Our History

In a wide-ranging interview with club historian Tony De Bolfo ahead of his 300th AFL game, Kade Simpson reflects on his formative years from under-10s at Emerald in the Yarra Valley through to season 2018 as a Carlton senior player and everything else in between . . . so far.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest finals player ever to grace the field, Wayne Johnston made the month of September his own.

That he never secured the Norm Smith Medal remains one of football’s great injustices – but 'The Dominator' will doubtless settle for the four premierships and two club best and fairests that came his way in Carlton’s halcyon years of the 1970s and '80s.

A three-time Victorian and All-Australian, Johnston was inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame in 1991\. By decade’s end, he was named on a half-forward flank in the club’s Team of the Century, and is one of an elite group of just 12 players so far named as Legends of the Carlton Football Club.

In this Our History episode, he speaks at length with club historian Tony De Bolfo about his illustrious career and personal life after his induction into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

In this episode, Lucie Jamison explores the circumstances that led to Carlton's drought-breaking Grand Final win over the Bombers in 1968.

Imagine you’re a 19 year-old country kid earning “Mr. Football” as your first opponent? This was the daunting prospect facing the former Carlton aerialist David McKay.

Somehow, the boy from Newlyn survived, emerging unscathed from his direct dealings with the late Ted Whitten, in a back pocket at the Western Oval in the wild and heady days of flower power.

It was the third round of 1969 - the first of McKay’s 263 games over a 13-season career for Carlton. And what a career – the premierships of 1970, 1972, 1979 and 1981 – the last of which he sealed with his final kick in footy.

Syd Jackson's is an extraordinary life story. Taken away by formal arrest warrant when he was only three, separated from his family for twenty years and reunited with his parents only twice before they died, the pain of separation was truly profound for him.

In that context, the Great Australian Game served as a panacea for the prodigiously-gifted player. It took Syd from from Roelands Native Mission in the Western Australian port city of Bunbury, to the big smoke in Perth and ultimately to the big time in Melbourne as one of the great League footballers of his generation.

Milham Hanna quite literally walked in off the street, but in truth he came to Carlton from half way round the world. Born in Kantara in Northern Lebanon, Mil found his feet in neighboring East Brunswick, just a short tram ride down Sydney Road to the front entrance of the place then known as Princes Park.

Arriving in Melbourne with his mother and sister on Cup Day 1971, Mil, then five years old, had a premonition he would one day play for the Carlton Football Club. It would happen some 15 years later with disastrous consequences at VFL Park, but it would end 189 games later with a Premiership medallion to show for it.

In Part 2 of his chat with Tony De Bolfo, Mil reflects on the disappointments of 1993 and 1994 and the ecstasy of 1995.

Milham Hanna quite literally walked in off the street, but in truth he came to Carlton from half way round the world. Born in Kantara in Northern Lebanon, Mil found his feet in neighboring East Brunswick, just a short tram ride down Sydney Road to the front entrance of the place then known as Princes Park.

Arriving in Melbourne with his mother and sister on Cup Day 1971, Mil, then five years old, had a premonition he would one day play for the Carlton Football Club. It would happen some 15 years later with disastrous consequences at VFL Park, but it would end 189 games later with a Premiership medallion to show for it.

In Part 1 of his chat with Tony De Bolfo, Mil chats about his early life and the start of his Carlton career.

“In 1971 Ron Barassi asked me to join him as his assistant at Carlton and I knew then what I never had. I found Barassi’s coaching the ultimate... it changed me from a fellow who was dejected and disappointed at not being successful as a coach to a winner in a club which had a tradition of success...”

These are the recollections of the former North Melbourne club champion and coach Keith McKenzie, in a speech he penned for a keynote address more than 30 years ago. The speech was hidden amongst Keith’s papers for more than three decades. In this episode, Keith shares Barassi’s secrets.

David Rhys-Jones’ was a triumphant if tempestuous career with more than its fair smattering of highs and lows. It began in South Melbourne, ended at Carlton and took in Sydney in between. In the end it afforded him 182 games in total, 106 of them at Carlton, and a Premiership Medallion and Norm Smith Medal to show for it.

He was but a teenage kid from Lalor when he completed his senior debut for Carlton in mid-1992... and it’s fair to assume his 11-letter surname posed some early concerns for members of the football writing fraternity. But in the pantheon of League football he’ll be universally remembered as a game-changer, forging his handsome reputation as THE prototype player of the 21st century from the moment he completed the famous one-handed pick-up.