Just who is Carlton’s greatest player? It’s a question that has forever and a day provoked heated discussion amongst any Blue believers blessed with an opinion.

And in this the 150^th anniversary of its hallowed existence, the Carlton Football Club has seen fit to settle the debate by naming Numero Uno and the cream de la crème of its senior playing ranks – the top 12 Carlton players of all time – in order of merit.

Number 9: Geoff Southby

Geoff Southby’s reputation as one of the all-time great full-backs is without question. Hailing from Sandhurst in the Bendigo Football League, he came to Carlton on the cusp of the 1971 season and made an immediate impact.

Wearing the No.20 of his predecessor the late Wes Lofts, he broke into the senior team for the opening round of 1971 and in no time forged a handsome reputation as one of the game’s greatest full-backs.

A Carlton club champion in his first two seasons of 1971 and ’72 – the latter a Premiership year – Southby was part of his team’s triumphs in both the 1972 and ’79 Grand Finals, which meant there was little he didn’t achieve either collectively or individually.

And the career was as long as it was illustrious – 268 matches through 14 seasons to 1984.

That he was later acknowledged with selection in Carlton’s coveted Team of the 20th Century and induction into its Hall of Fame in 1994 speaks volumes for the esteem in which Geoff Southby is held.