On Saturday night he renewed acquaintance with the Blueboys – soon he’ll do the same with Hawthorn types – and Kevin Heath wouldn’t have it any other way.

A welcome visitor to Visy Park on Monday, Heath, the 218-game former Hawthorn and Carlton defender, reflected on the club’s grand 150^th birthday celebrations at The Plenary, where he rubbed shoulders with great mates of a bygone era.

“I saw Alex Jesaulenko, ‘Swan’ McKay, ‘Curly’ Austin, Barry Armstrong, ‘Perc’ Jones, ‘Kenny’ Sheldon, ‘Jimmy’ Buckley, Phil Maylin and Peter McConville – a whole heap of them,” said Heath, pictured here with the long-serving Carlton Property Steward Ken Kleiman.

“Seeing those blokes in the room triggered happy memories for me . . . but then again it always has.”

Recruited to Hawthorn from Assumption College in the Carlton Premiership year of 1968, Heath represented the brown and gold through 140 matches in eight seasons, amongst them the 1971 Grand Final in which he chiefly contributed to the triumph.

“In coming to Carlton I was interviewed by a few clubs, but it ended up between Carlton and Collingwood as to which club I should join,” Heath said.

“Both clubs were offering pretty much the same amount of money, but John Nicholls was the man who tipped me into Carlton and the club had more chance of winning a Premiership. So I joined Carlton, trained on the Thursday night and it was the same night he finished up as coach.”

Heath turned out for Carlton’s opening round match of 1976 against Collingwood at Princes Park – in what was also the Tasmanian Tony Pickett’s first match and the great Garry Crane’s last. He would wear the No.18 dark Navy Blue guernsey into 78 senior matches between 1976 and 1980, predominantly out of a back pocket. A much loved character (he won the BJ Deacon Memorial Award for best clubman in his maiden season), Heath’s was unfortunate not to have made the cut for the ’79 Grand Final and his tenure at Carlton would curiously end as it did at Hawthorn - under Parkin’s watch as Senior Coach.

For Heath, though, it’s always been ‘non, je ne regrette rien’.

“It wasn’t unfortunate, because I never bore a grudge with David,” Heath explained. “He was my captain in the ’71 Grand Final. I thought it was great at the time that Carlton got David across.”

Kevin Heath during his time with the Blues. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)

In reflecting on his years at Carlton, Heath unhesitatingly responded “Happy days”.

“I played at Hawthorn with some great players and in coming to Carlton I played with great players again, so all through my career I played with great players in great teams. I was very lucky,” Heath said.

Expressing his gratitude for having been afforded the opportunity to represent both clubs, Heath found himself in a no-loss situation at the MCG last Friday night despite boasting a soft spot for the Blueboys.

“I attended the (Carlton-Hawthorn) match with ‘Curly’ Austin and ‘Wow’ Jones, who also lives in Sydney, and when they asked who I was barracking for I said ‘I’m barracking for Carlton because Carlton’s the underdog’,” Heath explained.

For more than 30 years Heath has called Sydney home. As he said: “I married a Sydney girl and she’s what took me up there”. A dedicated member of the SCG, Heath watches on whenever the Swans go around, but he still gets back to Melbourne sporadically to take in a game, whether Hawthorn, Carlton or anyone else, and – until recently - frequent a certain Lygon Street watering hole.

“Because I live in Sydney I’ve always made a point of dropping into Perc Jones’ pub - can’t do it now, they’ve shut the pub - and invariably somebody’s rounded up the boys to meet there,” Heath said.

“In fact I asked Perc on Saturday night why I didn’t get an invite to the hotel’s closing because I was such a loyal patron!

“Last time I was down there I said to him ‘How come you’ve done the pub up?’. He said to me ‘What do you mean’ and I said ‘You’ve got two new fire extinguishers”.