Grand Final Day 1982 – Des English (second from the left) completes the victory lap of the MCG alongside the late Mario Bortolotto (hoisting the Premiership Cup) and Peter Bosustow (sporting the Carlton scarf).

A welcome guest at the Peter Mac Cup Breakfast at the MCG yesterday morning was the dual Carlton Premiership back pocket Des English and his wife Neroli – and life’s good for the 104-game member of David Parkin’s all-conquering 1981 and ’82 Premiership teams, who won his very personal war with leukemia almost 40 years ago.

“This was a great event, a real eye-opener,” English said of the breakfast. “The speakers Craig Connelly (Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation CEO) and Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre clinician-scientist) were excellent.”

“Carlton and Collingwood are to be commended for their involvement, because anything that helps raise awareness and support for Peter Mac is a good thing.”

Though he wasn’t to know it then, English’s 104th and final game for the old dark Navy Blues came on Grand Final day 1986, co-incidentally Bruce Doull’s last hurrah. He duly completed the subsequent 1986/’87 pre-season, but by mid-July, after having “started to feel a little off” in the earlier practice matches, he was ultimately diagnosed with the life-threatening condition.

Chemotherapy treatment at the Austin Hospital ensued with no guarantees, but by the following March English was in remission.

“I was pretty naïve about the whole situation – it was a case of ‘the less I know the better’,” English recalled. “I got hit with a heavy dose of ‘chemo’, and I later learned there were no guarantees the treatment would actually work.

“But here we are almost 40 years later – and as far as I am concerned it was all thanks to Dr Roger Woodruff.”

2025 Peter Mac Cup Breakfast

Photos from the 2025 Peter Mac Cup Breakfast at the MCG on Monday, March 31, ahead of the 30th annual clash between Carlton and Collingwood.
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Carlton’s 1987 Grand Final victory was famously dedicated to English and his teammates Peter Motley (who nearly lost his life in a car accident in May of that year) and Bernie Evans (who was suspended after being found guilty of striking in the second semi that September).

The great postscript to English’s story is that as of early 2025 he can confidently declare “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body” in keeping with the famous Carlton motto, having never suffered a concussion in his playing days.

“I always put in the short steps, so I never got ko’ed,” English dryly suggested.

“In actual fact I was fortunate that I had peripheral vision so I saw a couple whizz past me . . . and I’ve often wondered what might have been if I hadn’t.”