IT took 73 seasons and two rounds of League football for it to occur, and so it did at Princes Park on an autumn Saturday afternoon 50 years ago against this week’s opposition.
It happened in the second round of the 1969 VFL season - Saturday, April 12 - the same day the wife of the late Carlton President George Harris unfurled the ’68 Premiership pennant by the grandstand bearing his name.
It is a matter of record that Carlton’s famous scoreline of 30.30 (210) has not been bettered before or since — and to think thatif the great Alex Jesaulenko booted 18.0 and not 6.12, the 40-goal barrier would have been “blown to the sheizenhausen” as Rex would say.
To quote the then secretary of the club in the ’69 annual report:
“Our team performed outstandingly on many occasions throughout the year, but one of the highlights must surely have been the match against Hawthorn, played at Carlton on 12th April, when Carlton kicked 30.30, a record V.F.L. score. This was indeed a memorable feat and a small mounted white football was presented to each of the players who participated in that game as a small memento of the occasion.”
Memories of the 30.30 game are firmly entrenched in the minds of those supporters who fronted up to Princes Park all those years ago. For subsequent generations, there remains precious flickering footage of the final quarter of the contest, in which the rampaging Blues went where no team had gone before.
Seven years ago, Carlton enthusiast John Dickens walked into Ikon Park wielding a 16mm film reel of the final quarter. The extraordinary film, thought lost, was shot by the cameramen of HSV7 and featured the commentary of Frank Adams and the late Jack Edwards. It was discovered on one of two 16mm reels retrieved from a dumpmaster years before, after the network apparently saw fit to discard much of its celluloid content.
The extraordinary film, in which the since-demolished Garton Street scoreboard and Robert Heatley Stand can be seen, features moments of sheer brilliance from the likes of Brent Crosswell, Adrian Gallagher, Alex Jesaulenko and John Nicholls.
Carlton’s three-time premiership coach David Parkin, at that time Hawthorn ’s besieged back pocket, also features in the film - as does full-forward Peter Hudson and the late Peter Crimmins.
The film ends with Ian Robertson’s towering mark over ‘Parko’ and dramatic post-siren conversion - Carlton’s 12th goal for the quarter and 30th for the match - on an afternoon in which his team registered a 128-point win and became the first in League history to post a 200-point score.
Little wonder Jack Edwards is heard to say “I’ve never seen a side treat another side with such contempt”.
Ian Robertson, whose 125-game career at Carlton encompassed three premierships, was delighted to learn that film footage of this momentous occasion in Carlton history had surfaced after all these years - not that time had dimmed his memory.
“I can remember that early on ‘Barass’ (Ron Barassi) told Brent Crosswell to man up on Des Meagher, because he was quickly booting the ball forward to (Peter) Hudson,” Robertson said at the time the film reel turned up on Carlton’s doorstep.
“Brent did a great job and by three-quarter time we were a mile in front, so Barass gave Crosswell his head . . . and if you check the replay I reckon Brent’s kicked four goals in the last quarter.
“I do remember kicking goal number 30. I didn’t play on it, but I used to tell people ‘We kicked a record score and I kicked the 30th’.”
Carlton’s 30.30 (210) - a League record which stood for 20 years - bettered its previous highest score of 28.10 (178) amassed against Collingwood at Victoria Park in Round 12, 1943.
Carlton 6.6 13.17 18.24 30.30 (210)
Hawthorn 3.2 6.4 10.10 12.10 (82)
Goalkickers: Jones (7.3), Jesaulenko (6.12), Crosswell (4.2), Quirk (3.4), Robertson (3.0), Gallagher (2.3), Nicholls (2.1), Nicoll (2.1), Stone (1.1), Hall (0.1), Jackson (0.1), rushed (0.1)
Best: Jesaulenko, Jones, Gallagher, Robertson, Nicholls, Collins, Lofts
Reports: Lofts (striking), suspended four matches
Injuries: Goold (bruised hip), Stone (slight concussion)
Field umpire: Jeff Crouch
Attendance: 25,894 at Princes Park
The Carlton team which met Hawthorn - Round 2, Saturday, April 12, 1969, Princes Park
Backs: Ian Collins, Wes Lofts, Kevin Hall
Half-Backs: John Goold, Robert Walls, Barry Gill
Centres: Garry Crane, Syd Jackson, Ian Robertson
Half-forwards: Alex Jesaulenko, Brent Crosswell, Bryan Quirk
Forwards: Peter Jones, Ron Stone, Ian Nicoll
Rucks: John Nicholls, Sergio Silvagni, Adrian Gallagher
Reserves: Vin Waite, Peter Kerr
Coach: Ron Barassi
