LONG-TIME Carlton supporter Anthony Renda this week dropped by to donate this 62 year-old postcard photograph to the football club archive.
Now living comfortably in retirement, Renda felt compelled to give something back to the Blues as a thank you for a lifetime of precious memories.
The image (taken by the prolific East Brunswick photographer Charles Boyles) captures the Ken Hands-coached Carlton team of 20 (and two mascots) on Princes Park prior to the Round 3 match with Footscray - now the Western Bulldogs, this Saturday night’s opponent - on Saturday, April 29, 1961.
The packed Northey Stand on the city side wing reflects the sizeable crowd of 34,254 that fronted for what proved to be a tight contest won by the Bulldogs, 11.15 (81) to 11.6 (72).
EJ Whitten - “Mr Football” - was adjudged best afield across centre half-back for Footscray that afternoon, while Carlton rover Martin Cross (the great grandfather of the Blues’ sprightly wingman Oliver Hollands) contributed four goals to his team’s tally.
Cross’s presence in the photo in part motivated Renda to donate the item to Carlton.
“The club has given me so much pleasure and satisfaction that I wanted to give something back,” Renda said.
“One of the reasons for handing over the photo was based on a fear that I’d eventually lose it. The other was the Cross-Hollands connection. I still remember the names of about 15 players in that photograph, one of them Martin Cross, and when I read that he was Ollie Hollands’ great grandfather I thought the photo might be useful for the club.”
Renda’s valued team photo was taken barely three years after his 28-day voyage of a lifetime aboard the passenger ship Oceania from his home town of Messina on the Italian island of Sicily, to Melbourne, Australia, the land of the Southern Cross.
Renda - now 76 - was then a boy of eleven when in March 1958 he followed his older brother Giovanni, older sisters Rosa and Francesca and mother Rosaria down the gangway and onto Station Pier to be reunited with his father Natale, who had set sail two years previous.
“Like so many Italians we settled in a house in Brunswick. We lived not far from where one of my cousins lived in Jenkins Street, opposite a house frequented by an Australian family named Cleary.
“The two Cleary boys Phil and John played for Carlton - Phil in the reserves, John in the Under 19s – and that was why my cousin first took me to Carlton games,” Renda explained.
“That was around 1961, so I’ve followed Carlton since I was a kid. It began with a season’s ticket that I used for every home game, and I’d also watch the players play in every away game except Geelong. At Carlton I sat in the old Southern Stand and now that I’ve got my nine year-old grandson a home game ticket I take him to the Carlton games.”
Featured in Renda’s Carlton team pic are two future Brownlow Medallists – the half-back John James who would win the count with 21 votes in that very year, and the centre half-back Gordon Collis, who would follow suit with 27 votes in 1964.
Prominent also is the 1961 Coleman Medallist Tom Carroll, whose 54 goals from full-forward earned him the League’s goalkicking honours.
Carlton captain Graham Donaldson can be seen sitting in the middle row with the Nicholls brothers Don and Vice-Captain John either side.
John Nicholls, Sergio Silvagni and Ian Collins would all feature in the Blues’ drought-breaking Grand Final victory under the watch of Coach Ron Barassi in 1968.
The Carlton senior 20 pictured is as follows:
Back row, l to r: Bill Arch, Bob Crowe, Sergio Silvagni, Maurie Sankey, Peter Barry, Gordon Collis, Tom Carroll, Brian Buckley
Middle row: Berkley Cox, Bruce Comben, John Nicholls, Graham Donaldson, Don Nicholls, George Ferry
Front row: John James, Ian Collins, Chris Pavlou, Martin Cross, John Heathcote, Graham Gilchrist
If you have a football club-related photograph or artefact you would like to donate to the Carlton archive, please email tony.debolfo@carltonfc.com.au or call 0411 649766.
