Doug Ringholt, the former Carlton wingman/half-back flanker of the early ’60s, and nephew of the Blues’ 1947 Premiership rover Jack Conley, has died at the age of 82.
Joining Carlton as a budding Under 19 player in 1960, Ringholt worked his way through the ranks to earn selection for his first senior match, as 20th man in Round 6, ’63, against Geelong at Princes Park.
It would be the first of just four senior appearances for Ringholt, who wore Conley’s No.35 in each of them – and as he later lamented, “five got you a club blazer”.
That said, he was incredibly proud to wear his maternal uncle’s 35 on his back.
In December 2019, Ringholt and his wife Dot completed an emotional homecoming from Yarrawonga to the place he remembered as Princes Park, and was photographed for posterity by his Uncle Jack’s locker.
“Gee the facilities have changed a lot,” Ringholt conceded at the time, “but even when I was playing back in those days we all thought what we had was the best available.
“They were great days, both in terms of football life and social life . . . and I guess we had a lot more freedoms than the players enjoy these days.”
Ringholt’s formative years were spent in the family home at 22 Campbell Street, Coburg. They took in schooldays at Moreland Primary and later Coburg Tech, where he chased the leather conveyance with an old teammate the late Wes Lofts.
At Coburg Tech, Ringholt’s football philosophies were shaped by the legendary Hawthorn mentor John Kennedy sen., the school’s resident coach at the time.
“‘Kanga’ (Kennedy) really left an impression,” Ringholt recalled. “When I laid injured on the ground in a school game he told me something about getting up. At the time I thought ‘He really means it’ and I learnt later on that his message was that you don’t let the opposition know you’re hurt.
Zoned to Carlton, Ringholt embarked on his football journey with the unswerving support of his father Stuart (a winner of Coburg’s Best & Fairest in 1940 and six-time West Coburg Premiership player) and of course Uncle Jack.
“I remember having a kick-to-kick with Uncle Jack in the street, and him telling me ‘can you hit the top rail of that fence with a stab kick?’. I said to him ‘I don’t really think so’ and he replied ‘when you can you might be a League footballer’.
“I ended up pretty good stab kick, but I don’t think I ever got to hit the top rail.”
Ringholt turned out for the Carlton Under 19 and reserve grade teams under the watch of the respective coaches Tom Booker and Jack Carney. He broke into the Ken Hands-coached Carlton senior team in that sixth-round match of 1963 with eventual Premiers Geelong. Starting on the pine with John Reilly, Ringholt got the chance to pit his skills with the likes of Denis Marshall and the late ‘Polly’ Farmer . . . and the Blues went down by a goal.
Ringholt’s next senior foray came a fortnight later, against Collingwood when 38,000 spectators crammed into Princes Park on the Queen’s Birthday weekend. The Blues went down by two points after resident rover Bruce Williams fluffed a kick for goal on the final siren - but the game was marred by an ugly incident in which the resident field umpire Ron Brophy was hit with a half-full longneck hurled from over the fence.
As fate would have it, Ringholt’s third appearance came against Collingwood, in the fifth round of the ’64 season at Victoria Park. Named on a wing alongside Ian Collins, Ringholt featured in Carlton’s best and earned a call-up for the following game against St Kilda at the Junction Oval – his last senior game for the club on a day the three-time Carlton Premiership over Adrian Gallagher completed his senior debut.
“I thought I was doing very well up until half-time, before I got in the way of Gordon Collis and Darrel Baldock,” Ringholt said of the encounter.
“They hit me from behind and I ended up flat-out on the cricket pitch, which left me with a back injury and semi-concussion. Ken Hands said to me ‘How do you feel?’ and I told him ‘Not too well’, so I exited the game at half-time and have probably regretted it ever since.”
Through the Carlton network, Ringholt was sounded out about pursuing his career interstate - either to Tasmania or to Western Australia. Ringholt pitched for Perth because of the warmer weather, representing Claremont in 114 senior appearances in the WAFL and committing 46 years of his life to Western Australia life, which took in his experiences as a sailor involved in ocean racing.
On returning to the Garden State, Ringholt rediscovered his passion for all things Dark Navy. Of Carlton and what it meant to him, Ringholt replied that it was all about the people.
“The club was such a formative part of my life,” he said. “The friendships with the players I met have been ongoing . . . ”
Doug Ringholt was the 753rd player to represent the Carlton Football Club at senior level since the formation of the VFL in 1897.
