Born Victoria Park, Western Australia, December 26, 1906 - died Mt Eliza, Victoria, July 14, 1971

Recruited to Carlton from South Melbourne (VFL)

Carlton player No. 540

At Carlton

31 matches, six goals 1938-1940

Debut : Round 1, 1938 vs Hawthorn, aged 31 years, 118 days

Carlton Player No. 540

Premiership player 1938

Captain-Coach 1938-1940

Brighton Diggins represented Carlton in just 31 matches through three seasons - yet he is forever remembered as one of the most influential football figures of his time.

He was born John Bryton Diggins in the inner Perth suburb of Victoria Park on Boxing Day 1906. He adopted his middle name after his family started using it, and he preferred the spelling of ‘Brighton’ after an uncle of the same name.

Diggins reportedly led a carefree, typical bush kid existence and grew into a tall, superbly fit physical specimen.

After representing his local junior club Jolimont, Diggins was invited to train with Subiaco, and first ran out in 1927. By 1929, the budding ruckman was universally considered a star of the WAFL – and when the Depression hit he accepted an overture to join South Melbourne, and he crossed the Nullarbor in late 1931.

Diggins joined a club on the rise as part of its famed ‘Foreign Legion’ of players recruited from all parts of the country. Not surprisingly, South swept to the 1933 Premiership, knocking Richmond over by 18 points, and Diggins and Bob Pratt were listed amongst the best afield.

The Swans continued as a footballing force, but through the ensuing three seasons stumbled at the last hurdle to be beaten in successive Grand Finals by Richmond and Collingwood (twice). Their cause wasn’t helped through injuries to key players – amongst them Diggins who broke a leg above the ankle – and as a consequence they went into a tailspin.

Carlton’s then Vice-President Kenneth Luke identified Diggins as a future club leader and set out to get his man. Luke’s doggedness was ultimately rewarded when Diggins overlooked a more lucrative offer from the Perth Football Club, and agreed to terms to Captain and Coach the Blues in 1938.

Diggins’ positive presence impacted from the outset. A teammate Creswell (‘Micky’) Crisp observed that “from the moment he walked into that training room, he showed himself a gentleman”.

“He (Diggins) was determined. He was forceful if needed. He never was a bully. His soft way of speaking might have suggested to some a lack of leadership (but) that was their funeral. Diggins was a man’s man – that’s where he succeeded. He drove us, he led us, but he always went with us. He was game. He never once asked us to go in where he would not go himself. I might have said in a shorter fashion that he won our confidence”.

By this time, Diggins was 31 years old, but he pushed himself as hard as he pushed his team. Training was relentless, yet innovative and when the ’38 season rolled around the Blues were fit and ready. The turning point came mid-season, when Carlton rallied late in the game to snatch a one point win over arch-rivals Richmond in a fierce, physical encounter. Brimming with confidence, the Blues completed the home and aways on top of the ladder and three weeks later faced Collingwood in the Grand Final.

Before the encounter, Diggins told his players: “Every man has a job to do and will not let Carlton down. We have no champions. Every player helps his teammate and puts the team first”. In the end, and before a record crowd of 96,834, Diggins’ team won a thriller by 13 points – securing a drought-break Premiership after 23 years.

Prior to the ’38 Grand Final, Diggins had declared that win or lose, it would be his last game. Luke would not hear of it however, and convinced his on-field leader to push on for two more seasons. In the end, he managed just five more matches before World War 2 intervened, and duty called, and his brief but successful time at Carlton was over.

During the war, Diggins served as a Warrant Officer with the Army. At war’s end he coached Mornington Peninsula League outfit Frankston, commandeering his teams to three successive Grand Finals. For a time he also covered League football as a correspondent for The Argus.

Brighton passed away in Mt Eliza at the age of 64 in  1971. Forty-one years later his daughter the late Lauraine Diggins became the first female to be elected to the Carlton Football Club Board of Directors.