Out of all of the new Blues, my favourite would have to be Nick Duigan. And not just for his on-field exploits. Nick is one in a long line of what I like to call ‘Studious Blues’. See, the defender from Norwood has a masters in psychology. As a mature age recruit, he has his head screwed on and he has an uncommon awareness about what’s going on outside of footy. In fact, had he not been drafted to the Blues, he would have been volunteering as a counselor in Kenya.
It was quite apt that Juddy referred to him as ‘Andrew McKay with hair’, because Carlton have a long line of studious types. Perhaps it’s the proximity to the University.
Take Premiership Captain Mike Fitzpatrick. Like Bob Hawke and Kris Kristofferson, Mike is a Rhodes scholar. Prior to joining the Blues he combined running around in the WAFL with studying engineering at the University of Western Australia and was awarded the scholarship to St John’s College, Oxford. That might explain his genius ruck-work that took us to the 1981 and 1982 premierships.
There must have been something about Blues ruckmen of the era. Because Harry Madden, now a state MP was as studious as they came. He was studying teaching at Australian Catholic University when he crossed from Essendon. After working as a teacher for a few years, he went back to uni to study Architecture at RMIT. Fitting that he was one of the architects of the 1987 premiership.
There’s also the case of the original Andrew McKay… Andrew McKay, who hit the books while he was a Blue, studying vet science in Queensland. He used to spend the week studying in Brisbane and fly in on Thursday nights for games, such was the respect coach David Parkin (another studious type) had for his rebounding defender.
So Nick is just one in a long line. Let’s hope we see a lot more of his on-field genius this weekend.
Who is your favourite new Blue?
