Born Fitzroy, Victoria August 27, 1881 - died Brunswick, Victoria, November 17, 1958

Recruited to Carlton from Carlton Juniors (VJFA)

Carlton player No. 139

At Carlton

125 matches, 153 goals 1902-1910, 1914 & 1916

Leading Club goalkicker 1909 (36 goals)

Premiership player 1906, 1907 & 1908

George Thomas Topping’s tempestuous Carlton career encompassed 125 senior appearances through 15 seasons – amongst them the 1906, ’07 and ’08 Premierships.

It also took in an 18-month suspension, and, remarkably, umpiring duties.

Born in neighbouring Fitzroy and recruited from Carlton Juniors, Topping joined Carlton on invitation from Jack Worrall, the latter on a mission to deliver the old dark Navy Blues from the doldrums.

Though lightly-framed, Topping was a born forward whose capacity to read the play, coupled with his marking strength and goalkicking accuracy, ensured that he was a dangerous proposition within range of the big sticks. Ever the plucky type, Topping also stood his ground, and pity the hapless soul who dared try to aggravate.

Topping headed down the race for the first time in the 10^th Round of 1902,  against St Kilda at Princes Park. The Blues got the bikkies, and Topping did enough to solidify his place in the starting 18. By the Premiership season of 1906, he’d accumulated almost 50 appearances and was amongst the first named for the ’06 Grand Final with Fitzroy.

On that special day, before an audience of more than 44,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Topping slotted two goals from full-forward in Carlton’s emphatic victory; in the Grand Final of 1907 he booted three from the pocket in the team’s heart-stopping win; and in the 1908 GF he plied his craft in another hard-fought triumph over the Same Olds to complete the hat trick.

In the 4^th Round match of 1910 at Princes Park – a contest involving the 1909 Grand Finallists Carlton and South Melbourne - South backman Herb Streckfuss was rendered unconscious. The field umpire promptly reported Topping, who required a police escort from the venue, and at the subsequent Tribunal hearing the player was found guilty and duly suspended until the end of season 1912 – effectively a 35-game stretch.

On completing the suspension, Topping turned out for one match in the No.17, then resolved to hang up the boots and raise the whistle as a field umpire in VFA competition. He later officiated as the man in white in three senior League games through 1913 before completing a comeback with Carlton the following year at the ripe old age of 32.