Born Carlton, Victoria March 12, 1888 - died Adelaide, South Australia, July 9, 1943
Recruited to Carlton from Parkville Presbyterians
Carlton player No. 195
At Carlton
105 matches, 82 goals 1906-1910 & 1916-1917
Premiership player 1906, 1907 & 1908
Most Outstanding VFL player (The Australasian newspaper) 1909
‘Bongo’ Lang last laced a boot for Carlton in the penultimate year of the First World War – and his recent elevation to the Hall of Fame has served as a long overdue reminder that one of the game’s most controversial characters also contributed positively to his football team’s fortunes.
Born and bred in old Carlton town, William Alexander Lang was plying his football craft with Parkville Presbyterians when he caught Secretary/Coach Jack Worrall’s discerning eye. Quickly establishing himself in his new environs, the 18 year-old Lang made the cut for the senior team’s opening round match with Melbourne in 1906, and fast established himself as Carlton’s and the game’s pre-eminent rover.
History records Lang as amongst Carlton’s best players afield in each of its back-to-back-to-back Grand Final victories – 1906, 1907 and 1908 – and in 1909 he was declared the competition’s outstanding player by the newspaper of the day The Australasian.
Then, in September 1910 - just before the team was to meet South Melbourne in the second semi-final – Lang was one of three players (together with Doug Gillespie and Doug Fraser) withdrawn at the behest of the Carlton committee. No explanations were volunteered publicly, but it was common knowledge the club had acted on credible information all three had been offered financial inducements to play dead against the Bloods.
The VFL and Carlton launched separate investigations and Gillespie was ultimately exonerated. But Fraser and Lang were both found guilty and suspended for 99 matches – effectively five years.
Lang consistently denied his guilt. Whilst admitting he took a bribe (reportedly £10) as one might from a sucker, he always maintained he had no intention of underperforming because of his loyalty to the Blues. Those words had a ring of truth to them, for after completing his five-year suspension, Lang returned to Princes Park to play again, in 1916 and ’17.
Alas, ‘Bongo’ was a shadow of his former self, and on bringing down the curtain on his playing career he relocated to Adelaide, where he died in July 1943.
In 2020, members of the Lang family called on the AFL to retrospectively overturn the five-year suspension on the basis that the player was poorly done by. To quote Lang’s great nephew Ian Lang in an interview for The Age: “(The family) came to the conclusion that he was just a naïve boy. He was going to bet on Carlton, not against Carlton”.
Though the Langs contended that ‘Bongo’ appeared to be a first-time offender and the punishment was in no way proportional to the transgression, the League rejected their request.
But they are forever grateful to Carlton that the club, in inducting William Alexander Lang to the Hall, have served to rehabilitate the on-field achievements of its three-time Premiership rover in some way.
