When Chris Judd leads the Carlton players onto Etihad Stadium in the sky blue strip on Monday night, thoughts will invariably turn to the famous M&Ms match, best remembered as Luke O’Sullivan’s 50th senior appearance and Andrew Balkwill’s one and only hurrah.

And yet, few would know that the precedent was actually set more than 137 seasons ago, when the then Carlton captain George Kennedy broke with formality and donned the not so famous old sky blue.


Pic: Could this be George Kennedy, our first Sky Blue skipper

It happened against Melbourne on the Melbourne ground back in 1873, when both teams met for season’s honours in a competition which included long-gone entities like South Yarra and Studley Park.

That season, Carlton players were decked out in blue knickerbockers and long grey stockings, although variations were still commonplace - to the annoyance of the critics.

Why Kennedy ran on to the hallowed Jolimont turf in sky blue remains unclear, but it was not lost on one scribe took the team leader to task for “attiring himself like a montblanc and appearing against Melbourne on September 27, clad in SKY BLUE!”

Despite his break with convention in terms of his on-field attire, Kennedy ably led his men through season 1873 - a season in which the Carlton team won five of its 12 matches with seven draws to secure the club’s third premiership in succession, and Jack Donovan was adjudged Champion of the Colony.

A small cameo image of Kennedy from 1871 bears a remarkable resemblance to the man standing fourth from the right in this light-coloured guernsey, in Carlton’s 1874 team pictured on the grounds of Royal Park.

Could this be the great George Kennedy in sky-blue?


1874 Carlton team, image courtesy Aus Gallery of Sport
and Oly Museum, MCG