If ever a man bled Blue for Carlton it was surely the late Stanley Ernest Ladd. Stan, an impassioned club Member for 83 years, died earlier this week.
“Dad never missed a Carlton game,” son Peter recalled. “He was a regular through all those years.
“He used to work in the fresh fish place at Camberwell Market, and one Friday night he accidentally cut his hand with a knife. He was rushed off to hospital, got the hand stitched and put in a cast, but he still got Mum to drive him down to Kardinia Park to see Carlton knock over Geelong.
“He used to be a pigeon racer too and around lunchtime Saturday when the last of his pigeons got home he’d clock it off and go to the game.”
Though Stan was born in Alphington, his grandfather – an English migrant who settled in the Carlton district in the 1890s – first set the parameters.
“He was sports-made in England and when he moved into his house on Rathdowne Street he quickly adopted the local club and became an enthusiastic supporter,” Peter said.
“That carried through to Dad’s father, Dad, me, my brothers and my children, but not to Dad’s close brother Geoff who went down the Collingwood route.”
Stan made the paper back in December 1979, on the night Carlton President George Harris announced his shock resignation to members at the much-anticipated Annual General Meeting. When Harris strode out of the Brunswick Town Hall having delivered the news, Stan leapt from the aisle to shake the man’s hand – the first shot fired in an ill-fated attempt to keep George at the helm.
Pictured in The Sun the following morning above the headline “Stan the fan”, Stan was quoted as saying: “It was just my little effort to keep him (Harris) there: he’s worth a champion half-forward line to the club. If every real Carlton supporter thinks about what he has done, the success the club has achieved when he was at the helm, then we’ve got to get him back”.
Of the countless Carlton footballers he saw play, Stan thought highly of old timers like Harry Vallence and Bob Chitty. He was also an unabashed fan of Alex Jesaulenko and Rod Ashman and in more recent years arranged for a photograph of Greg Williams to hang from the wall of his study.
Stan Ladd with The Sun article featuring himself after George' Harris resignation in December, 1979.
Stan always considered Val Perovic – “a ready-made, mistake-free footballer” as he put it - the greatest recruit this club ever landed.
As for the great games, “the one Dad always talked about was the 1970 Grand Final and that ‘bouncy bouncy’ goal of Jezza’s (Alex Jesaulenko’s) at the death”.
“I was there with him that day, but I was only young at the time,” Peter said. “Years later I asked him ‘when we were 44 points behind against Collingwood did you ever think about venturing out at half-time?’ and he said ‘Not really – thick and thin’.”
On Princes Park matchdays through the 1970s, Stan and his wife Mavis watched on from their reserved seats in the Ald. Gardiner Stand. Then, when the Southern (or Hawthorn) Stand was completed, they perched themselves there.
According to another son Craig, Stan “had a habit of losing his false teeth, usually whilst berating an umpire”.
“They often had to be retrieved from the next row,” he recalled.
Sadly, Stan lost his beloved wife two years ago – the same year he was one of 15 salt of the earth Carlton members, each recognised with Certificates of Appreciation for 80 years of ongoing loyalty.
Though ill health prevented Stan from being there to accept his certificate from Stephen Kernahan, he truly treasured that document and all that it represented.
As Peter said: “Carlton was Dad’s life”.
“He loved the club, he loved the ritual of home games at Princes Park on Saturdays, of cheering the Blueboys and of yelling at the umpire.”
Stan was 87 when he died. He is survived by his sons Peter, Greg and Craig, and five grandchildren.
