“To be honest, all I can remember is ‘I don’t belong here’. I was a skinny little kid and I was looking at blokes like ‘Jezza’ and the way they were built, and Crosswell, ‘Vinny’ Waite, ‘Doully’ and Southby... I just felt embarrassed.”

Modestly reflecting on his first foray into the Carlton Football Club is the much-loved former player Vin Catoggio. A Morrish and Gardiner Medallist in successive seasons, Vin’s senior career was confined to 71 senior appearances over eight seasons with a Grand Final appearance amongst them. But has there ever been a greater Carlton cult hero than “Vinny The Cat”?

Vin lived with his Italian-born parents in the shadows of the Legend Stand at the Garton Street end of the old Princes Park ground, and through the 1970s and 80s he dazzled the dark Navy Blue faithful with the pace, the pirouettes the canny evasive skills . . . and of course, “the ’fro”.

Similarly, he was subjected to all the twists and turns this often cruel game presents. Fate would take him across the Nullabor to Subiaco, back to Carlton for a second stint and then onto Melbourne and finally Sydney, where his League career would end some than ten years after it had begun.

But home was always where the heart is for the man in the No.4 guernsey, whose trademark afro hairstyle is a little shorter and a little greyer thesedays, but remains firmly affixed to the head of one of Carlton’s most endearing and enduring characters.

Vin Catoggio is this week’s guest of the “Our History” podcast exclusively for carltonfc.com.au

In the following interview, Vin discusses;

•         the profound influence of his first coach Mr. Carroll at the neighbouring Princes Hill Football Club and the unorthodox training methods employed as he perfected his unique balking skills;

•         his parents’ migration stories, the family’s territorial links with the Carlton area and his childhood recollections of Princes Park;

•         his winning of the Morrish and Gardiner Medals in successive seasons for Carlton and his first senior game against Collingwood at Princes Park;

•         an early promise made to him by the then captain-coach John Nicholls;

•         the impact of his unexpected call-up for the 1973 Grand Final; and

•         what Carlton means to him

To listen to Vin Catoggio’s interview for “Our History”, click here.