Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Lilian O’Cock was very proud of her father-in-law, Wally O’Cock, Carlton’s first league goalkicker.

The 94-year-old daughter-in-law of Wally O’Cock – the first player to kick a goal for Carlton in League competition – has forwarded to the Club a collection of previously unseen photographs, certificates and general correspondence chronicling the man’s life and career.

Lilian O’Cock, whose late husband Horace was Wally’s son, was also able to shed her own precious memories of the famous Carlton figure, with whom she first made acquaintance in New South Wales almost 80 years ago.

“I was 16 when I met Wally in Holbrook. He was a very kind man,” Lilian said.

“I met him in 1938, the war broke out the following year and Horrie went to the Middle East in ’40.”

The story of Wallace Alfred Richard O’Cock is this. He was born in the Melbourne inner-city suburb of Clifton Hill on June 17, 1875. His father, was a bank manager named Alfred Ferrie O’Cock, his mother, Anne Wallace, and records indicate that Wally’s paternal grandfather originally hailed from Somerset in south west England

The dedicated club website Blueseum notes that Wally joined Carlton in its final year in the VFA (1896) and was one of the first players considered for selection for the opening round match of the fledgling VFL – Saturday, May 8, 1897. It also notes that Wally lined up a placekick in the second quarter of the match against Fitzroy at Brunswick Street and sent it sailing through the posts – the history-making six-pointer, Carlton’s first.

That July, after being laid up for a period with injury, Wally endeavoured to force his way back into the Carlton team. Initially he was overlooked for selection after failing to obtain a medical clearance, but the Club registered him under the name Alfred Wallace and he promptly booted two goals in a match-winning performance against the Fuschias.

The Wallace surname is itself famous in sporting circles. Wally’s uncle Donald Smith Wallace was an MP and pastoralist who owned the respective Melbourne Cup winners of 1888 and 1890, Mentor and Carbine – and as a descendant Graeme Cumbrae-Stewart OAM said in a previous interview, “the story goes that Donald got Carbine on the cheap”.

Wally’s 15 goals from ten matches through season 1897 earned him the plaudits as Carlton’s first leading goalkicker. He would manage a further 31 appearances for the Club over the next four years, despite having been in absentia for all of 1900 for reasons unknown.

He was only a few days short of his 26th birthday when he turned out for Carlton for the last time, against Essendon at the East Melbourne Football Ground in June 1901. He later fronted for a local outfit in Preston, but his glory days on the paddock were long gone.

“I remember Dad telling me that Wally was a nuggety little bloke with a fiery temper,” said Cumbrae-Stewart.

“I believe he had to give up footy after he copped a spike from a boot to his leg. He was also left with a permanent limp, which forced him to give up his work as a commercial traveller with MacRobertson’s.”

Cumbrae-Stewart’s story is borne out in Lilian’s precious images of Wally, who carried a walking stick in later life.

Old photos Lilian has kept show her husband Horace and her father-in-law Wally making their way to the MCG
in 1937. (Photo: Carlton Media) 

According to Cumbrae-Stewart, Wally relocated to the small southern New South Wales town of Holbrook to work for his brother-in-law Adam Anderson and his wife Alice who managed at property called Wentworth.

“He later took on his own property, but fire wind and rain ruined it and he went broke,” Cumbrae-Stewart said. “He then started as a stock and sales agent in Holbrook, during which time he and his wife Luisa Durrant raised six children.”

But Wally would ultimately return to Melbourne, as Lilian explained.

“Towards the end of his life, he came down from Holbrook and for a brief time lived with an aunt of Barry Humphries in North Caulfield,” she said. “He returned to Holbrook to live with his eldest daughter, but then asked my husband and I if he could come back down to live with us, at 55 Norwood Road, Caulfield North.”

Wally O’Cock was 74 years of age when he died in Richmond’s Epworth Hospital on June 14, 1951. His body was returned to Holbrook, and laid to rest in a grave shared with his beloved wife who died nine years previous.

It’s now almost 120 years since Wally O’Cock created history for Carlton, and Lilian is almost certainly the last living person to have known him.

Thanks to her, Wally’s story endures.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

John Nicholls leads the victory lap for the 1970 Grand Final. Brian Bearman is pictured on the far left wearing the tie. (Photo: C & J Stuckey Pty Ltd Photographics)

Tributes are being paid to the long-serving Carlton statistician Brian Bearman, who died recently at the age of 82.

Brian’s working relationship with Carlton took in the Barassi era and beyond, and spanned almost 40 years. His loyalty to the club was rewarded with Life Membership in the club’s Premiership year of 1987.

Five years previous, Brian’s brother Ken was awarded Life Membership for services as timekeeper. In 2000, Brian’s son Lewis was similar recognised for his contributions as a statistician – “three Life Members of the Carlton Football Club none of whom ever played a game,” as Lewis observed.

Born on November 12, 1933 in Manchester, Brian Bearman, together with his brothers and parents, boarded the first Australian-bound passenger ship from the UK after the Second World War. The Bearmans made the move as Brian’s grandmother was advised that a warmer climate was in the best interests of her health – and she pitched for Australia because she heard you couldn’t get a decent cup of tea in South Africa.

On disembarking the vessel in Brisbane in 1947, the Bearmans settled in the city, only to relocate to Melbourne five years later.

When Barassi accepted the role of Carlton Captain-coach on the cusp of the 1965 season, Ken Bearman was already keeping time for the club. According to Lewis: “Barassi wanted a statistician and Ken said to his brother ‘you love the club – you can do that’.

“And that’s exactly what happened. From ’65, Brian started keeping stats with people like Margaret and Grant Salomon and his good mate the late Ron Bromley. Then in 2000 when Wayne Brittain took over and replaced a lot of statisticians with a lot of computers, Brian stayed on for a couple of years with the Carlton Heritage Committee.”

James Koochew, Brian’s successor as Carlton’s head statistician in 1994, said that he was but a young man of 26 at the time “and Brian had been doing the job for longer than I’d been alive”.

“I remember that Geoff Walsh made the announcement that I was taking over and Brian was the first bloke to stand up to offer his congratulations,” James said.

“That was a measure of the man. He was a true gentleman.”

In more recent years, and though his friendship with Stephen Gough, Brian fulfilled duties as a guide at the National Sports Museum. But he remained an active Carlton supporter to the end.

“There’s a photograph of Dad running a victory lap with ‘Big Nick’ and the Carlton players after taking stats in the 1970 Grand Final,” Lewis said. “That moment was one of the joys of his life – to run the victory lap with them.”

Brian Bearman died peacefully in Cabrini Palliative Care. He is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years Ruth, son Lewis, daughter Tanya now living in the United Kingdom, and four grandchildren.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Left to right: Carlton 49ers Don Hyde AM, Hugh Cornell and George Handley.

Their ranks may be thinning – it’s 67 years ago after all – but members of Carlton’s under-19 premiership team of 1949 – “the Carlton 49ers” – this week celebrated past glories with gusto at a reunion in neighbouring East Brunswick’s Gelobar Café.

Of the 19 who took the chocolates from Geelong in that Grand Final (9.8 (62) to 7.9 (51)), only three managed to make it along – chief organiser Hugh Cornell, George Handley and Don Hyde AM.

Notwithstanding the seven team members who have since died and a further five whose whereabouts remain unknown, four more including captain Alan ‘Alby’ Mangels (the father of Carlton’s 88-gamer Alan jun.) fired in their apologies for various reasons.

But there lending support was Alan Bell (son of the then Carlton Secretary Harry Bell, the Spirit of Carlton’s Dennis Munari and the club’s resident statistician Stephen Williamson.

“When I think about the ’49ers I think about those players who went on to become top players at League level,” said Hyde, who so capably called League football on radio and television for almost 40 years.

“I think of Harry Sullivan, Keith Robinson, Max Thomas and so on. I think back and I say to myself, ‘Gee, I played with those guys’.”

Brunswick-born and bred, and an old St Joseph’s North Melbourne boy, Hyde later represented the Kangaroos at reserve grade level because he was residentially tied to the club. He also chased the leather at Deniliquin and Maryborough, during which time he began to pursue a career in radio.

“I remember one day at Deniliquin the manager said to me ‘Our main commentator is not available – you play, so you must be able to broadcast’ – and that’s how it all started,” he said.

The ’49 triumph completed back-to-back grand final victories for the team, whose members also include Ian Clover and Dick Gill, the sons of Carlton greats Horrie Clover and Frank Gill respectively. Jim Francis, the Carlton Premiership player at senior level in 1938, served as coach throughout that period, having assumed 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.

Don Hyde AM views the team photo.

“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).

Cornell has 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.

“It was a difficult task after 50 years trying to find out where all the lads were, but we’ve effectively been meeting every year since ’99,” Cornell said.

Carlton FC Under 19 Premiers, 1949

Carlton players pictured are as follows;

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.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Barney Lazarus was Carlton’s first Jewish footballer.

When the Carlton Football Club acknowledges the many and varied contributions of members of its vibrant Jewish community at the President’s Luncheon this Sunday, thoughts tend to turn to the Smorgons and the Pratts at board level rather than those who have made their mark as Carlton players.

True, Richard Pratt, in another life as the club’s resident Under 19 ruckman, took out the 1953 Morrish Medal for competition best and fairest before life led him on a vastly different career path.

Before Dick was Fitzroy’s three-gamer of 1897 Herbert (“Bert) Rapiport – acknowledged as League footballer’s first Jewish footballer – who fronted up for Carlton in a few exhibition matches through the 1800s – amongst them an exhibition game on the MCG in tribute to A.G Spalding, a visiting American whose family established the famous sporting goods chain.

But as neither Pratt nor Rapiport played a senior League game, one must turn back the hands to 1902, to identify Carlton’s first Jewish senior footballer – one “Barney” Lazarus – who completed his senior debut for the Old Dark Navy Blues, against Geelong at Corio Oval, in the eighth round of 1902.

Named on a half-back flank, Barney was part of Carlton history on that winter afternoon in June, as the visitors’ narrow four-point victory was their first over the Pivotonians since the VFL’s inception five years previous.

Barnett Joseph Lazarus was born in London on December 18, 1879. He was a boy of six when his parents led him down the gangway of a Sydney-bound sailing ship before relocating not long afterwards to the colony of Melbourne.

Recruited to Carlton from Carlton Juniors after plying his early footballing craft at neighboring Princes Hill (and possibly Prahran), Barney would represent the seniors in just seven appearances, the last of them the 15^th Round of 1902, in what was Jack Worrall’s maiden season as club secretary.

At some point following the completion of his Carlton career, Barney relocated to Sydney. The NSW Australian Football History Society records that Barney turned out for Redfern through the 1907-’10 seasons, during which time he also represented the Combined Sydney outfit in matches against the likes of South Melbourne, Norwood and Fitzroy; and New South Wales against Geelong, Collingwood, Queensland and North Adelaide.

Little is known of Barney’s life after the game (and only this grainy image puts a face to the name). But the dedicated Carlton supporter and part-time genealogist Bernie Kuran recently shed more light.

Barney, it seems, married in 1912 and died 50 years later, on May 6, 1962 at the age of 83. He was laid to rest at Sydney’s Rookwood Jewish Cemetery – according to cemetery records in plot 259 in section 19, row 13.

At Rookwood, his Hebrew name is identified as Boruch ben Leib (Son of Leib).

But at Blueland, it’s Barney.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

From left to right: Vin Catoggio sen., Vin Catoggio and Dom Catoggio.

The Afro, the pirouette, the sidestep – it was all part of the Vin Catoggio persona when the great man was strutting his stuff through winter Saturdays at Princes Park.

And yet, who would know that one of the most endearing of all Carlton footballers followed in the footsteps of another Vin Catoggio – “Uncle Vin” to the 71-game cult hero?

The existence of Vin Catoggio I came to light recently when Jamie Sanderson of www.blueseum.org forwarded an image (below) to the club of the Carlton District Grand Final team of 1958. Featured amongst the Rovers’ ranks, sporting the famed CFC guernsey, is Vin Catoggio esq., who we’ll refer to as Vin Catoggio sen. for the purposes of this article.

Carlton District, 1958 premiers. Vin Catoggio sen. is pictured on the far left in the middle row.

Vin Catoggio jun., when contacted for comment this week, confirmed that the Vin in question was one of three Catoggio brothers, and a lifelong Carlton Member and supporter to boot.

“Vin was a brother to my father Leo who died last year and to Uncle Joe who died 12 years ago, so he’s the last of that line,” Catoggio jun. said.

“With respect I still call him Uncle Vin. Him and his dear wife Betty, together with my cousin Dom and his wife Evon, always ring mum up and take her out to lunch, and she’s 90 now.

“Uncle Vin ended up playing for Preston in a Premiership in the VFA in the early 1960s. He was a left footer, a very good kick, and he played off a half back flank, but you know what? I’ve never asked him if he could twist or turn and I don’t know if he wore No.4.”

Catoggio jun. also revealed that another uncle on his mother’s side – Dom Catoggio, now nearing 80 – was a contemporary of Sergio Silvagni’s in the Carlton thirds of 1955/56.

“Uncle Dom was a Catoggio also, even though he was on the other side of the family. His father and my mother’s father were first cousins. Dom was a good player too, he played a few reserves games for Carlton in ’57, but he did his knee later on at Yarragon, and that was the end of him.”

The Catoggio name is still inextricably linked with both the football club and the Carlton area, remembering that Vin’s mother lives within the shadows of the old Princes Park ground on Garton Street – not far from where Vin, at 124 Garton, was once domiciled.

Uncle Dom, meanwhile, lived on Rathdowne Street, across the road from the old taxi depot.

When this reporter made a follow-up call to Catoggio sen. recently, the voice on the other end replied: “Have you got the right Vin?”.

Once that was settled, Catoggio sen. conceded that his name had posed an issue or two over the journey – particularly when Vin jun. was up and running in the ’70s. As he said: “Supporters used to ring me thinking I was the bloke running around for Carlton in the No.4, but I played for Carlton Rovers and I wore the No.20”.

“In saying that, I just dragged out an old record from when I was playing for Carlton fourths, and would you I’m listed in the team sheet as No.4.”

Catoggio sen., now 77, explained that after completing his national service at Puckapunyal in April 1957 he pursued his own football career at senior level.

“I thought about going over the road to try out at Carlton, but I thought the list was already set, so I followed a mate of mine, Bernie Quix, to Carlton Rovers,” he said. “Not walking across the ground to ask the question is the one regret I have, because who knows?”

Catoggio sen. was no slouch either, as Carlton Rovers was part of what was then a vibrant Sunday competition, which drew big numbers and attracted League types like North’s Jock Spencer and Jack Edwards, Richmond’s Don “Mopsy” Fraser and Essendon’s Norm McDonald – the latter whom Catoggio sen. once stood.

“Carlton Rovers used to play on the No.1 Oval where the Carlton Cricket Club is based now. We shared the ground with Carlton Stars,” Catoggio sen. said.

“In 1958 we played Kensington in the Grand Final. Jock Spencer was playing for Kensington, while Jack Streader – a Fitzroy ruckman and pretty good player – played for us. I think we got up by five points and I had a good game.”

Catoggio sen. remained with Rovers until the end of the ’61 season, before joining VFA outfit Sandringham in ’62.

That proved a logistical nightmare.

“I had to drive from North Carlton to training and by the time I got to training they were walking off,” Catoggio sen. said.

“I only played reserves there and in ’62 I went to Preston (now Northern Blues). Having played most of the season for Preston reserves I was called up for the finals and was part of the winning Grand Final team of ’63. We beat Waverley and the game was played at Toorak Park.”

He then turned out for a few more Preston senior games in ’64, took line honours in the club’s reserve grade best and fairest count , then got his marching orders in ’65. He turned out for one more season with Diamond Valley Football League outfit Reservoir Lakeside, then gave the game away.

Then, when Catoggio jun. burst onto the scene, Uncle Vin was back with a vengeance.

“Watching Vin play was really enjoyable. I used to go to every match at Princes Park with cousin Dom, and the two families never missed.”

Former Carlton cult hero Vin Catoggio pictured in 1979. 

Though the days of Carlton Rovers are long gone, the spiritual home, to this day, remains fundamental to the Catoggio raison d’etre.

“Even now I walk Princes Park every Sunday,” said Catoggio jun., “and when I get to the ground I go into a daze.

“That’s when I think about getting a footy and balking the elms like I used to in the old days.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media

Former Carlton footballer Angelo Azzopardi, the son of Australia’s first Maltese free settler. (Photo: Blueseum)

If multiculturalism means “the existence, acceptance, or promotion of multiple cultural traditions within a single jurisdiction” then Carlton can surely claim football’s multicultural dominion.

Amongst the club’s historic ranks is a solid collective born beyond Australian shores – from the Indian-born Fred Pringle through to the London-born Wayne Blackwell.

Then there are those boasting generational links with the old world – from Wally Koochew, whose father was Chinese and mother of Nordic extraction, through to Anthony Koutoufides, the son of a Greek Egyptian-born father and Italian-born mother.

Another such Carltonite was truly of another time. His name was Angelo Azzopardi, whom history records was the son of Australia’s first Maltese free settler.

The much-resourced Carlton historic website www.blueseum.org, through its dedicated researcher Pete McLean, unearthed precious details of Australia’s first Azzopardi family.

Angelo’s father, the seaman Antonio Azzopardi, was born in Zejtun, a city in the south eastern region of Malta, in 1805. An image of him is included in the photographic montage published by Thomas Foster Chuck in 1872 entitled “The Explorers and Early Colonists of Victoria and he is listed as number 84, “A. Azzopardi”.

Antonio Azzopardi, Australia’s first Maltese free settler. 

Antonio deisembarked the barque Mary Hay in Melbourne in 1839 – just four years after the city’s founding by John Batman. Antonio initially toiled as a mail contractor before turning his hand to the publishing game as a canvasser with Melbourne’s The Herald newspaper. In time he acquired RM Abbott’s printing works and duly pursued a career in the printing profession.

Antonio’s son Angelo (later to represent the Carlton Football Club in its pre-VFA years), was born in this city on August 8, 1846 – one of four children (three brothers and a sister) raised by Antonio and his Scottish-born wife Margaret Hannah Sandeman, who had exchanged marital vows at the Congregational Church the previous October.

At one point, Angelo and his siblings followed their mother back to their homeland, and legend has it that on his return aboard the SS Great Britain, Angelo spoke with a Sean Connery-esque brogue.

Back in Melbourne, and according to The Dictionary of Australian Artists Online (DAAO), Angelo Azzopardi followed his father into the printing profession, and pursued a career as artist-engraver and publisher.

An early Azzopardi football engraving.

At some point in the 1870s, Angelo established an independent printing business headquartered in the Herald Passage – an old cobblestone lane tucked behind the city’s GPO Building. For a time he workd in partnership with Oliver Levey, a subsequent owner of The Herald, and later Hildreth & Co. Angelo’s presence obviously impacted on local planners, as a 1937 edition of Morgan’s Melbourne street directory lists the passageway as “Angelo Lane”.

That lane was later incorporated into the Myer complex.

Angelo alsogained local fame as a watercolour painter who exhibited his works at the 1866 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition. He also pursued an interest as an engraver and silversmith by way of the Eureka Electrotype and Stereotype foundry out of 17-19 La Trobe Street, between Exhibition and Springs Streets at the top end of town.

According to newspaper records, Angelo turned out for Carlton through two stints – 1868-1870 and 1875. He was named for the club in five matches in his maiden season, which took on rivals such as Geelong, South Yarra and Emerald Hill, but it remains unclear as to how many matches he actually participated in.

The 19^th century publication, “The Footballer”, carries on one of its front cover a sketch of what appears to be a Geelong footballer in full flight as he carries the ball. Beneath the figure’s left  heel in small print, appears the name Azzoppardi. Could this be the footballer or the artist?

Angelo James Azzopardi was 49 when he died in neighbouring Brunswick on January 18, 1896 – a year before Carlton became a foundation member of the fledgling VFL.

A death notice acknowledged that Angelo died suddenly at his home, 74 Cassels Road, just off Moreland Road, and was survived by his dear wife Annie, who co-incidentally was also a Scot.

One hundred and twenty years after Angelo’s untimely passing, the Azzopardi name remains inextricably linked to this football club’s stirring multicultural story.

More By Tony De Bolfo, Carlton Media