It was twenty years ago today . . . so the Beatles song goes and so it was for Dean Rice.
Twenty years ago next Tuesday, in the 8th round of 1994 against Richmond under lights at the MCG, Rice strode down the race for his first game in a dark Navy Blue Guernsey – only to buckle with another knee injury moments before the half-time break.
What a bitter blow that was for the former St Kilda wingman, who not so long ago related the chain of events which led to him crossing town from Moorabbin to Carlton North, and ultimately enabled him to realise his football dream as key component of Carlton’s all-conquering 1995 Premiership team.
Rice, who recently reflected on the glory that was Grand Final day 1995, was secured with Carlton’s 19th overall selection in the pre-season draft of 1994, in the transitional period between the coaching tenures of Ken Sheldon and Stan Alves in late 1993/early ’94.
“It wasn’t one simple decision, it was something that happened over a period of time.” Rice said in a previous interview with this reporter. “I’d done my right knee the first time and they wouldn’t re-sign me, so I had to stand out because I wasn’t covered and if broke down again at training that was it.
“Anyway they agreed to cover me for training and I resumed in the ’93-’94 pre-season period. Then, in a practice match down at Koroit I hurt my good knee. I saw the surgeon, and was told it’d only be 4-6 weeks, but when I got back to St Kilda Stan Alves said to me ‘That’s it, we’re not going to re-sign you’. Naturally I was disappointed, because I knew I’d come back from that knee.”
Then 25, Rice was seven seasons and 116 matches into his senior career with St Kilda and understandably at a low ebb at that pivotal moment, until the then Carlton Senior Coach came calling.
“The club invited me down to training after David Parkin made contact. He told me that he was impressed in me after seeing a passage of play in a game I was involved and he invited me down to training, so I trained with Carlton and that was basically it.”
And the rest, as they say, is football history, though it wasn’t without its pitfalls.
As mentioned, Rice took to the field for his senior debut in a Navy Blue guernsey in Round 8, 1994, only to again buckle under the weight of a worrisome knee, which put paid to his ’94 season the moment it begun.
Dean Rice in action during last Sunday's Clash of the Old Foes. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)
But Rice got his body right, resumed exactly one year later, and turned out in 18 senior appearances for the Blues through 1995, including that one day in September that was “Sweet Sixteen” for Stephen Kernahan and his contemporaries.
By career’s end, Rice had represented the Blues in 118 matches in eight seasons, meaning his son Bailey may one day face the prospect of nominating either St Kilda or Carlton under the father/son rule if football is his calling . . . which is fine as long as the hue is blue.
Last Sunday, in the “Battle of the Old Foes” at Visy Park, Rice was once again repelling opposition attacks with the same sort of commitment for which he is endearing remembered.
