Friday and the matchday function at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

The notable apology is Peter Dean, the 248 dual Carlton premiership player who is this weekend committed to coaching duties with Bullioh in the Upper Murray League second semi-final.

Siren time, Grand Final day, Saturday, September 26, 1987. Peter Dean, Craig Bradley, Tom Alvin and Stephen Silvagni in wild embrace.

Carlton premiership coach Robert Walls and Carlton football manager Stephen Gough acknowledge the crowd. To the left is club dentist Dr Don Hall.

Dr Don Hall, together with Carlton Football Club directors Lloyd Bendall, Malcolm Payne and Kevin Hall, flank the Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke just prior to the presentations.

Justin Madden savours the moment, having been handed his premiership medallion from the Rt Hon RJ Hawke. ‘Harry’ would later answer to ‘Rt Hon’ as a Victorian Parliamentarian.

Carlton premiership captain Stephen Kernahan and coach Robert Walls hoist the Club’s 15^th piece of silverware to the heavens.

“Thanks Bob – now, where’s the club dentist?”. David Rhys-Jones acknowledges the crowd after being presented with the Norm Smith Medal.

Wayne Johnston falls into the arms of Carlton physical education instructor Chris Jones, Mick Kennedy holds the trophy aloft, with fellow premiership players Tom Alvin and Stephen Silvagni featured in the frame.  

The victory lap. “All Hail King Kerna”.

The powerbrokers, from left: Fosters Brewing Group Limited CEO and Managing Director Peter Bartels, Carlton Vice-President and Match Committee Chairman the late Wes Lofts, President John Elliott, Carlton director John McIntosh, Carlton Vice-President and Executive Director Ian Collins, and former Carlton director John Minuzzo.

Mac Wilson – until Wednesday Carlton’s (and the AFL’s) oldest surviving former player – has died at the age of 103 years, one month and one day.

Prior to Wilson, only Newton Septimus Weston Chandler – ‘the grand old man of Princes Park’ as he is remembered – reached the three figures. Chandler, the 69-game footballer, recruiter, secretary, vice-president and treasurer, was in fact 103 years, six months and six days when he finally met his maker on March 24, 1997.

Newton Chandler, the 69-game Carlton footballer, recruiter, secretary, vice-president and treasurer, was 103 years, six months and six days when he died. Chandler is pictured here circa 1919. (Photo: Supplied)

In July 2014, Wilson became Carlton’s second member of the ‘Ton Up Club’. On that occasion, he received a card signed by members of the current playing group, amongst them Dennis Armfield who wears Wilson’s old No.27 on his back.

With the passing of Chandler and now Wilson, Carlton’s only surviving Ton Up Club member is Keith Rae, the 15-game former centreman of 1939 and ’43 who turned 100 on July 30 this year.

Andrew McDonald ‘Mac’ Wilson was born in the Yarra Valley town of Woori Yallock on July 9, 1914, 19 days before the official outbreak of the First World War. Not long after, his family relocated to the Nyah region on the other side of Swan Hill in the Mallee, only to return to Woori in 1934.

Having played at Piangil where the ’45 Carlton premiership player Jim Mooring also chased the leather, Wilson later returned to Woori Yallock for a season (and represented the Woori team in its first Grand Final victory in ’47), before joining Sunshine with the promise of a job. Sunshine, in the Footscray sub-district League, must have doubled as football’s school of hard knocks for Mac, although one of his contemporaries there at the time was none other than the fearsome Bob Chitty, later the Carlton captain, premiership player, dual best and fairest and lord protector.

“He (Chitty) was a hard, tough fellow and he trained just as hard as what he played you know,” Wilson said in an interview with this reporter in 2009. “If you happened to knock him over at training you were likely to get into a fight with Chitty.”

Wilson, like Chitty, ultimately crossed to Carlton – in the former’s case on the recommendation of Mooring, as Wilson explained.

“During the war the Air Force used to play games at Carlton, and my brother was in the Air Force. Anyway, he and I were walking around the ground looking at things and I was particularly good friends with Jimmy Mooring and Jimmy came from Piangil and he was a mate of mine,” Wilson said.

“Now he was walking around with Harry Bell (the then Carlton secretary) and he (Mooring) said to Bell, ‘This is the chap I’ve been telling you about’. Bell asked me then, ‘Come out and have a go’ and I said ‘Yeah, righto’ – but I wasn’t much interested in it . . . I liked playing football but I wasn’t much interested in playing League football. I was too shy I was.”

Mac Wilson relaxes at his Thornbury home, August 2009. (Photo: Supplied)

Wilson’s nine-game career would encompass the 1933 and ’44 seasons, at a time when the Allies gained momentum in World War II.

A late starter, (Wilson was 29 years, 21 days when he completed his senior League debut), he joined Carlton from Footscray District League club Sunshine at a time when young men continued to volunteer for military service and footballers were something of a rare commodity.

Seven of Wilson’s nine matches for Carlton would be as 19^th man. Remarkably, his first and last games would result in 100+-point thrashings of Collingwood and Geelong, and his first full game would be a final.

According to the record books, Wilson followed his captain Jim Francis onto the field for the first time in Round 12, 1943, in what was the match with the black and whites at Victoria Park. Warming the pine as 19^th man, Wilson must have sat there in awe as Francis (with eight goals) and Jack Wrout (seven) completed the rout, 28.10 (178) to the black and whites’ 11.8 (74).

It may well be that Mac didn’t get a run in this match, as he cites the Round 14 match versus Essendon at Windy Hill – Francis’ last game – as his first real League foray. As he said: “Arthur Sanger broke his arm and I was 19^th man . . . and the first bloke I played on was ‘Dicky’ Reynolds”.

Wilson took his place in the dugout in three of his team’s last four games of the ’43 season, ending with Fitzroy at Brunswick Street Oval. The visitors’ 15-point win in that one earned them another shot at the Maroons in the first semi final, and Wilson got the call-up fir his first full game at half-back, replacing the injured Frank Anderson.

Regrettably, Fitzroy emerged 51-point victors and duly ended Carlton’s September campaign.

In February of the following year, Wilson enlisted in the RAAF, where basic training deprived him of any football for months. Not until Round 8 did Wilson make himself available and he got the call-up for another encounter with Collingwood, this time at Princes Park.

This time, Carlton won.

Wilson sat on the bench twice more, before taking his place in the starting line-up for the Round 17 match against Geelong at Princes Park. Another serving member of the RAAF turned out for the first time in that one – the West Australian-born future Carlton premiership captain and club champion Ern Henfry – who was near-best on the ground in the Blues’ 106-point demolition of the Pivotonians.

Wilson was either unavailable or omitted for what proved to be a controversial last game of the home and away season against Footscray the following weekend, when a hotly-disputed goal after the final bell gave the Bulldogs victory by one point and forced Carlton out of finals contention.

By then it was all over for Mac the player – but Mac the citizen would live on for almost three quarters of a century.

Wilson, whose wife ‘Billie’ predeceased him in 2001, died after a short illness. He is survived by his son Neil and daughter Anne.

His funeral is to be held next Wednesday, August 16, at Ern Jensen’s Funerals, 6 Bruce Street, Preston, commencing 2pm.

Keith Rae remembers his Mum sending him off on his first errand to the local corner shop in Williamstown.

Then a kid of eight or nine, he can still picture that moment in his mind’s eye. “Mum handed me a shilling,” Keith recalled. “First time I ever saw one”.

Born before the Armistice was signed, and hardened by the tribulations of the Great Depression, Keith Stanley Rae is of that fast disappearing generation who also served his country through the Second World War (in his case as a leading seaman).

Between times, the boy from Williamstown chased the pigskin in the VFL – in 15 games out of the centre for Carlton through 1939 and again in ’43, and in two more for the Tigers after the guns fell silent in ’46.

Carlton’s 550^th player to complete his senior debut, Keith was appropriately enough born in the Blue Room of his grandfather’s Stag’s Head Hotel in ‘Willy’, one hundred years ago this Sunday, July 30, 1917. He was the oldest of five siblings, with three sisters and a brother following.

Keith carried his books to the local Williamstown state school, and later Footscray Technical School, despite his father’s best efforts. “Dad wanted me to go to Scotch College and I said ‘Why go all the way out there?’”, said Keith.

Not long after finishing up at Footscray Tech, Keith took on a welder’s course at the Williamstown naval dockyards, “but in the end I joined the Navy because I was 16 and I couldn’t get a job”.

That move would later have significant ramifications.

As with his professional career, Keith’s football life had its origins at Williamstown, where his prowess as a midfielder first came to the attention of the renowned Carlton talent scout Newton Chandler.

“I reckon it was Newton who approached me at a game at Williamstown and said ‘Son, we think we could use you’,” Keith recalled. “In the end I went up to Carlton to practice and I remember breaking into the team and running down the race.”

Records attest that Keith’s first game came against Footscray in the 15^th round of the 1939 season, after the then Carlton premiership captain-coach Brighton Diggins gave him the nod.

“He was quite a good bloke Diggins. He told me I was playing and I couldn’t wait to tell my father,” Keith said.

Keith was named in the centre, between Jack Carney and Bob Green. He followed Diggins down the race with the likes of Baxter, Chitty, Crisp and Hale. Together they contributed to Carlton’s 88-point annihilation of the visitors, with Paul Schmidt and Baxter booting nine and eight goals respectively, and ‘Micky’ Crisp putting another five over the goal umpire’s hat.

Omitted after the following match against Hawthorn, Keith’s ’39 season was done and dusted when Carlton failed to make the cut for September.

And then the war came . . . and Keith, already serving with the RAN Volunteer Reserve, was called upon by the navy. The ensuing three years would see him fulfil various duties on a number of ships, amongst them the destroyer HMAS Nestor which, in June 1942, was amongst a convoy attacked from the air by the Luftwaffe, by U boats and by E boats.

Keith Rae, proudly sporting his Carlton guernsey, at a naval camp in Portsmouth, England, in late 1941. The guernsey later went down with a sinking ship in the Mediterranean. (Photo: Supplied)

Both engine rooms of the Nestor were flooded and four stokers were killed in that incident.

Keith lived to tell the tale.

“The plane came over and dropped a bomb. The bomb hit the yard arm of the mast and deflected into the water,” he said.

“I’d just come off the wheel and wooden pieces of it came flying down, some of it hitting me in the leg. It’s why I’ve still got this crook leg, but I was lucky. I sat on top of the deck until a rescue ship came by.”

24 year-old Keith Rae, HMAS Nestor, Egypt, 1941. (Photo: Supplied)

In 1943, Keith was posted back to Melbourne, and wasted little time resuming his playing career by Royal Parade, under the watch of Diggins’ successor as Carlton senior coach, Percy Bentley.

Keith got a call-up for the opening round match of the ’43 season, and in the lead-up stood with his teammates to observe a minute’s silence for his old teammate Jim Park, who had been killed in action in New Guinea.

After the lone bugler played The Last Post, the ball was bounced, and the Carlton players attacked it with sheer ferocity. Prominent amongst them was Jim Baird with 10 goals, and Keith was acknowledged for his handy contributions on a wing.

Carlton ended the ’43 home and away season in fourth place, only to be bundled out of the finals by Fitzroy in the first semi. Keith, despite appearing in 13 of the 16 regular season matches, was omitted for the that Gorillas game and never again took to the field in dark navy.

The Carlton team, photographed before the 13th round match of the ’43 season – ?Saturday, August 7- versus Hawthorn at Princes Park. Keith Rae is the dark-haired player in the back row, seventh from the left. (Photo: Supplied)

In 1944, the Navy called Keith back to the colours, and he was still on duty when World War II ended. Amongst those who could genuinely claim that they served ‘for the duration,’ Keith was finally discharged in May 1946 – and fronted up for two senior games at Richmond before calling it a day as a League footballer.

At Carlton, Keith is accredited with just two career goals – two too many as he dryly suggested.

“I remember one game there was a boundary throw-in, I got the football, swung around and kicked a goal, even though the centre half-forward Jack Wrout was calling for it,” Keith said.

“After that happened and the ball was being taken back to the centre, he (Wrout) came up to me and said: ‘I kick the goals’.”

Through his days as a League footballer, Keith was paid three pound a game for his troubles – with all proceeds handed over to his mother.

“Not that she needed it,” Keith said. “It was more that money never meant anything to me.”

This coming Sunday, Keith will celebrate his 100^th birthday with family and friends on the Mornington Peninsula where he now lives in coastal tranquillity. The best wishes card from Her Maj has already founds its way to his modest home, as has a card from the PM.

Keith Rae on the eve of his 100th birthday. (Photo: Carlton Media)

He becomes the third former Carlton footballer known to notch the three figures after Newton Chandler, who died at the age of 103 years and 196 days in 1997, and Mac Wilson – at 103 years and 20 days currently the AFL’s oldest living ex-player.

He also becomes Richmond’s first centurion in terms of age.

Keith fully expects to be around for a few more birthdays too. As he said: “Have a look at me. I never smoked, I never had an argument, and when you live to be 100 it’s got to mean you’re happy.”

Keith Rae’s first senior game for Carlton,  Round 15, Saturday, August 5, 1939, versus Footscray at Princes Park:

B: Don McIntyre, Frank Gill, Jim Park

HB: Bob Chitty, Jim Francis (vc), Frank Anderson

C: Jack Carney, Keith Rae, Bob Green

HF: Ron Cooper, Jack Wrout, Creswell Crisp

F: Harry Hollingshead, Ken Baxter, Paul Schmidt

FOLL: Brighton Diggins (cc), Rod McLean, Jack Hale

19^th man: Jack Skinner

It’s almost 60 years since Graham McColl completed his senior debut for the Carlton Football Club. For McColl, the game against North Melbourne in the second round of 1958 would herald in an association that would endure for more than a quarter of a century at Princes Park – but not as he had anticipated.

Just 10 senior games into his maiden season, in the night grand final against St Kilda at the Lakeside Oval in September ’58, McColl ruptured the anterior cruciate in his right knee. Resuming training the following March, the young ruckman again broke down with the same injury. At 24, McColl’s League career was over before it had begun.

McColl is carried from Princes Park in a training mishap in March 1959. (Article by The Sun)

The proverbial silver lining came with McColl’s subsequent pursuit of recovery techniques – which in turn piqued his interest in becoming a club trainer. So it was that McColl embarked on his new career at Carlton, rising through the ranks of the support staff from thirds, to reserves and ultimately seniors.

In the premiership season of 1981, McColl’s contributions to Carlton as trainer were rewarded with Life Membership – the same year in which players Mark Maclure and Graeme Whitnall were similarly honoured.

Now 83, McColl recently penned the following reminiscences of his life and times at Carlton.

“Before I reminisce about my life to date as a player, member of the training staff, member of past players’ association and Life Member, it may be of help to give you some prior history of my football life with some details of how I became a Carlton player in 1958.

Early school years (commencing 1940) were at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. I attended Forest Hill school, located outside the Aerodrome, on which I lived. I played Rugby and represented the school in athletics to year six.

After the War, we moved back to Melbourne and various parts of Victoria, which resulted in me attending many different schools. Eventually we moved to East Coburg where my parents obtained a home and my father was discharged from the R.A.A.F.

At this time I went to Preston Technical School and, after learning NOT to RUN with the ball under my arm (as in Rugby), I played in the school’s Australian Rules team, where we played against other Technical Schools in the metropolitan area and won many games. Ron Barassi (who later went to Melbourne) played as a half-forward flanker, and Brian Pert (later to play for Fitzroy) and myself were the wingmen.

I was invited to play for the Carlton Under 19s, however I wasn’t able to play a game, as family commitments forced me to look for a club in the vicinity and that’s how I came to play at Coburg in the VFA, playing 68 games. I feel my summer training with Preston Harriers and at Preston Tech., in running, high jump and hurdles, helped me with my ability to play in various positions if required.

1950s saw me as a telephone technician in training, working in many exchanges in Melbourne and country areas, and moving through various levels. With a transfer for eight weeks to Geelong Exchange, my father arranged for me to train at Geelong Football Club, with Reg Hickey as coach. I learnt a lot there and won Coburg Football Club’s Best & Fairest in 1956. Geelong asked me to sign a Form 4, however, Carlton was aware of this and claimed me as their player, where I played ten games in 1958 for the seniors. Of interest during this time was the payment the players received, which was 12 pounds for a full match and the Provident fund only being available after 50 games!

My first game was against North Melbourne, where I played as centre half-forward, my opponent being Albert Mantello. He tried me out physically and I more than held my own, with two goals. I also gave Mantello a hefty bump to which his teammate commented: ‘You’ve got one here, Albert’.

The night series at the South Melbourne ground saw me playing in the ruck, where I received my knee injury in a final against St Kilda. Medical staff didn’t know how serious my injury was. I drove home and went to work the next day. My boss sent me off to the local doctor and then to a physiotherapist. He didn’t know what the full extent of my injury was either. I missed the next year and so I wrote to the American National Football Association and received a strapping procedure – 30 strips of tape – but not much help.

When Dr. Arnold Cooper came to the club he explained what the problem was an I was offered a position on the training staff, with ongoing training by Dr. Cooper and our new physiotherapist Geoff Luke.

I was employed as a trainer for the Under 19s. In addition to looking after injured players, I became a messenger to players from the coach. Some of the players who started in the Under 19s were Adrian Gallagher, Jim Sullivan, Ray O’Halloran, Mark Maclure, John Morrison and Bruce Doull. The Under 19s won the premiership in 1963. 

Trainer Graham McColl (middle row, far left) with members of Carlton’s under-19 premiership team of 1963, which includes Adrian Gallagher and Denis Pagan.

During my time as a trainer, the senior team won four Grand Finals in 1968, ’70, ’72 and ’79 – the latter in which Wayne Harmes (a local boy with a ‘never-say-die’ attitude) saved the ball on the boundary to enable Ken Sheldon to kick the winning goal. This is still a matter of discussion for Collingwood supporters. Alex Jesaulenko captained and coached his grand final team, but we had to carry him off with a serious ankle injury. However, with true spirit, he was there to receive the premiership cup at the end of the game.

McColl tends to Sergio Silvagni’s knee in 1966. 

Back in the ’70s, a VFL Trainers’ Association was established by a couple of Hawthorn trainers. The association established a training scheme for those persons who wanted to become members of their club’s medical team and be present on the ground during games. Interested parties were required to participate in a six to 12-week practical course, which involved resuscitation and different methods of strapping. The course was conducted at the Collingwood ground.

As the years rolled on, my employment with Telecom caused me, at one stage, to resign my position with the senior XVIII staff. I was able to overcome this, as management moved me to a position that enabled me to attend training sessions during the week. Later, I was offered the position of Head Trainer, but had to decline as my work for Telecom would not allow me to be at the ground for commencement of training and in time for strapping.

McColl to the rescue of Rod Ashman, elimination final vs. Geelong, VFL Park, September 1978.

On a brighter note, I enjoyed assisting those who were new to the club, the camaraderie and the interaction between training staff and players was excellent, even though we were all on various levels. Sunday morning recovery sessions consisted of lap running, hot and cold showers and rubdowns and a drink of some description to finish off. On many occasions, players, trainers and staff got together with wives and girlfriends, sometimes not getting home until mid-afternoon. 

I tended to lose my interest when we basically became ‘waterboys’. However, nowadays the players have doctors, physios and mini-ambulances available to get them to more specialised treatments – and they sure need it with the game edging towards a Rugby format. I’ve always known the game as Australian Rules football (but there’s a) number of ball-ups (scrums), handling the ball incorrectly (throwing) and running the ball down the ground before kicking or shooting for goal (basketball). Umpires should also be able to assess that players are required to bounce the ball within 10-20 metres of running, or otherwise be penalised. I feel the umpires need to be re-trained in these areas.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time with Carlton. In writing these reminiscences, it has brought back some wonderful memories, of trips away, pride in winning Premierships and watching new players develop their skills.

Thanks for your interest in my time at Carlton, and to finish – Go Blues!”

Graham McColl (No.36)

Ken Hopper, a 17-game half-forward flanker and senior-listed player in Carlton’s premiership season of 1945, has died at the age of 93.

Born in South Melbourne in June 1924, but raised in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, Hopper played for Pascoe Vale alongside another future Carlton player, the late Allan Greenshields.

Hopper was called up for his Carlton senior debut, against Melbourne, in the opening round of the infamous 1945 season. Sporting the No.2 on his back, he took his place on a flank alongside Alex Way and Charlie McInnes, players who would later make the cut for “The Bloodbath”.

The Redlegs accounted for Carlton by 21 points in that opening round, but Hopper maintained his presence in the seniors for a further 13 games on end. However, he was omitted in the wake of the team’s three-point loss to Essendon in the 14th round, when the visitors’ Bill Brittingham goaled after the siren.

For the next month, Hopper sought form in the secondsand won a recall from senior coach Perc Bentley and the match committee for the 19th round match with Geelong. Regrettably, he was again dropped despite the Blues’ 94-point hammering of Geelong at Princes Park.

Named as an emergency for the Grand Final, Hopper took his “gear” to Princes Park, but watched on from the sidelines when the Bob Chitty-inspired Carlton juggernaut powered its way to the ’45 flag.

A recent photo of Ken, proudly sporting the 1945 team photograph. (Photo: Carlton Media)

Though he didn’t win ’em and wear ’em in “The Bloodbath”, Hopper was part of Carlton’s celebratory bus tour to Sydney and Canberra the following year. The tour, which ferried Carlton players and officials to such destinations as Gundagai, the Blue Mountains, Bateman’s Bay and Sydney Harbour, was fully-funded by the club as fitting reward for the team’s landing of its seventh and hardest-earned pennant. A highlight for Hopper was meeting the then Prime Minister Robert Menzies (later Carlton’s No.1 ticket holder) in Canberra.

All the way, Hopper and his trusty Kodak captured precious moments in sepia – from the first roadside luncheon stop at Dandenong through to the sand and surf of Manly, and everything in between. A classic image of Bob Chitty looking down from a balcony at the Australian War Memorial was taken through Hopper’s lens.

Some 63 years later, Hopper graciously availed his unique Box Brownie snapshots to the football club and its Members and supporters – and shared his precious recollections of the tour with this reporter.

“In those days most teams usually took off on yearly trips to wind up the season, but the money wasn’t around then and our trips were usually confined to Bendigo or Ballarat,” Hopper said back in 2008.

Carlton players Vin Brown, Jim Francis, Ken Hopper and Dzongkha Williams. (Photo: Supplied)

“That trip was absolutely tops. To head off interstate was something that never took place in that era and to think we were heading to Sydney and Canberra on a premiership trip was just unbelievable.”

Hopper turned out twice more for the old dark Navy Blues in 1946 before accepting a transfer to rival club Hawthorn. As fate would have it, Hopper’s last hurrah for the old dark Navy Blues came in the 14th round match of ’46 against the Mayblooms at Princes Park, when Ken Hands, the only surviving member of Carlton’s 1945 and ’47 premiership teams – booted a lazy five.

That Hawthorn match also brought down the curtain on the career of Carlton’s acting captain on the day, Rod “Madcap” McLean (father of Ricky, grandfather of Brock), whose 128 senior appearances took in the premierships of 1938 and ’45.

Carlton Premiership captain Bob Chitty at the Australian War Memorial. (Photo: Ken Hopper)

At Glenferrie Oval, Hopper was afforded greater opportunity and found his niche as a capable utility who could play anywhere. From 1947 to ’51, he racked up 66 senior games for his second club, during which time he earned a handsome reputation as a most popular and respected team man.

Hopper was later rewarded with Hawthorn Life Membership, having served as President of the Hawthorn Past Players Association on no less than seven occasions.

Ken Hopper, the 601st player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level, died on Thursday (June 29). He is survived by his daughters Vicki and Coralie and their partners John and Barry, grandchildren Lauren, Olivier, Shane, Bailey, Colin and Alex, and great grandchildren Marcel and Mathilde.

A funeral service for Ken Hopper will be held at Le Pine Funerals, 1048 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill, this Wednesday, July 5, commencing 10.30am, with a private cremation to follow.

Former Carlton full-back Brian Henderson, a member of the club’s youngest senior team ever fielded, has died in Wagga Wagga two days prior to his 74^th birthday.

Recruited from neighbouring Brunswick City, Henderson was adjudged the Under 19s’ most serviceable player in 1960 and ’61 before completing a two-season reserve grade stint.

It was during his time with the thirds that Henderson met his future wife Joan Matthews . . . and where else but at Princes Park.

“I met him at the Carlton Football Ground,” Joan said this week. “I used to stand behind the goals at the Heatley Stand end and see him in the grandstand.

“He’d be there having played half a game with the reserves after being dragged out of the Under 19s. I think they burnt him out as he also worked on the railways and played once a week for them.

“Anyway he started coming down from the Heatley Stand to speak to me. That was in 1961 or ’62 and we married in ’63.”

Henderson got his first senior call-up in Carlton’s eighth-round match of 1964. Wearing the No.38 now on the back of the Irishman Ciaran Byrne, he was named at full-back for the team which met South Melbourne at the Lakeside Oval.

The match went the visitors’ way – 12.14 (86) to 8.13 (61) – with the late Wes Lofts, a future premiership player in the last line for Carlton, booting five goals from full-forward.

Brian Henderson pictured in action on the left. (Photo: Supplied)

Henderson was four days shy of his 21^st birthday when he lined up against Richmond, in what was his second and final senior appearance for the Club the following Saturday. He formed part of the ‘Baby Blues’ – Carlton’s youngest ever 20 (average age 22 years 15 days) – of whom Greg Hardie at 19 years 21 days was the youngest and Sergio Silvagni (25, 350) the oldest.

The match, which resulted in a three-point win to the home team at Princes Park, was notable for an incident in which the Tigers’ Fred Swift uprooted a behind post after grabbing it to halt his momentum – prompting a Carlton trainer to hold the post upright for the game’s duration.

The day after Henderson’s last hurrah (Sunday, June 14), The Beatles jetted in to Melbourne to be greeted by the then Lord Mayor and avid Carlton supporter Sir Leo Curtis – a moment recreated in print by the famed cartoonist for The Age, Sam Wells.

The Mayor and The Beatles, The Age, June 15, 1964.

Ken Greenwood, named alongside Henderson in the back pocket for both the South and Richmond games, remembered the latter as “a nice young bloke”.

“Brian was a local bloke who, while not quite up to senior standard for the long haul, was quite a handy type,” Greenwood said. “He stood 6’1 in the old measurement and tipped the scales at 12 and a half stone, and for most of his time through the thirds and seconds basically played as a backman.”

“The Blues had a bad year in ’64, finishing 10^th of 12 which at that time was their worst year on record. That brought on the sacking of Ken Hands for Ron Barassi as senior coach and the cleanout. I suspect ‘Barass’ may have put a line though Brian’s name, but he wasn’t on his own there.”

A football journeyman, Henderson later pursued his career with Brunswick in the VFA then joined Epping in the Diamond Valley – the school of hard knocks according to Joan.

“He went mad at me because I grew up with the Diamond Valley League and when he played his first match he said ‘Why didn’t you tell me it was so bloody hard?’,” she recalled.

Brian Henderson in 1964. (Photo: Supplied)

Henderson then accepted the role of playing coach with Nathalia during which time he mentored the Richmond great Francis Bourke. He then returned to the Diamond Valley as playing coach of Lalor, then committed to “paddock football” in Urana on the Riverina where he and Joan eventually settled.

For a brief period, Henderson served as assistant to Palm Beach-Curumbin coach and former Carlton rover Maurie Fowler, who died earlier this year.

Coaching, it seemed, was Henderson’s true vocation, and according to Joan it was the former Carlton secretary Allen Cowie who first sewed the seed.

“Brian remembered Allen telling him: “Whatever you do, think of coaching rather than playing’, because he really rated the way Brian handled the players”.

A long-time resident of Urana, situated between Lockhart and Jerilderie, Brian Henderson died on Friday, June 16 at Wagga’s Calvary Hospital.

He is survived by his wife Joan, three children and their respective spouses, 10 grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Brian Henderson’s first game, Carlton v South Melbourne

Lakeside Oval – Round 8, Saturday, June 6, 1964 

B: Sergio Silvagni (c), Brian Henderson, Ken Greenwood

HB: Vasil Varlamos, Graeme Anderson, Barry Gill

C: Cliff Stewart, Ian Collins, Jim Pleydell

HF: Kevin Hall, Tony Thiessen, John Gill

F: Maurie Sankey (vc), Wes Lofts (dvc), Trevor Best

R: John Nicholls, John Reilly, Ian Nankervis

Res: John Goold, Greg Hardie

Coach: Ken Hands

The Carlton Football Club, as with any sporting institution, is about the people – and while only a few are immortalised on the Hall of Fame wall, so many more make their own unique impression.

This is the story of one such person – the late Raymond John Mulder Q.G.M., who died last August just two days after his 86^th birthday. Ray’s lifelong love for Carlton came to light when members of the Mulder clan recently returned to the old ground to cast his ashes upon it.

To quote Ray’s wife Anita: “What I did with the ashes was up to me – and the Carlton Football Club was part of his life”.

That day, Anita also came armed with a silver-plated cup thought to have been presented to her husband for finishing runner-up in the Best & Fairest award for Under 21 outfit Carlton Colts.

For years, the trophy – made available by club benefactor Norm Robinson – gathered dust on the loungeroom mantelpiece in the Mulder family home in Kingsbury.

The silver-plated cup thought to have been presented to Ray Moulder. (Photo: Carlton Media)

It also doubled as a conversation piece, as Mulder’s wife Anita revealed.

“As you can see, Ray’s surname was incorrectly etched into the trophy as ‘Moulder’,” Anita said. “Anyone who ever saw that trophy used to comment on it, and Ray himself used to say ‘I never thought it was mine’. I turned to him once and said it could have been worse – it could have been ‘muddler’.”

Ray was born on August 9, 1930, the youngest son of Mary and George “Snow” Mulder who fashioned the original Skipping Girl sign for Claude Neon. Ray’s early years were spent at the family home at 777 Drummond Street, next door to the local mosque, while his future wife’s family were domiciled in nearby Station Street.

As Mulder was later employed at Reid Brothers brass finishers up the road in Bouverie Street, Carlton was always THE team for him and the Mulder clan.

“Ray had had two brothers and they followed Carlton everywhere,” Anita said. “Their Dad used to take them all to Princes Park and they’d stand behind the goals.”

Ray Mulder and the 1949 Carlton Colts. (Photo: Carlton Media)

Though he turned out for the Blues as a player of some note at junior level, Mulder never pursued his on-field career. Instead he joined the Victoria Police and upheld the right for 29 years – initially at Russell Street which took in the local Carlton beat.

“Ray never really played footy afterwards because work saw to that. He used to work ten days straight in those days and the pay wasn’t great,” Anita said.

But 2nd Constable Mulder was not lost to the club. On one occasion, in a match at Princes Park against South Melbourne in the early 1960s, Mulder, at the time off duty, famously arrested a spectator he saw bag the matchday football as it disappeared into the crowd behind the eastern end goals.

The spectator was subsequently fined £12 “in default 12 days gaol” and in a moment’s remorse to the beak was reported saying: “I have never done anything like this before. I don’t know what came over me. I would like to apologise to the court and to the Carlton Football Club”.

As a member of the constabulary, Mulder was a noticeable presence on Lygon Street. To the shoptraders, many of them Italian migrants, he was dubbed ‘Elliot Ness’ – a term of endearment because he looked out for them.

Mulder’s son Chris remembered his father relating the tale of a Lygon Street café owner getting grief from the powers that be for unauthorised use of a billiard table on his premises.

“Dad encouraged the bloke to change the table’s cloth from green to red so that when the matter went to court the case would be dismissed – based on the definition of a billiard table which carried green cloth, not red,” Chris said.

The late Ray Mulder. (Photo: Supplied)

Ray later served the force as a police reservist, but on February 3, 1978 was confronted with a life and death scenario he probably thought he’d avoided in his years on patrol.

Off duty that day, Ray and Sergeant Brendan Bannon, each of whom were shopping separately, happened upon a cash office robbery at a supermarket in Reservoir.

The following was reported in the London Gazette of September 1979:

Sergeant Bannan heard the cashier’s cries over the address system and made his way to the office: as he reached the doorway one of the robbers held him at gunpoint and made the officer and the cashier face the wall with their hands above their heads. Unknown to the men, Sergeant Bannan was still in possession of his service revolver and at the first opportunity produced his weapon, announced his identity and ordered them to surrender.

The gunman turned and faced the Sergeant and a series of shots were exchanged in a running battle between them as the robbers withdrew with the money. Sergeant Bannan repeatedly called on the men to surrender but the armed criminal continued to fire at him as he pursued them through the store.

Meanwhile Police Reservist Mulder had heard a number of shots fired from the direction of the Cash Office, but he was unaware that Sergeant Bannan was involved in the shooting and, as he cleared customers from the store, he saw an armed man carrying an over-night bag run from the Cash Office towards the main entrance. Mr. Mulder followed the armed raider who turned and pointed the pistol at him from a distance of about 15 feet. He dived at the offender who brushed him aside and the armed man pointed the pistol at him and then ran off. Mr. Mulder kicked at the second offender as he ran past him and succeeded in knocking a bag containing money from his grasp.

Mr. Mulder got to his feet, ran after the two gunmen and was then overtaken by Sergeant Bannan during his pursuit of the men from the store. Mr. Mulder caught up with the Sergeant who had brought down one offender and was wrestling with him on the ground while the other man who was armed pointed his pistol at him. As the Police Reservist approached the armed man pointed his weapon at him and then turned and fled. Sergeant Bannan gave chase while Mr. Mulder subdued the unarmed offender whom the Sergeant had detained. 

Sergeant Bannan displayed outstanding gallantry when at very grave risk to himself he persisted in his pursuit of the offenders, in the face of gunfire, as they attempted, to escape. Police Reservist Mulder also displayed bravery of a high order when, despite being threatened by the armed offender, he went to the assistance of Sergeant Bannan.

In the apprehension of two masked offenders during which time shots were exchanged, Sergeant Bannon was subsequently awarded the George Medal for bravery and gallantry.

Similarly, Reservist Mulder earned the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.

In the aftermath of Ray’s passing, members of the Mulder family arranged for a plaque to be displayed at Ikon Park. The plaque, upon which bronze letters are set against a background of blue, serves to perpetuate the memory of a brave Victorian whose football club meant everything to him.

The plaque simply reads;

Bruce McMaster-Smith, the former Carlton wingman between stints with Fitzroy and St Kilda through the early 1960s, has died after a long illness. He was 77.

Of diminutive stature, McMaster-Smith stood just 169 centimetres tall and tipped the scales at 61 kilograms wringing wet. Regardless, he stood tall through 54 League appearances in total and relished every moment. As he told The Age’s Peter Hanlon in a touching interview back in 2011, he liked the old sportsman’s lament: “’Once you hear the roar of the crowd, you hear it for the rest of your life”.

McMaster-Smith’s wife Heather, who had met the then Fitzroy footballer at an after-match function in 1960, recalled that her husband suffered an early setback in a game for the Lions, when a wayward finger almost blinded him in one eye.

“He also lost a contact lens on Brunswick Street Oval, but almost unbelievably he found it the next day,” Heather said.

After just 13 senior appearances with Fitzroy, McMaster-Smith found his way to Carlton, the club he’d followed as a kid in Kyabram. On the eve of the fifth round of 1962, when Graham Donaldson withdrew with an infected leg, McMaster-Smith got his first call-up for the Blues, in what was a baptism of fire at Princes Park.

Carlton met Essendon in what would prove a dress rehearsal to the ’62 Grand Final, sharing space in midfield with Berkley Cox and Murray Kick. Regrettably, the hosts fell 45 points short, and Jim Carroll, in his second and last game for the club, was reported for landing one on the rough noggin of the Bombers’ Ian ‘Bluey’ Shelton.

Former Carlton ruckman Ken Greenwood, who shared following duties with John Nicholls in that match, was saddened to learn of McMaster-Smith’s passing.

“Bruce was a terrific little bloke – very popular and very well-liked,” Greenwood said.

“He was lightning quick, very fast. He was a good little footballer too, and while he had speed and ability, size might have gone against him.

“He was playing off a wing before the finals series in ’62, but I think the selectors felt he was too small to be playing on the MCG and they went with bigger wingmen going into the finals.”

Former Carlton wingman Bruce McMaster-Smith. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

Though he wasn’t to feature in any of Carlton’s four finals contests that year, McMaster-Smith made a real impression– sharing Carlton’s most Brownlow votes (10) with Peter Falconer on the night Geelong’s Alistair Lord took Charlie home.

Through three seasons in guernsey No.40, McMaster-Smith turned out 26 times for Carlton – the last of them against Footscray in the fourth round of ’64 at Princes Park.

McMaster-Smith was cleared to St Kilda after the 1964 season and, to script, booted the match-winning goal in the dying seconds of his first senior game for the Saints – Round 11, 1965 versus you know who at Moorabbin.

Greenwood recalled McMaster-Smith bobbing up in that ill-fated match against Carlton. As he said: “Bruce let fly with a kick from the wing late in the game which sunk us – and he was pretty happy about that”.

A further 14 matches for St Kilda, the last of them Grand Final day ’65, rounded out McMaster-Smith’s League career – and Greenwood believed that the man’s effervescent personality served him well beyond his playing days.

“Bruce was really talkative, and if memory serves he went into car sales, which would have suited him as he had the gift of the gab.”

McMaster-Smith was only the second of 13 Carlton players ever to sport the number 40 at senior level after the late Don Rainsford – the-three gamer of 1950 more famously remembered as a voiceover man for the Seven Network.

The number 40 was most recently worn into senior football by the 150-game record holder in it, Michael Jamison, and is now the property of Jesse Glass-McCasker.

In Hanlon’s article of 2011, headlined ‘The enduring battler’, McMaster-Smith, then recovering from his second stroke and having suffered a heart attack, kidney disease and prostate cancer, reflected on his good fortune in chasing the leather with the likes of Kevin Murray, John Nicholls and Darrel Baldock.

Considering himself incredibly fortunate to have run the MCG wing one last time in front 105,000 on Grand Final day ’65, McMaster-Smith’s League days were done at 26 – and yet he always maintained a love for the game and an empathy for those at the heart of the contest at a time when football’s never been more scrutinised.

As he told Hanlon: “A player’s given 100 per cent physical effort, he takes a mark in front of goal, and you see him heaving. He’s sobbing with exhaustion, his muscles are like lumps of lead, sweat’s running into his eyes, his limbs are quivering. And he misses. And the crowd says as one, ‘We’ve gotta get rid of that %$#! He can’t kick!’ ”

McMaster-Smith, an uncle to the Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson, died in a nursing home in Ferntree Gully on Tuesday. He is survived by his wife Heather, daughter Robyn, son Andrew, daughter-in-law Belinda and grandson James. Heather spoke for all of them when she said: “Bruce was very outgoing, very friendly and very loyal . . . he was a nice bloke”.

The Carlton footballers will wear black armbands into Sunday’s match with GWS at Etihad Stadium as a mark of respect.