Born Killaloe, Clare, Ireland 1845 – died the Customshouse, Williamstown, Victoria, January 19, 1911

At Carlton

50 matches (approx.), goals unknown 1865-’76

Premiership player 1871 (South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup), 1873, ’74 & ’75

Foundation player and committeeman

The O’Brien family were victims of the Potato Famine in Ireland. As a consequence Orlando, the eldest of seven children at age nine, followed his parents to new beginnings. In 1856 they all set off to Melbourne via Liverpool aboard the “Saldanah”, disembarking at Port Melbourne after more than 100 days at sea on September 17 of that year.

Orlando Thomas Lockyer (‘Lanty’) O’Brien joined Carlton in its foundation year. In 1908, The Age football writer reporting under the pseudonym “Follower” accredited O’Brien as the first man to introduce the punt kick. Another scribe, referring to an old Carlton team photograph featuring O’Brien in the pavilion, noted: “Looking at his (O’Brien’s) photo, you would say that he, at all events, was ready for the fray. Fierce in his eye the fire of valour burns . . .

“Everyone liked him,” the journalist wrote. “He was a fine, manly player, game as a pebble, and full of kindly spirit and good nature. In short, he was one of the best of all good fellows. He played with Harry Guy, Tom Gorman, Bill Williams and Billy Lacey . . . when ‘Lanty’ first wore the orange cap of Carlton, in the sixties.”

O’Brien was also considered one of the originators of the Australian game of football, and he was captain of the first team to proceed to New South Wales in 1878, with the object of introducing the game into that state.