The Spirit of Carlton Past and Present would like to extend its condolences to the James family upon learning that John James passed away in his Robinvale house this morning (8th of December) at the age of 76. John James was a multiple best and fairest winner, brownlow medallist, team of the century and hall of fame member and a much loved part of the Carlton family.

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Carlton Brownlow Medallist John James dies

By Tony De Bolfo

James, recruited to Carlton from the famed football college, St Pat’s Ballarat, in the lead-up to the 1953 season, completed his debut against Footscray at Princes Park in the opening round of that year.

Initially employed as a half-forward at Carlton, James earned best first year player honours from the late Max Wenn, and yet the unhealthy goalkicking tally of 8.43 for the season perhaps hastened his relocation to back half, which was of course the making of him as a pre-eminent League footballer.

James, together with centre half-back Peter Webster and the late Denis Zeunert formed one of the more formidable Carlton half-back lines of the mid-1950s.

Zeunert, who together with centre half-back Peter Webster and James formed one of the more formidable Carlton half-back lines, once said of James: “I don’t know whether he had a magnet in his shorts or what, but he could be running the other way and the ball would always bounce into his arms”.

“He had a terrific reading of the game,” said Zeunert.

From www.carltonfc.com.au, click here to read more.

Join the growing band of Spirit of Carlton members and rub shoulders with some of the greats of the Carlton Football Club. If interested please see our membership page and download our application form.

Please download the Spirit of Carlton membership application form using the link below.

Spirit of Carlton Membership Subscription 2011

The entire current Carlton Football Club playing group, past players, supporters and sponsors all enjoyed a wonderful day of golf and Carlton comraderie on a sunny day down at the Portsea Golf Club. The Carlton players were in town on a week long training camp which included a bike ride from Princes Park all the way down to Sorrento. The culmination of the week was the Spirit of Carlton golf day where everyone got to enjoy a day of competition and sharing stories. The picture on the left was kindly supplied by Spirit of Carlton facebook friend, Steve Khatib (centre of the picture),  who is ‘The Golf Doctor’, a passionate Carlton supporter, and can be heard on Radio Sport 927AM every Tuesday morning 8.30-9.00am.

By Tony De Bolfo

About 303 kilometres north of Albany, way down in the far south of Western Australia, is the tiny wheatbelt town of Kukerin. To the south west of Kukerin is Lake Dumbleyung where, in December, 1964, the late Sir Donald Campbell established a new world water speed record.

With the harvest now in full swing, the Kukerin farmers have put down their heads – for work is hard and gain is slim when the land is ravaged by the on-going effects of prolonged drought.

“The people are so close, and we’ve had some pretty extreme events in the past few years,” says Ross Ditchburn, Carlton’s 1982 premiership-winning full-forward and Kukerin country’s most famous football export.

“In 2004 we had a bushfire, and the whole community stopped what was happening and went to the aid of all those who were affected by the fire. This year there’s obviously a drought, and again the whole community’s got behind eachother to make sure they’re all being looked after, and that if someone hasn’t appeared for a while that they’re contacted to make sure they’re all okay.

Last weekend provided some welcome, albeit brief respite for the good people of Kukerin, when the Spirit of Carlton’s past players came to town.

Richard Dennis, Des English, Wayne Harmes, Ken Hunter, Syd Jackson, David McKay and Geoff Southby, together with the former property steward Ken Kleiman, the Spirit of Carlton’s Bob Lowrie, The Blueseum’s Jamie Sanderson and this reporter, all made the long journey to Kukerin, to renew acquaintance with Ditchburn, the man they know endearingly as “The Farmer”.

Not since the early 1980s, when the then senior coach David Parkin and football manager Shane O’Sullivan crossed the continent to win “Ditchy’s” services, has a Carltonite completed the trek – the triple premiership player Ken Sheldon aside.

But the aforementioned group of former players, who between them share in 17 Grand Final triumphs for Carlton, were truly committed to the cause, not only to see their old mate, but to share in his vision for the bigger picture issue of men’s health.

This story has its origins in Melbourne some months ago, after news came through that Ditchburn, the 28-game player who once reaped a bumper crop of 12 goals in a match against St Kilda at VFL Park, was battling prostate cancer.

When members of the Spirit of Carlton made contact to offer personal assistance, Ditchburn instead suggested that a sportsman’s night be staged in Kukerin to raise funding and awareness for men’s health.

“The night was never going to be a benefit for ‘Ditchy’,” Lowrie explained. “It was his wish that the night was to be supportive of the bigger picture issue of men’s health, and we said ‘No worries’.”

More than 170 people, mostly men who had found time away from their properties in Kukerin, Lake Grace and other locales, filed through the doors of the Kukerin Pioneers Memorial Hall for the event, which earned the support of the Bendigo Bank. There they heard from men’s health experts and shared in the personal experiences of Ken Hunter, Des English and of course, Ditchburn himself.

In the end, around $20,000 was raised for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, the Black Dog Institute and RFDS – all generated from ticket sales and auction returns, together with Wayne Harmes’ generous gift of $10,000 worth of lime won in a local raffle but donated back to the Kukerin community.

More significantly, 56 men in attendance for the sportsman’s night took advantage of free blood testing at the nearby Kukerin Medical Centre the following morning, with the samples forwarded to Dr. Michael Aitken, Carlton’s one-game senior player of 1985, for further analysis. And as Ditchburn observed: “I’m pretty confident with the current statistics around that there are a couple who will get a phonecall and go in for a biopsy”.

“To get 56 guys through a set-up like that in a morning was just an awesome effort . . . and how good would it be if we can save a life out of that?,” Ditchburn said.

“It’s all about early detection whether it be prostate cancer, skin cancer or diabetes – treat the problem and nine times out of ten you’ll get out of it okay”.

By Sunday afternoon, as the sun began to set over Kukerin, Ditchburn finally found time to reflect on the weekend’s events – a kick-off involving Dennis and Hunter in which a Burley footy was booted over an 80,000-ton wheat storage bin; a rowdy session of lawn bowls involving the Carlton types and the town’s locals, and the great yabby hunt which took in three dams dotted around the vast expanses of the Ditchburn family property.

And of course, the campaign for men’s health.

“It’s been the greatest weekend I’ve ever experienced. We’ve covered such a wide range of issues of men’s health, and we’ve met so many people who have turned up in Kukerin,” Ditchburn said.

“The quality of speakers on men’s health, the boys of the Spirit of Carlton, and the feedback has been so positive. The people have really gained a great appreciation of the players, and I know out of the weekend we’ve got some signed-up Spirit of Carlton members who aren’t Carlton supporters, which reflects the pretty big impact the boys have made.”

Ditchburn also flagged a future get-together, suggesting that “now that they(the past players) have been here once, if they got the opportunity and had a couple of weeks spare, maybe they’d make the effort to come back and see me again”.

“That might not happen, but it’s just been fantastic for those guys to see where I live . . . and I hope they’ve gained an appreciation of what I’m about,” Ditchburn said.

“They call me ‘The Farmer’, I live in a pretty special place, the people are pretty special, and it’s a great place to live.”

With the Carlton back-to-back premiership teams of 1981 and ’82 to be lauded 30 years on from next year, expect Ditchburn to be in Melbourne come rain, hail or shine.

As he said: “I’ll be there for sure. Just tell me where and when and I’ll be there.”

“The boys might have whinged a little about jumping on a plane and travelling four hours by bus to get to Kukerin, but gee, every time there’s a reunion on in Carlton they’ve never thought anything of me having to drive to Perth for four hours, jump on a plane, to Melbourne, get back and then drive home again – and that’s something I’d do without even thinking. I’d never miss a reunion with these guys,” Ditchburn said.

“That’s what I stress to young footballers. It doesn’t matter what level you play at – if you play in a premiership side you’re remembered for the rest of your life.”

And what of “The Farmer” himself? For him, this story carries an even happier ending.

“I’m pretty confident that the surgeon has taken enough of the prostate for me not to have a recurrence. I’m still dealing with impotency issues, and I’m not frightened to talk about it. Men’s health is something I’m pretty passionate about,” he said.

“I’m actually a shire councillor with the Shire of Dumbleyung and the deputy president, and I enjoy talking about men’s health issues more than I do committing my time to local government.

“This might be something I look closer at in the future. If I want to spend a bit of time off the farm I’d rather be helping men become aware of potential problems, rather than spend my time arguing with ratepayers and dealing with the red tape. So we’ll see where it leads.”

Those of us of a certain vintage would remember well the old Four ‘n’ Twenty pies commercial with greats such as Jack ‘Captain Blood’ Dyer and Ted ‘Mr Football’ Whitten. It is a rollicking tune with a group of footballers on a bus. On the way back from Kukerin while watching the 1979 premiership DVD, Bob Lowrie must have looked around the bus we were travelling in and had some flashbacks to this great old ad. So an idea was born and the ‘Spirit of Carlton’ singers belted out their own rendition of the ad on a stop somewhere between Wagin and Dumbleyung.

Senior statesman of the group Ken Kleiman took up the Jack Dyer role with gusto and Geoff Southby and David McKay provided great leadership in the singalong. If any Four ‘n’ Twenty executives read this article and wish to use the Spirit of Carlton singers for any future advertisements just get your people to talk to our people.

During the recent road trip by the Spirit of Carlton to Kukerin in West Australia three past Blue champions gave their own personal accounts of their own issues with men’s health. Ross Ditchburn, Ken Hunter and Geoff Southby each provide honest, heartfelt and humorous account of issues surrounding depression and prostate cancer. Recommended viewing for anyone currently effected by these issues.

Legends abound around our great brown land about the country kid who ‘could kick a bag of spuds over a wheat silo’. This folklore is ingrained, it is a part of who we are and is a unique aspect of the Aussie rules dominated parts of the country, in particular the wheat belts.

Every year the Royal Hotel at Mirrool holds a competition to see who can kick a footy over the local wheat silo. This was won famously by Billy Brownless in 1987.

So it was little wonder that when looking out of the Kukerin pub at the goliath that is the 80,000 ton capacity Kukerin wheat bin, an idea crossed the minds of the tired, parched and bedraggled Spirit of Carlton boys.

“Can we kick a footy over that?”

So it was with a spirit of adventure that Ken Hunter and Richard Dennis trecked across the road the next day. Hamstrings were stretched for fear of breaking, the locally procured Burley ball was tested for proper inflation and shape. A strong cross breeze was coursing across the flat dry wheat fields.

This was no small task, Richard had not kicked a full sized footy for at least two years, Ken wanted the glory but not an injury.

… to prove champions never die wondering both men succeeded in defeating the Kukerin Wheat Bin, Richard with a flat punt and Ken with a lovely left footer.

So the challenge is now out there, for the boys of Kukerin, to become a man the Kukerin Wheat Bin must be cleared. In fact people Australia wide should flock to Kukerin to take on the challenge and video tape it for prosperity. Can you kick a footy over the Kukerin wheat bin?

On the 19th of November in Kukerin, West Australia Wheatbelt Men’s Health community educator Owen Catto gave a talk about how important it was for men in rural communities to take take issues regarding their health seriously. The Spirit of Carlton recorded the talk and present it here. If you have a mate you think might benefit from this message pass it on to him.

When you think of the Carlton Football Club, the small township of Kukerin, 300 kms southeast of Perth in the vast West Australian wheat belt does not come to mind. Yet, it is from this remote area of Australia that Ross Ditchburn was born and bred, a classic country superboot who travelled across the country to become a premiership player for the Blues in 1982.

When the Spirit of Carlton learnt about Ross’ recent battle with prostate cancer and Ross’ determination to spread the message of mens health awareness throughout rural communities the idea of a mens health weekend supported by the Spirit of Carlton was born. Keep returning over coming days for further details from this marathon footy trip across the country to support a very good cause.

In the meantime enjoy a pictorial summary of the trip from Spirit of Carlton TV on youtube.

In round 12, on the Friday night stage at Etihad Stadium, Carlton suffered what could be called a network breakdown.

Against North Melbourne, the main systems instrumental in the Blues’ promising start of seven wins and four losses failed to connect.

Explaining reasons for the 29-point loss, coach Brett Ratten referred to the usual culprits: “A lack of intensity and skill errors,” he said. “We gave the ball back too easily. That diminished our confidence to run and spread and get involved.”

This is a standard coaching admission that, in reality, reveals nothing. There is no mention of an opposition out there on the playing field, and what it did to stuff up the best intentions of Carlton’s plan. No acknowledgement of the Disruptive Pattern Theory, which was in effect during this game.

Anyone familiar with computer systems should be familiar with the theory. A simple network glitch breeds panic. There is no plan B. What next? No clues! The Roos-Blues game is a good example of how the theory applies in action.

North was outstanding at disconnecting Carlton’s plan A, and then pouncing on the opportunities available. Without an apparent plan B, the Blues looked lacklustre. As Ratten lamented, giving the ball back too easily was certainly the case.

In round 12, on the Friday night stage at Etihad Stadium, Carlton suffered what could be called a network breakdown.

Against North Melbourne, the main systems instrumental in the Blues’ promising start of seven wins and four losses failed to connect.

Explaining reasons for the 29-point loss, coach Brett Ratten referred to the usual culprits: “A lack of intensity and skill errors,” he said. “We gave the ball back too easily. That diminished our confidence to run and spread and get involved.”

This is a standard coaching admission that, in reality, reveals nothing. There is no mention of an opposition out there on the playing field, and what it did to stuff up the best intentions of Carlton’s plan. No acknowledgement of the Disruptive Pattern Theory, which was in effect during this game.

Anyone familiar with computer systems should be familiar with the theory. A simple network glitch breeds panic. There is no plan B. What next? No clues! The Roos-Blues game is a good example of how the theory applies in action.

North was outstanding at disconnecting Carlton’s plan A, and then pouncing on the opportunities available. Without an apparent plan B, the Blues looked lacklustre. As Ratten lamented, giving the ball back too easily was certainly the case.

The supposedly lessercredentialled Kangaroos ‘won’ 79 turnovers from the Blues’ disposals and scored a matchwinning 9.8 (62) from these opportunities. In contrast, Carton won only 57 turnovers from North Melbourne disposals and scored just 4.4 (28) from these chances.

Importantly, the Roos knocked the Blues off their perch around the stoppages. Before the game, Carlton’s main strength had been its ability to out-score its opposition from stoppage wins.

During the game, the Blues had an exceptional advantage of 47 clearances to North’s 27. However, this domination resulted in Carlton scoring only 17 points more than the Kangaroos from their respective stoppage wins.

How could these two discrepancies have occurred? What is Carlton’s plan A? How was it derailed? What mattered in this instance is how North Melbourne applied pressure to the Blues’ system, and the effect this pressure had.

Carlton is the most captaindriven club of any. It’s not unlike North Melbourne of the 1990s under skipper Wayne Carey. Like the Carey example, the Carlton system is engaged to accommodate the exceptional talents of Chris Judd.

Watching Judd take flight, drawing opposition flak while teammates, confident he will prevail, are lining up in attacking positions, is among the most compelling forces in footy. It is a mistake to think the system is a one-man-show. If too much attention is paid to Judd, the likes of outstanding lieutenants Marc Murphy and Bryce Gibbs can get you.

Carlton takes pride in its dominance and effectiveness at stoppages. After Geelong, it is the second-best team at outscoring the opposition from stoppage wins. Slick and efficient exits from stoppages also propel Carlton’s run-and-spread caper.

In their seven wins, the Blues have averaged a remarkable 50 more kicks than their opposition, which is the highest kick differential for any winning team. Hence the supply to their revamped livewire forward structure (minus Brendan Fevola) has been top-notch, and the forwards generally have delivered.

But Carlton has lost five games and what has broken down in these losses is revealing. It has suffered a spectacular drop in kicking dominance, averaging 15 fewer kicks than its opposition in these games.

Against North, Judd, Murphy and Gibbs, along with Eddie Betts (five goals), made important contributions. However, the Roos were outstanding at limiting the roles played by the rest of the team.

North Melbourne, a team that usually struggles to outnumber its opposition for total kicks, evened the score with Carlton. Blaming the Blues’ lack of intensity and skill errors for the loss does not give due credit to how good the Roos were at disconnecting the captain’s system.

The sustained pressure North applied produced 31 turnovers forward of centre, while Carlton could manage only eight in its forward half. The result was further endorsement of the Kangaroos’ work-in-progress development. Carlton should also gain valuable lessons for improvement. Handling pressure and applying it are two of the keys to success.

Take note: the grand masters at these capers are Geelong and St Kilda. They clearly disconnect opponents better than any other teams.

‘Carlton’s strength has endured because it has almost always operated in a zone between stagnation and anarchy, “the one place where a complex system can be spontaneous, adaptive, and alive”’.’

Dr Lionel Frost, The Old Dark Navy Blues: A History of the Carlton Football Club (Allen & Unwin, 1998), p. 12.

Fellow blue-bagger

You are warmly invited to the inaugural dinner and launch of

The Hopkins Institute

Where: Brandon Hotel, 237 Station St, Carlton (cnr Lee St).

When: 7.00 for 7.30 pm, Thursday 27 May 2010.
($45 for two courses, drinks over the bar)

Guest Speaker: Ted Hopkins (Author of “The Book of Slab”; aka as a Carlton rover who played 29 games between 68 and 71, including one you all know!)

What is The Hopkins Institute?: A diverse group of Carlton barrackers who share the aim of promoting discussion and celebration of ideas and events related to this great club – our glorious history, the course of the current renaissance, literature about or by Carlton people and the meaning of football and life. It is not an official Carlton Football Club group.

RSVP: ASAP
Scott Hargreaves (contact@scotthargreaves.com.au or 0417564642) or Lachlan Carter (lcarter@vicbar.com.au or 0411694767).

Long before Apple Macintosh guru Steve Jobs cottoned on to the idea of the brilliant iPod music shuffle invention, another kind of shuffle was happening in front of our eyes at the MCG and other footy venues around the country. I am referring to the ‘Hot Potato Shuffle’ warm-up drill before games, in which players swarm together into a tightly packed huddle and start jogging up and down, bumping into each other and shifting places.

The sole object of the drill appears to be shuffling the pill among the players at a distance no less than intimate kissing range. It’s a totally whacky thing to observe for anyone like myself who is steeped in the ancient ritual of a warm-up lap and casual kick-to-kick before games. Now, the Hot Potato Shuffle (like the iPod is to music) has become a ubiquitous feature of football, happening constantly during games, and not just before them.

We know who invented the iPod but who was responsible for this other thing? My research has led me to conclude it was Essendon’s 1993 team – the ‘Baby Bombers’ who won that year’s premiership – which was responsible.

Here is how I think it happened. At the start of 1992, under the stewardship of coach Kevin Sheedy and astute football manager Danny Corcoran, Essendon boasted an outstanding coaching panel that included reserves coach Denis Pagan and assistant coaches Neale Daniher and David Wheadon. Highly regarded recruiter Noel Judkin was also on board.

Sheedy had declared he wanted change and creativity. A new plan was discussed by the panel and hatched: ‘quick hands, speed kills’. Lurking among the Pagan-coached reserves premiership team of 1992 was a special crop of youngsters ripe for schooling in the new plan, including James Hird, Joe Misiti, Mark Mercuri, Steven Alessio, Ricky Olarenshaw, David Calthorpe, Michael Symons and Paul Hills.

The following year, these Baby Bombers progressed to the senior Essendon team. They had already been stamped with Pagan-style commitment to win the contest and adherence to the new team rules and playing style the coaches had introduced them to. During 1993, they also benefited from playing alongside senior luminaries including Michael Long, Mark Harvey, Mark Thompson, Paul Salmon, Gary O’Donnell, Gavin Wanganeen and Darren Bewick.

Adding to the quality influence of leadership that these players represented, veteran champion Tim Watson was coaxed from retirement. As the season progressed, the combination of youth and experience and quick hands was beginning to gel. My observation is that over time, the 1993 Grand Final teams, Essendon and Carlton, had grown to dislike one another intensely, eating at the heart enough to elevate it to a fierce rivalry.

However, there is a dictum in warfare: learn from the enemy. On the Carlton side were the genius hands of Greg Williams. How did he do it? Opponents spent considerable time studying not how to stop ‘Diesel’ – an assignment that was nigh impossible – but how to copy him. While the total package was not easy for mortals to replicate, his method of handballing and not kicking when he picked up the ball in heavy traffic became a model for team rules.

Another ploy hatched by Essendon in 1992 was the use of quick hands to get away from a tackle, with the player instructed to aggressively run and carry the ball into attack. Carlton started the 1993 Grand Final clear favourite. By quarter-time, the Blues looked a beaten side, trailing by 30 points. Essendon was just as fierce at the contests as Carlton, but was also dancing ahead in tune to the quick shuffling of the ball that left the Blues bamboozled and flat-footed.

Long and Mercuri were sublime exponents. Thompson is also listed in the AFL Record Season Guide among the best players that day. Sitting in the box that day was Wheadon, architect of the quick hands, speed kills philosophy. Essendon in 1993 had struck a high note. Long won the Norm Smith Medal and Wanganeen the Brownlow Medal. The Baby Bomber brand was born.

Today, not so surprisingly, we are watching a team that does the Hot Potato Shuffle more often and better than anyone else. Geelong has featured in the past three Grand Finals and won two of them. At the helm is coach ‘Bomber’ Thompson – and in the background tutoring the Cats is Wheadon, the club’s skill acquisition and game development coach. It’s no coincidence, is it?
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His current project is TedSport, a high performance data analysis and consulting service.

This column was first published in the AFL Record. Copyright AFL 2010.

By Tony De Bolfo

Before “Sticks”, before “Jezza”, before “Turkey Tom”, before “Fev” and even before “Soapy”, the vibrantly-named full-forward Wallace Alfred Richard O’Cock stood front and centre in the first team fielded by the football club in the VFL’s maiden season of 1897.

And now, more than 113 years after he took to the field for that historic opening round match against Fitzroy at Brunswick Street, the first confirmed image of “Wally” O’Cock has surfaced, with the assistance of a descendant, Graeme Cumbrae-Stewart OAM.

Wally O’Cock 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 Carlton website Blueseum notes that Wally was already established in Carlton’s team when the first four matches of the VFL were staged on Saturday, May 8, 1897. It also notes that Wally lined up a placekick in the second quarter of the Fitzroy match and sent it sailing through the posts – the first goal kicked by a Carlton footballer in League competition.

That July, after being laid up for a period with injury, Wally endeavoured to force his way back into the 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 Cumbrae-Stewart added, “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 the club’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 the glory days on the paddock were long gone.

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

“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.

“Wally moved to Holbrook to work for his brother-in-law Adam Anderson and his wife Alice who managed at property called Wentworth . . . it was probably share farming of some sort.

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

Wallace Alfred Richard O’Cock died in Richmond on June 14, 1951, aged 74. He was buried in the New South Wales township of Holbrook, in a grave shared with his beloved wife, who died nine years previous.

But his name, and now his visage, are indelibly aligned with all things Navy Blue.

Hello everyone in Carlton land! It’s me, Jesse, back again to write about my favourite footy team for another year. Since I last wrote we lost one of my favourite players, Fev, but I’m getting used to our new forward line now and reckon we’re going to do okay. I have watched every match so far this year, the first three on TV (I cried when we lost to Brisbane because I really thought we had it won) and in Round 4 I finally got to see them play live over here in SA. I’m going to write about the match later this week, but for now I am just busting to tell you all about my exciting Saturday morning at the Spirit Of Carlton pre-match function!

The function was held at The Lakes Resort, just near AAMI Stadium. Many past Carlton champions were there, but I was mainly looking forward to seeing Anthony Koutoufides for the first time since he, Ang Christou and I had a kick of the footy in Melbourne last July. I had made up a special card to give Kouta, together with a photocopy of a story I wrote at school after those holidays in which I mentioned our kick-to-kick. When Kouta arrived he looked very happy to see our family – he gave me a hug and my Mum a kiss and shook my Dad’s hand and then I gave him my card with the story and a picture inside. On the front of the card was the photo that Ang took of Ang, me and Kouta. I think Kouta really liked it and he went to put it straight in his bag to keep it safe.

Past player from SA, Mark Naley, was there to host the show, and he remembered me from previous functions and get-togethers to watch games at the Rob Roy Hotel. He welcomed us all, including the Spirit Of Carlton boys. One was a player I hadn’t yet met, David Rhys-Jones, who was also helping to MC the function. My Mum had told me what a tough player for Carlton he was, but he wasn’t at all scary – he even gave me a hug. David talked of how Spirit Of Carlton first started about four years ago, when things weren’t looking so good for our great Football Club. He and other past players had a meeting about what to do to help the club they love during its “hour of need”, and they decided to give something back by raising money themselves to inject some funds for player facilities and equipment. They do this by having Spirit Of Carlton functions like this, and also golf days and auctions. They have spent around $250,000 on the club so far on various equipment, and plan to continue on, as they also have such fun getting together and talking about old times.

Then David asked ex-Adelaide player Chris McDermott and Kouta to come up on the stage to give a preview of the match being played that afternoon. Chris McDermott spoke about Adelaide not going too well, and said that the Adelaide supporters would “eat their own” if Adelaide were to lose today! Kouta was asked about the surprise omissions of Thornton and Waite, and he admitted that he was shocked, but that Ratts and his Match Committee would know much more than anyone else about why certain decisions are made. He thinks that our forward line is doing really well even with Fev gone and he was really looking forward to seeing Simon White debut. David then asked both Chris and Kouta for a tip – Chris picked Adelaide in a close match and Kouta, of course, picked the Mighty Bluebaggers! He got lots of cheers at saying that.

David Rhys-Jones then interviewed past champions Jim Buckley and Val Perovic. Val talked of playing footy in Ballarat, and not believing how lucky he was to be asked to play for Carlton. He reckons he’s been blessed to come to the best footy club in the land. David then said that Val holds a unique record in Melbourne of drinking 37 cans of beer in 1 hour and 47 minutes. He asked Val “what were you thinking?” to which Val replied, “I wasn’t thinking at all!”. David then asked Jimmy which of the 79, 81 and 82 premierships was the best for him, and Jimmy said the 1979 one, because that was his first. He spoke of premierships being such a bonding time for each player, having such a great respect for one another, and still all being good mates today. Jimmy said that last night he had been comparing Testimonials with Kouta and they found it quite funny – recent players have made some money from their Testimonials, but back in Jimmy’s day he had a joint Testimonial with Wayne Johnston (Mum’s first footy hero). It took them a while to find out how much money they’d made, and when they finally asked Collo about it, they were told that “Jimmy owes Carlton $1,000 and Johnno owes $2,000!”.

An announcement was then made about another past club champion who had a really bad car accident at the start of his second year with Carlton, Peter Motley. I’ve met Mots at the last two Carlton functions and I think he’s really funny and nice. He and his partner are expecting a baby in July! Mots was asked to come up on stage, and as he always does when he takes the stage, he told us all a joke. He then talked of really great memories of Carlton Football Club. David interrupted Mots to talk about the 1987 premiership, which is the year that Peter had his accident. He said Motley’s accident was a great inspiration to all Carlton players that year, and he’s sure that’s why they were able to win the Grand Final. Mots said that on the oval after that Grand Final, the Dominator and Braddles each gave him their own premiership medals………but after all the television reporters and cameras had left, they took them back!

Then it was time for some of the really big framed footy guernseys and prints to be auctioned to raise some funds for our club. The first was of David Rhys-Jones, for being the most reported player in VFL/AFL history. Mark told us David was reported 25 times, and only pleaded guilty once. David said when he pleaded guilty, he got four weeks for hitting a Melbourne runner called Peter Smith, so he never pleaded guilty again. He later discovered that the runner was Norm Smith’s son – David felt a bit guilty about winning the Norm Smith Medal after that!! The Rhys-Jones print was auctioned for $1,200.

The print of the most famous mark ever, Jesaulenko’s, was auctioned next. I wasn’t even anywhere near being alive when this mark was taken 40 years ago, but I have seen it many times over and I always pretend I’m Jezza – in fact, my nickname is Jezza! I’d love to meet him one day. His print was auctioned for $900.

A framed guernsey, signed by all players and coach of the 1982 premiership team, was auctioned for an amazing $2,050 – bought by our friend Denise! Stephen Silvagni’s 1988 Mark of the Year was the next one to be auctioned – this print was a beauty with four continual photos in the one picture. It went for $1,100.

During the break while our yummy breakfast was served to us, Kouta and I had a chat and our photo taken. I think Kouta is really special, and I have the feeling that he thinks I’m alright too!

Next up David interviewed Alex Marcou and Peter McConville. Alex came from Lalor, where Kouta & Lance Whitnall are from, and while he barracked for Fitzroy as a kid, he used to watch every Carlton game on TV (back when Jezza and Southby were playing) and he decided he wanted to play for them, too. He never forgets the day he was asked to play for the Blues, and how in awe he was of being in the same company as players like Jezza and Southby. Peter talked of the Fevola betting incident, saying “we had a few of them” – the papers would have had a field day in their time! Ken Hunter was another player in the room who could vouch for that. The President of our club, Stephen Kernahan (Sticks) arrived then and posed for a photo with me.

Sticks was welcomed by David and invited up on stage to talk to us. David asked him how he balances now being President after having such a long association with Carlton as a player – Sticks said for one thing he’s no good at public speaking – “look at the voice I’m stuck with!”. He stressed that he was only there by default, and was just doing it to help out the club until someone else was able to step into the role. David then mentioned the decision to move on Fevola – David thinks its the right decision but realises it has divided the club and asked Sticks how will we go forward from here. Sticks replied that Fev’s still one of the biggest merchandise sellers at the club, and is a much-loved character. But that over the 11 years he was with us, “we’ve all saved him 25 times over behind the scenes”, and while we miss him, it can’t all be about one person. He feels we’re better off now, and really hopes Fev can get his issues sorted out. David asked about the coach and moves he’s made so far this year, and Sticks replied that the media is already “all over the coaches” this year, Dean Bailey the first week, Mark Harvey also, and now it seems to be our turn this week because we lost to our arch rival in Essendon. He said all of Carlton’s players, employees and coaches are annoyed, and are very fired up,determined to win and make amends today. He said Ratten is doing okay, that “it’s Round 3, chill out – get behind the coach” as it really peeves Sticks some of the rubbish that goes on in Melbourne about him! When talking of the upcoming match, he said that last year he came over a day before the game against Adelaide to see his Dad and catch up with the Spirit Of Carlton boys, ending up a big night with him feeling rather seedy on match day. This time he flew over this morning and is sober as a judge while the Spirit Of Carlton boys all arrived yesterday and had a huge night – Stick is doing his bit to help the team! (Kouta told my Mum he got to bed at 6.30am so it WAS a big night for them all!).

While Sticks was there the next of the remaining items was auctioned off, a framed print and signed guernsey of the man himself. This print sold for the highest amount of the day – $2,500. It was purchased by our friend Cynthia who sat at our table!

Judd’s signed guernsey was the next to go – it went for $1,700.

And then came Kouta’s print (complete with Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley in the background) and signed guernsey. Daddy had checked this out earlier in the day, and had decided he wanted to bid for it, since Kouta means so much to our family, and especially to me from the time of my heart surgery. I was quite excited about this although we didn’t think he would be the successful bidder. But he was! We got it for $1,800. Wow. It will be well looked after by us, I can assure you!

Kouta was rather chuffed that we were the ones to purchase his print – Daddy took a photo of him with me and Mummy (who reminded me that Kouta was her hero long before I came along!).

After that, several individual current player prints and fancy footballs were sold off to the highest bidder. I had been checking out the footballs, each signed by the Spirit Of Carlton boys, because they were such cool colours. They went for various amounts between $150 and $350. The last one was a gold one, and Peter McConville purchased it for $250. And guess what? He gave it to ME! Daddy couldn’t believe it. Apparently he purchased it with me in mind. How lucky am I? Mum took a photo of me with Peter and my brand new footy.

And you’ll never guess what happened next!! THIS is what I have been busting to tell you! Mark Naley got up on stage for one last official announcement. He actually talked about ME! He said that I am a special friend of Spirit Of Carlton, and that I write stories for the Carlton website. He asked me to come up onto the stage and I had to walk up the steps and stand there in front of all those people! They all clapped and cheered and I have to tell you I felt very nervous (I took my new gold footy with me for good luck). When I got up there, Mark asked me who was going to win today and I told him Carlton would. And then he asked me who my favourite player was, and I told him Chris Judd. He asked if I remembered seeing Jimmy Buckley play, and everyone laughed because of course I didn’t! He then said that one of my original favourite players was here to present me with something special, and Kouta came up onto the stage with me, holding something. When Kouta took the microphone he ruffled my hair and told everybody there that he has known me ever since I was a baby – he bent down to ask me “was that seven years ago, Jess?” to which I nodded. He said that I am actually his son’s age so he knew that, and he told the people in the room about my open heart surgery and how Mum brought me down to the club to meet him and Ratten at the time, and then he bent down to me again and said “and we’ve stayed friends ever since, haven’t we, Jess?” to which I nodded again. I was so excited and nervous I thought I was going to cry from happiness, I told Mummy & Daddy later! But instead I stood there and said inside my head, ‘don’t cry, don’t cry”, which is why I could only nod. Kouta then told everyone how he and Ang had a kick of the footy with me and Mum & Dad last year, and he said that I could kick the ball further than Ang (I can’t, really!). He then said on behalf of the past players, because they know I’m a “very special kid” and that I mean a lot to him, too, he wanted to present me with a plaque of every Carlton premiership from the past. He said there are sixteen premierships on there, with two spaces for the next two premierships, and “hopefully you’re playing in that one”. (Mum told me later no way – we need a premiership well before I get old enough to play AFL!). How exciting – I got an Honorary Spirit Of Carlton Membership from Sticks two years ago, and this year a special plaque from Kouta. Dad was pretty impressed with it, and I now like looking at all those scorelines and who we beat in all those years.

So that was a great end to the function for me! I then had the game to look forward to………but that’s another story! I’ll be back to tell you about THAT excitement very soon!

From Jesse.

In the late 1960s as a Carlton reserves player starting to get an occasional run in the seniors, I once had the daunting privilege of coming up against Hawthorn’s young superstar Leigh Matthews. The encounter was brief, and it left me shocked. Scarcely a half of football but it was embarrassing. I was taught a humbling lesson about what it meant to excel in elite sport.
Although we were about the same height (I played at 177cm; Matthews at 178), I was a puny 68kg next to his compressed battleship frame weighing in at 86. For some reason, I thought I possessed enough silky skills, speed and footy smarts to compete with him. But pretty quickly, I realised otherwise.

This heavyset bloke was amazingly quick off the mark, agile and simply dazzling. In my face was the reality of exceptional talent executing sublime football skills. It was a painful tutorial, but at least there was a measure of how far I still had to go. But there was even more to learn. He was winning the ball regularly and I was scarcely getting a touch. And when I did – bang! A tackle that made me gasp for air and think I was going to die, and the umpire didn’t even blow the bloody whistle.

It immediately dawned on me that this bloke hated it when an opponent of any kind had the ball and would go hard and fast at him to get it back. It hurt. In a recent conversation with Matthews, he described this facet of the game involving getting the ball back from the opposition as effort.

Based on previous experience, I’m inclined to add the words: driven desire and blessed talent both ways, with and without the ball. He calls it execution under pressure, and I fully agree. Our conversation followed on the heels of comments he made recently on television and on afl.com.au.

In a website column, Matthews attributed the astronomical increases in handball numbers, often now outnumbering kicks in a game, to the exponential increase in interchange numbers. He wrote: “This handball footy has evolved because the pressure on the ball carrier has never been hotter. While specialist tackling numbers have honed good technique, it is the large numbers of players with the energy to surround the footy that is the main catalyst for the increased need to handball because of the difficulty in finding space to deliver an unpressured kick … “It is the use of the interchange bench to rest players regularly that enables them to play with such high energy in their spurts on the field.”

As a four-time premiership coach (with Collingwood in 1990 and the Brisbane Lions in 2001-03), Matthews explained the basis of his coaching philosophy: “My chief role was to influence talent to make the effort when it got harder, when an opponent had the ball,” he said. “At the Lions, we placed a lot of emphasis on tackling numbers. Most important was also the type of tackles, which we reviewed in video post-match.

These included our highly rated categories of special tackles in active play and missed tackles, along with the trapping-type tackles.” His other highest priority was execution. “Assuming the effort was there, the result of the game invariably hinged on how well the individual talent and the team executed when they had the ball,” he said.

Consequently, he believes one of the keys to coaching is to make sure the available talent is in the right place at the right time. He mentioned on Channel Seven recently that too much emphasis is being made of the concept of a ‘game-plan’, at the expense of the idea of execution.

He suggested the term is a convenient one being used more as way of promoting the game and not explaining it. “It’s mystifying the game,” he said. “What coaches and commentators are fond of calling a game-plan is perhaps better described as strategies, themes, principles and team rules.” When champions such as Matthews are hunting you down, there is no time to follow a script. You can only execute the best you can, and when he’s got the ball, hopefully reciprocate.
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His current project is TedSport, a high performance data analysis and consulting service.

This column was first published in the AFL Record. Copyright AFL 2010.

Spirit of Carlton TV is delighted to present a wonderful interview with 1970 Carlton premiership player Bert Thornley.

By Tony De Bolfo

This is the story of the short life and tragic death of Andrew Sarkies – Boer War veteran, Carlton Football Club committeeman and the great great grandfather of the Australian Socceroo Kristian Sarkies.

This long-forgotten tale was recently revived after Sarkies’ great grandson Geoff Sarkies recently contacted the club seeking clarification of Andrew’s role at Carlton.
The club’s annual reports reveal that Sarkies did indeed serve on the committee of management from 1907 through to 1910 – the year of his untimely death – under the Presidency of John Urquhart.

Other details of Sarkies’ life was subsequently gleaned from family and other sources.
Sarkies was of Armenian extraction – his father, John Sarkies, having been born of Armenian parents in Shuska (Republic of Iran).

Sarkies’ father and mother Helen McKay married in Melbourne in 1864, the year the Carlton Football Club was founded. Andrew was born a year later.

At some point the family relocated to Scotland, and then the parents split. John Sarkies is thought to have gone to India, with Helen returning to Australia, fending for a total of nine children, working as a charwoman, and dying a lonely death in Melbourne.

When members of the Victorian Mounted Rifles 5th contingent enrolled for the Second Boer War in February 1901, leaving for South Africa in mid-February, Sarkies went with them.

The VMR was a regiment composed of Australian forces first raised by Colonel Tom Price in the mid-1880s. The regiment was mobilised at Pretoria between March 24 and April 4, 1901, and saw considerable action during the Second Boer War when it was used to combat the guerilla warfare tactics of the Boers.

Sarkies survived the war, returned from South Africa and was subsequently discharged. He remained on the strength of the Army Service Corps (Vic) as a Staff Sergeant while being employed in the Authority Branch of the Department Of Home Affairs. At some point between 1902 and 1910 he served as Secretary to the Returned Soldiers Association (South Africa) as reported at the time of his death.

During this time, Sarkies and his wife Mary Jane (nee Lalor) purchased land and built a house at 15 Royal Ave, Glenhuntly. The house was later named ‘Fortrose’ – the Fort from his military background and the Rose from his first born daughter who did not survive.

On September 17, 1910, Sarkies attended the semi-final between Carlton and South Melbourne at the MCG. The Blues went down to the Bloods by two goals, in what was to be the last game Sarkies ever saw.

At a subsequent inquest into Sarkies’ death, a gent named Arthur Springer, publisher from Black Rock, was amongst those giving evidence.

“I knew the deceased Andrew Sarkies. I met him on account of being the publisher of a football paper. I met him on the 17th instant at 6.45pm. at the MCG. He walked up to the cab rank at Jolimont and then we said to the cabby ‘What is the fare?’. He said ‘a shilling each’. I said ‘We are willing to pay the double tram fare’. He said, ‘Alright, jump in’. We got in the cab, the deceased was alright. He may have had some drink but he was not drunk. There was no one else in the cab.

On the journey to Melbourne I passed the remark to the deceased about the fare. I gave my fare to Sarkies on the way down. I got out of the cab at Princes Bridge and the deceased commenced singing a song about the ‘Boys of Carlton’. The cabbie said ‘Terminus’. I said to Sarkies ‘Come on, get out’. He took no notice so I then walked away. There was no unpleasantness in the cab between us.

Constable Anderson of Russell Street Police made the following statement to the inquest.

“I found a man lying on the roadway near Princes Bridge Railway Station at 7.15pm. He was unconscious lying behind a cab. I made enquiries there if anybody knew him, but nobody seemed to know him. I then took him to the Melbourne Hospital in a cab. He was attended to by Dr. Felstead . . . he was not able to pay for the cab No. 259. The cabman stated that he had the same man as a passenger from the Melbourne Cricket Ground a few minutes before I found him. He also stated that he got out of his cab and just fell down where he lay unconscious. I went to the hospital again at 9.15pm and he was still unconscious. He is a well dressed, and seemed to be, a respectable man by appearances.”

Andrew Sarkies was transferred to the Melbourne hospital (then in Swanston Street). There he died four days later, on September 21, 1910 from injuries to the brain and skull – the result of an accidental fall in Flinders Street near Princes Bridge Railway Station.

His body was later identified by his widow, Mary Jane (nee Lalor) Sarkies.

Sarkies was accorded a military funeral, which left Victoria Barracks for Melbourne General Cemetery by the Carlton ground. The OIC of the 5th contingent, Colonel Otter, attended the funeral along with other dignitaries.

A grand military night was later held at Spencer’s Pictures, Olympia, under the patronage of the commandant and head quarters staff, for the benefit of the Sarkies family. A special program was arranged with members of the metropolitan forces attending in full uniform, together with members of the South African Soldiers’ Association, home affairs Department, the Glenhuntly Lesees’ Association and the Carlton Football Club; with all of which the former committeeman was intimately connected.

The observations of Malcolm Blight are formed with a unique perspective: star North Melbourne forward and premiership player, coach of Geelong in three losing Grand Finals, followed by dual premierships coaching Adelaide. No less spectacular was his brief stint as coach of St Kilda and controversial dismissal. Recently, during a television broadcast, I heard Blight repeat a familiar view of his: “Even stars have bad days” and then cautioning an over-reliance on “star systems”.

I had been (and still am) intrigued by his comments on star systems, and welcomed the opportunity to discuss the subject with him. Personal experiences of star systems had shaped my understanding of football. As a youngster, I passionately barracked for South Melbourne. I recall crying unbearably when South would lose – and I cried a lot.

Salvation was an extreme devotion to the Swans’ lone and exceptional star, triple Brownlow medallist Bobby Skilton. In my book, he was best on ground every time he played and never made a clanger. No doubt many who have followed teams consistently finishing at the bottom of the ladder feel this binding scenario of regular disappointment and adulation. Perhaps the most recent example is Richmond fans and the special emotions they attributed to Matthew Richardson.
Ultimately, this is one spectrum of a star system, a situation where the ranks of the stars available to a team are spread too thinly and the backup troops struggle to fill the gap. Alternatively, Blight’s experiences are at the other end of the spectrum. Blessed with super talent, his association is with star-studded teams during his playing era and coaching involvements at Geelong and Adelaide.

My conversation with him started with me mentioning the stark contrast I found between barracking for South Melbourne and then, as a recruit, walking into Carlton and confronting a locker room of genuine stars. There was awe but, importantly, it was immediately drilled into me the ‘team’ was the star attraction and everyone involved was required to contribute their respective talents.

Blight acknowledged similar sentiments, but went further to explain his particular issues with star systems. “At Geelong, we played in three losing Grand Finals. These were good teams but, like any team, it was critical to win or at least stay on even terms in the midfield,” he said. “I felt we lost those Grand Finals mainly because our midfield was beaten on the day and this exposed our defence, which was not blessed with super talent. “We had the stars in the midfield,” he said, referring to players the calibre of Brownlow medallist Paul Couch, Mark Bairstow and Garry ‘Buddha’ Hocking, “but there was not much I could do about it. We had a lot of players in the team who had developed into set roles and I couldn’t change things around that much. “I’m of the view, if a star is struggling on the day, get him to play a different role and at least take out someone important from the opposition.”

At Adelaide, he immediately took measures to make sure the same circumstances did not repeat. Consequently, a crop of midfield stars, including Mark Ricciuto, Mark Bickley, Andrew McLeod, Simon Goodwin and Darren Jarman, spent various times rotating in different roles, either forward or back. “Ben Hart was marvellous in defence,” he said, “because he was just as brilliant attending small and tall players. As a defender, Nigel Smart could easily be switched into attack.” In two winning Grand Finals, Blight’s tactical moves are legendary, including the unexpected and successful match-up of McLeod playing in the centre on Saint Robert Harvey, ruckman David Pittman at centre half-back on Stewart Loewe, Ricciuto switching to half-back against North Melbourne and Jarman bobbing up at full-forward for a combined 11 goals in the two wins.

Based on this reasoning – and casting an eye to the present – Blight is convinced that, of the controversial trade of Brendan Fevola from Carlton to the Brisbane Lions and Daniel Bradshaw from the Lions to the Sydney Swans, it is the Swans who have benefited most. “Both are outstanding forwards who have kicked a similar number of goals over distinguished careers,” he said. “But Bradshaw is the far better proposition. He is adaptable. He can play defence as well as attack. It’s best if the star fits within the system, rather than the star becoming the system.”
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His current project is TedSport, a high performance data analysis and consulting service.

This column was first published in the AFL Record. Copyright AFL 2010.

An outlandish proposition was recently floated about the club whose colourful president is fond of wearing a flamboyant jacket. Last month, a backpage newspaper story claimed the Hawks won the 2008 premiership because the team was stacked with left-footers. I have news for the re-born left-winger Jeff Kennett. Hawthorn won the flag because it had the talent credentials and form at the right time of the season to win a flag.

Critically, its second half in the 2008 Grand Final was an absolute blinder. In contrast, its Grand Final opponent Geelong was blessed with more talent credentials and also had displayed good form, but had a shocker in the second half. That’s footy – sometimes it just happens this way.

Talented players and teams have good and bad days. Left- or right-sidedness had nothing to do with the result. For the sake of testing, let’s say it was possible to substitute Hawthorn left-foot premiership players Lance Franklin, Luke Hodge and Stuart Dew with the right-footed Nick Riewoldt, Chris Judd and Lindsay Gilbee. Would this have diminished the Hawks’ chances? No way.

There are activities and sports in which left- or rightsidedness is an advantage, due mainly to specific factors. Military statistics confirm that left-sided soldiers have a higher chance of getting killed in battle than their right-sided counterparts, primarily because of right-biased weaponry. Notwithstanding Phil Mickelson’s win in last week’s United States Masters, elite golf is another activity treating lefties poorly. The availability and range of left-sided clubs is limited. Hence, promising right-sided youngsters get all the advantages of access to equipment and coaching, and it is rare to see a left-hander on the professional golfing circuit.

Across all societies worldwide, the general population comprises about 90 per cent right-sided people. As such, life isn’t always easy for the minority 10 per cent. Indeed, in darker times, leftsidedness was often frowned upon as freakish and sinful. I recall a time not so long ago, before coach Terry Wallace took the reins at Richmond, when coaching staff blamed the club’s woes on too many leftfooters in the team.

Prejudice can also lead to strange conclusions. For instance, it is often claimed leftfooters kick the ball differently and faster, flatter and more accurately than right footers, despite the fact there is no reliable evidence or reason why this is the case, other than a right-sided perceptual view of the world.

Fortunately, we live in more enlightened times and I can gladly declare the adorable Sherrin is not biased to one side (like a lawn bowl) and the alignment of the centre circle, centre and goalsquares and scoring sticks are set perfectly plumb. A goal kicked from the left or the right pocket is worth six points and, over time, the number of goals kicked from either pocket is, I predict, about the same. The configuration of an AFL ground is a marvellously open and expansive canvas in which the result invariably boils down to a glorious mix of talent, tactical nous and luck.

If there were an advantage either way for either left- or rightfoot kicking, it would most likely appear in goalkicking statistics. Because the general population is represented 90 per cent and 10 per cent rightand left-sided respectively, it is reasonable to assume at least one of the 10 all-time leading goal scorers is a left footer – Essendon’s Matthew Lloyd. (Stats buffs are encouraged to test this proposition of one in every 10 by scouring through the goalkicking records).

The reason Hawthorn has had recent premiership success with an abundance of left-foot players is better explained by a coaching and recruitment philosophy that is non-preferential. The Hawks looked at talent on genuine merit, rather than lopsided views of counterparts. A similar occurrence of illogical bias once concerned indigenous players. How many were overlooked by recruiters in the past? Now, ignorance of indigenous talent is perilous for the career of a recruiter.

Perhaps, occasionally wheeling to the left rather than the right does have some tactical advantage. But it is surprisingly short-lived. Hawthorn, beware! It is in the nature of elite opponents to adjust, shut down and counterattack, catching off guard an opposition overly committed to one side of the ground.
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His current project is TedSport, a high performance data analysis and consulting service.

This column was first published in the AFL Record. Copyright AFL 2010.

Did too much tackling hurt St Kilda’s chances of winning last season’s flag? It is possible, if chasing tail came at the expense of creativity? For example, in the first 11 home and away rounds, the Saints set AFL benchmarks for combined defence and attack, with an average of 68 tackles a game and 106 points scored.

However, in their next 11 games, the pendulum tipped notably in favour of defence with an even higher tackle count of 76 a match while their scoring dropped to 94 points per outing. This swing continued during their three finals, when they registered 81 tackles a game and averaged only 69 points. St Kilda’s 2009 achievements, based on its supreme defensive effort, prompted a growing chorus hailing tackle counts as a critical measure for winning games.

However, the evidence says otherwise. Using the tackle-count ‘winner’ as a guide to who will win games is tricky. First, the published numbers are only raw statistics. There is no separate classification as to relative effectiveness. And second, even a simple calculation such as the table of average team tackles for 2009 highlights why raw tackle numbers don’t count as much as often assumed. Yes, St Kilda’s season average of 72 is significantly higher than the rest (see table), but premier Geelong ranked only sixth. The Western Bulldogs, Collingwood and Adelaide all made the final eight and ranked just below the competition average for tackles.

A plausible correlation between team tackling averages and premiership ladder success does not exist. Never has. The reason is simple. It’s generally better to have the ball than not have the ball and tackling is often an indicator of being second-to-the ball, chasing tail and an overly defensive mindset.

Various studies by respected sport mathematicians have confirmed this principle. Taking into account all games played in a season, these studies confirm that winning the tackle count results in just a whisker above a 50-50 chance of winning a game. A more recent study by sport mathematicians goes further in challenging tackling assumptions. The record-breaking average of 124 a game in 2009 compared to the combined previous three-season average of 103 a game does not mean tackles have suddenly become more important for winning games.

His correlations between tackle differences and score margin for each of the past 10 seasons shows no significant change occurring. A more plausible explanation for this leap in tackling in 2009 is the concurrent increase in the number of handballs, ineffective kicks, interchange and rugby-style scrimmages of play creating more chances for tackling. Greater insight is possible if there were a distinction between the quality and significance of tackles. But this is not officially available and the current definition is rather vague: When a player stops an opposition player with possession of the ball from getting his kick or handball away in a legal manner, or reduces the effectiveness of the opposition’s disposal.

Often the subjectivity of calling tackles within an acceptable range of accuracy is a challenge, notwithstanding the sophistication of today’s software capture systems. Now, with the aid of technology, identifying the relative effectiveness of tackles can be done. The highest rating should be awarded to any tackle resulting in a direct turnover of possession (frees for included), stoppage, goal-saver or match-saver. The next grading are tackles that effectively ruin a kick or handball, when the player in possession has prior opportunity.

A critical distinction here is the tackle occurs when the play is active. Far more problematic is classifying the large volume of tackles occurring in the frequent rugby-style scrimmages of play when a player takes possession with little or no prospects and is immediately wrapped up. No one doubts the Saints’ brilliance in all three categories of tackling and I am sure they will continue on this path in 2010. But they must also rediscover their creative genes. They have two remarkable stars showing the way creatively and defensively – Lenny Hayes and Nick Riewoldt.
Ted Hopkins is a Carlton premiership player and founder of Champion Data. His current project is TedSport, a high performance data analysis and consulting service.

This column was first published in the AFL Record. Copyright AFL 2010.