More than 600 Carlton people, some of them former Carlton premiership players, celebrated the two Grand Final triumphs of 1972 and ’82, both at Richmond’s expense.
I had an idea of what to expect - primarily because Carlton is in a privileged position to celebrate its premiership anniversaries almost on a yearly basis, whereas other clubs have very few Grand Final successes to hang their hats on.
As a consequence, the former Carlton players remain tightknit because of the precious successes they’ve celebrated, and that’s a great thing.
One of the Carlton players I refer to is Peter “Percy” Jones, the 249-game former Carlton ruckman. Now Percy has been part of four Carlton premierships - a quarter of those his old club has earned in total - which is quite amazing really. Some blokes are lucky to be around for four years let alone four flags, but Percy is one of the privileged few. So too Wayne Johnston, whose son Tomi is a good mate of mine.
Percy was one of a long line of premiership ruckmen in a great Carlton era - John Nicholls, Mike Fitzpatrick, Warren Jones and Justin Madden included, so it is always great to have a chat to him and hear some stories about the old days.
John Nicholls and David Parkin also enjoy reliving glory days, and for me their underlying messages really struck a chord. I remember sitting at the table with a few of my current teammates and thinking: “Imagine if this was us?”.
Funnily enough, I came to appreciate Carlton given my early allegiance to Essendon and the knowledge that both teams share the most number of premierships. I remember listening to the ’99 Preliminary Final in the car on a family holiday and understanding how great the rivalry was. It was a rivalry fuelled by history and the Carlton- Essendon games of today are still as big as they were then.
As you get older, your football life cycle changes. When you’re first drafted into the game you just hope to play a senior game, but as time goes on the bigger picture becomes more evident and as a collective group, your only ambition is plain and simple and that is win a Premiership. We could see it with the past players, the team spirit is still there - the more successful the team the stronger the bond and that will last a lifetime.
