David McKay, Carlton’s four-time Premiership player through 263 games over 13 seasons, has seen fit to pen the following tribute to “Brother” Luke.
Geoffrey “Brother” Luke was a great friend and mentor for many generations of Carlton footballers and we are all saddened by his passing.
My early memories of Brother Luke were when he conducted pre-season training with a strong emphasis on strengthening and conditioning us for the rigours of the then VFL.
As a physiotherapist with a speciality in rehabilitation, Brother Luke was well qualified for this task and was well before his time at any VFL club in helping to strengthen our ankles, hamstrings and knees to prevent injury.
This was in contrast to most other clubs where physiotherapists mostly had a single role in helping players to recover from football injuries.
Brother Luke treated generations of Carlton players with a firm but sympathetic approach that always put the onus back on the individual to help themselves by adopting his well-planned exercise and strengthening regimes. His methods were tried and true and many of us owe him a huge debt in helping to extend our careers when it looked like serious knee or ankle injuries had put us beyond continuing our football careers.
Brother Luke not only treated current players but also a legion of former players found their way back to see him for treatment either at the club or in his threadbare consulting rooms in Carlton.
He also had a range of other clients from Carlton’s connections in the corporate and business world, and even was given the tough task of helping the Rt Honorable Robert Gordon Menzies, our former Prime Minister, recover from a stroke.
As well as being an outstanding physiotherapist, Brother Luke will also be remembered as a keen investor, house renovator and environmentalist.
I remember asking him one day what the secret was to successful stockmarket investing. He said “It is simple Brother, ‘Buy low and sell high’”. I then followed up with the question, “When do you know when shares are at highs and lows?”, to which he replied: “Brother, that is the secret of stockmaret investing!”.
After many years of reasonably patient investing I am still not privy to his secret!
Brother Luke was also well before his time in buying up rundown terraces in Brunswick and Fitzroy and with his son, renovating them to make tidy profits. He was handy with a range of tools and with his son in tow they did the bulk of the renovations themselves. I wish I had listened to him more on his real estate ideas. I am sure I am not alone in this!
His other great love was nature and he put his money where his mouth was by investing in significant tracts of land in the little desert in Victoria and on Flinders Island. I am sure both these land holdings will have serious covenants on them to keep them as pristine wilderness acreages. I am sure they have been highly sought out by property people for development, but Brother Luke would never have entertained the thought of spoiling this natural land.
Brother Luke kept a keen interest in the Blues and was a paid up and loyal supporter of the Spirit Of Carlton. He will be sadly missed by everyone who came in contact with him as either a friend or client, and a legion of former Carlton footballers. He will be sadly missed by all of us!
Vale Geoffrey “Brother” Luke
