NEXT to Bruce Doull’s matchworn headband, the distinctive set of black-rimmed glasses worn by the former Carlton ruckman/forward Tony Southcombe probably ranks amongst this club’s most famous item of on-field apparel.
Though Southcombe only wore the glasses into 13 senior appearances for Carlton through 1977, the football fashion accessory strikes a chord with those old enough to remember or newcomers to IKON Park’s museum showcase where both items are prominently displayed.
It’s 46 years now since the bespectacled Southcombe last took to the field in dark navy – and yet the glasses he so generously loaned to the Club were worn with distinction throughout his storied on-field career with Bendigo Football League club Golden Square.
But why spectacles and not contact lenses? In truth, Southcombe had no choice.
“The surfaces of my eyes were rough so if I wore contact lenses and got tackled or copped a bump the lenses would either fall out or move to different parts of my eyes,” Southcombe said.
“I’ve worn glasses since my first day at school and although I played football without the glasses as a junior, I wore them from the time I was 19 into all but the first two or three games of senior football I ever played.”
Southcombe’s spectacles were crafted by a local Bendigo optometrist Bill Wilkinson, who managed to source unbreakable lenses which the player wore for 95 per cent of his career, Carlton included. The glasses weren’t supposed to shatter but they in fact shattered twice – on both occasions due to Southcombe’s “close-checking” opponent “when I was getting on a bit and having a kick for Boort in the North Central League”.
It’s a little-known fact that Southcombe was on the cusp of joining Carlton five years previous - the Premiership year of 1972 - but glandular fever put paid to those plans.
“I won the Medal in Bendigo in ’72 and was all set to go down to Carlton until I got sick,” Southcombe recalled. “I had an ordinary year in ’73 - I got too fat - then I got really fit in ’74 and coached Golden Square to premierships in ’75 and ’76.
“I then got myself really fit and in ’77 I called the club to ask if I could come down to play in a practice match.”
Southcombe was 110 days short of his 27th birthday when he first took to the field for the Ian Thorogood-coached Carlton in the opening round match with Geelong at Princes Park. On a day in which Kennington’s John Trezise also completed his senior Carlton debut, Southcombe, wearing the No.4, booted one goal in the team’s 78-point rout of the visitors.
In the following round at the same venue against Fitzroy - the game in which the former Collingwood full-forward Peter McKenna first ran out for Carlton - Southcombe booted three goals in the Blues’ 32-point win; and he backed it up with another three at the Carlton ground when the Blues banged on 24.26 against St Kilda – to this day the highest Carlton tally totalled against the Saints.
Reflecting his great versatility, Southcombe (in Jones’ absence with a thigh injury) dominated the ruck contests against Melbourne in Round 7 at the MCG – prompting an Inside Football scribe to declare the big redhead known as ‘Bluey’ as a candidate for the League’s recruit of the year.
But Southcombe’s League career would last just six more weeks.
Though Carlton was well-represented by Bendigonians at that time - the likes of Ashman, Keogh, Southby and Walsh - Southcombe, who took up lodgings in the motel across the road from the old ground, found it somewhat difficult to settle into Carlton life, and by season’s end was back in Bendigo.
“I should have stayed,” Southcombe conceded in retrospect. “It (leaving Carlton) was the stupidest thing I ever did in my life.”
Though he can’t turn back the hands of time, Southcombe still follows the fortunes of the mighty Blues from afar with genuine interest – and the Carlton Football Club is forever indebted to him for loaning those famous spectacles for display at Ikon Park.
