No 1: Myer Brott: 83 years and counting
Myer Brott, at 94 the Carlton Football Club’s longest-serving member.
No 2: Dad’s seat is just what the doctor ordered
Dr Trevor Brott acknowledges his beloved father Myer’s deep power of persuasion as crucial to his on-going support for all things Carlton.
No 3: Ruby a fully-fledged 21st century Blue
Ruby Owen was a regular at Carlton games in Melbourne throughout 2009 alongside older brother Thomas and father Peter.
No 4: It’s The Bloodbath and beyond for true Blue Joan
A proud member of the club since the tender age of four, Joan’s earliest memories of Carlton involve the 1945 Grand Final
No 5: Shane embodies the Spirit of Carlton
Carlton has been a huge part of Shane Morris' life since he became a member on birth in 1950 and still recalls the all the player numbers of the 1950s and 1960s.
No 6: Blue is the colour for Renee and Scarlett
Three week old Scarlett Costa's great grandmother Ida continued a family tradition when she lodged the membership papers for her to become the club's latest member.
No 7: Blue Ben waiting for the next big thing
Ben Shepherd’s 18 years as a Carlton member has seen the best and worst
No 8: Betty Blue still true, 72 years on
Betty Herrick knows that she first became a member in 1938 and she’s still got her ’38 membership card to prove it.
No 9: From Jezza to Judd . . . Mary remains the Carlton constant
Mary Robertson's connection with Carlton has been territorial since she was a young girl in the 1960's.
Have Your Say
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Blue is the colour for Renee and Scarlett
When it comes to matters Carlton, Renee Costa’s grandmother Ida invariably gets her way. So it was in 1980, when Ida lodged Renee’s membership papers a year and a bit after the little girl’s birth. And so it will be in 2010, when Ida again lodges the paperwork - this time for the club’s latest member, Renee’s three-week old daughter Scarlett.
That said, there was much debate and discussion in the nine months leading up to Scarlett’s arrival as to who the baby would actually support, for Renee's husband Steve is a passionate Essendon supporter.
But it was he, in a moment’s weakness during his wife’s very long labour, who confided in Renee that Scarlett could support the old dark Navy Blues . . . and Renee didn’t forget her dear hubby’s comment, nor her Nanna’s none-too-subtle prompting.
As Renee explained: “When my little girl was born, my grandmother turned up at the hospital with a basket of goodies collected over nine months from The Carlton Shop - a guernsey, bib, carry bag, zip-up jacket, money box, autograph book, pen and flag.
“In 2010, Scarlett will take my Nonno’s seat at the football, because it’s hard for him to get there now.”
For 30 year-old Renee, the connection with Carlton is typically territorial, typically Italian.
“My great grandmother came to Australia with her family from Treviso in 1935, and my grandmother was born here in ’36. They all lived near the corner of Rathdowne and Palmerston Streets in Carlton, where the Clare Castle is,” Renee said.
“Nanna has been a Carlton member since 1941. In the early days she used to go to the Carlton games with her twin brother and the chap who lived next door. She’s 73 now and she’s still going.
“As the years went on we all went to the Carlton games together - my Mum, my Nanna, my Nonno and me. We used to have reserved seats in the Hawthorn (now Richard Pratt) Stand, and we struck up friendships with about 12 other Carlton supporters around us. Thesesedays we all still sit together, either at the MCG or Etihad Stadium, and before too long my daughter will be there with us.”
Though she was on hand at the MCG for David Parkin’s back-to-back premiership triumphs of 1981/82 Renee has no recollection of them. After all, she was still a toddler then. Instead, her earliest memory involves donning the famed dark Navy Blue No.9 guernsey made famous by one of the team’s undisputed back-to-back heroes.
“I used to wear the no.9 of Kenny Hunter on my back all through growing up. I was a huge fan,” Renee said. “I can also remember having my photograph taken with Fraser Murphy.”
Of more relevance to her is the 1987 Grand Final, on that sweltering September Saturday when Robert Walls’ senior twenty overwhelmed Hawthorn to land premiership No.15. As she said: “I remember how hot it was, 30 degrees-plus. We were sitting on the top deck of the old Ponsford Stand and there was no shade at all”.
Through the course of the 1980s, Renee furthered her commitment to Carlton as a cheersquad member. Thursday nights would be spent at the Carlton ground sticking crepe to the banner’s uprights and on match days she would help raise the banner for her heroes - but not before extending a friendly wave to her family and friends who were watching on from their usual vantage point.
As fate would have it, Renee, now a fully-fledged member of the Women of Carlton coterie, was domiciled in the United Kingdom from 2001-’03 “and was fortunate enough to have been away for a couple of the bad years . . . but I still paid my Carlton membership”.
And that’s because Renee, like Ida and, doubtless, little Scarlett, is loyal to the core.
“I think there’s a passion that’s been inbuilt since I was a kid,” she said, “now even moreso, because Carlton’s put things in place to once again be successful.
“And while there’s hope, there’s passion.”
