ORIGINALLY domiciled in Seymour and a boarder at Kilmore’s Assumption College in the days of Peter Crimmins, Kevin Heath and Peter Keenan, Munari was recruited to Carlton under zoning laws after his father relocated to north suburban Thomastown.
In a podcast interview with this reporter and Tony Moclair for the club back in May 2018, Munari revealed that he had no real aspiration to play the game at the highest level.
“I was a mad Essendon supporter,” Munari said. “As a kid living in Seymour and all the way through College I barracked for Essendon, and living in the country I never thought I’d play League football to be honest.”
Munari first broke into the Carlton senior team for the first of his 41 senior appearances in the 8th round match of 1967, against Geelong at Princes Park. Named 20th man, and emerging from the dugout in the last quarter to replace Kevin Hall, Munari, saw the game’s two greatest followers John Nicholls and Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer go at it.
Munari’s place in club history was assured in that meritorious Grand Final victory over Essendon, earned with less goals kicked (7.14-8.5). Dame Fortune had smiled upon Munari. Though a knee complaint had ruled him out of the final two home and away matches of ’68 and the ensuing second semi-final, Munari earned a Grand Final call-up as a replacement for Ian Nicoll, who got hurt in the semi. Ironically, Nicoll would take Munari’s place at selection on that last Saturday in September 1969.
On Grand Final day 1968, Munari, as second rover to Adrian Gallagher, was named in a forward pocket alongside Brian Kekovich - the ultimate matchwinner for the Blues with four telling goals in a low-scoring affair cruelled by windswept conditions. Gallagher, a three-time Carlton Premiership player and club best and fairest, described Munari as “a real beauty”.
“Dennis was one of my best friends. He was a very popular clubman, very well-liked, and he loved Carlton. He was right up with it in terms of today’s Carlton and he and I would talk about the team and how the players were faring every week.
“He played well in the ’68 Grand Final, although I felt a bit guilty about how long I kept him off the ball. I used to tell him and ‘Barass’ that Dennis would have made a better centreman because first rovers tend to be selfish, so I couldn’t believe he was still my mate.”
Munari’s last game for the Blues – the Round 22 contest with Melbourne on the MCG – came on the afternoon Alex Jesaulenko made Carlton history in booting his 100th goal for the season. In recently-discovered 8mm film footage of the moment ‘Jezza’ kicked the ton, Munari, in the No.8 guernsey, can be seen shielding Jesaulenko from the marauding masses.
Munari initially signed with East Perth for season 1971, but weeks later was coerced into captaining and coaching Hobart when a former Carlton teammate Bert Thornley requested an early release from his Hobart playing contract. Regrettably, Munari’s 18 months in the role ended with his sacking in mid-1972, and by year’s end he was back in Melbourne and chasing the leather for the Carlton reserves.
In 1973 Munari joined VFA outfit Preston; then in 1974, following a chance meeting with Barassi (now the North Melbourne Senior Coach), he resolved to play on at Arden Street. At North he managed 13 senior appearances, twice took out the club’s reserve grade best and fairest honours, and supported Under 19s coach Ray ‘Slug’ Jordon as an assistant.
Munari’s time at North ended with the team’s comprehensive victory over Collingwood in the 1977 Grand Final replay. He had watched on as his former Carlton Premiership teammate and lifelong friend Brent Crosswell again played his part in landing the pennant for the great Ronald Dale.
A financial planner by profession, Munari for many years worked out of an office above the old University Hotel on the corner of Lygon and Grattan Streets – coincidentally the site of where the first annual general meeting of the Carlton Football Club was held in 1865.
Munari’s great love for Carlton endured well-beyond his playing days. An active member of the then Carlton Past Players Association from 1989, he assumed the Presidency in 2003 and served diligently as the association morphed into the Spirit of Carlton. He was quite literally part of the Carlton neighbourhood, and was regularly seen in the idyllic surrounds of Princes Park, completing his afternoon walks with his pet dog.
Munari was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and subsequently suffered a heart attack. He died in palliative care at St Vincent’s Hospital on Thursday (2 February).
The passing of Dennis Munari has also coincided with the loss at age 59 of Paul “Beaver” Buckley, the younger brother of Carlton’s three-time Premiership player and club Best and Fairest Jim.
Jim for many years looked out for his brother, a true character of the club fondly remembered by the likes of Stephen Kernahan and his contemporaries. The 1987 Premiership player Warren McKenzie, in acknowledgment of Paul’s passing, tweeted: “One of life’s great blokes. He was always around, but never did much other than laugh and joke. [He] introduced me to ouzo and coke to avoid hangover, (but) it didn’t work. Sad news”.
“He (Paul) came down from Kyneton after I established myself down here,” Jim said. “I got him a job at the meatworks in Preston through Dicky Mehrton, and he later worked with Orlando Luciano at the Footscray Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable market. He was an integral member there.
“At Carlton he became part of the club, and he fronted for a lot of the training sessions and the pleasant Sunday mornings. He helped out as a statistician, became good friends with the trainers and all the players loved him.
Paul passed away on Tuesday night (January 31) after a long illness. As Jim explained, he had a few heart problems and COVID wasn’t good to him”.
“He was a unique character. There was only one of him,” Jim said. “He was totally reliable and as honest as the day is long. He loved life, the Carlton Football Club and all its characters – and he was a character himself.”
