As Ken’s daughter Julie O’Brien unhesitatingly declared: “Dad was Carlton through and through”.
When Ken died at the age of 83 in January of this year, Julie found amongst her father’s treasured possessions a letter penned by the then Carlton secretary and former player Harry Bell.
Dated February 15, 1947, the letter formally invites Ken to preseason training in what was ultimately a premiership year - but on one condition.
“I should like to point out that there is still an acute shortage of equipment, so would you be good enough to bring along jersey, socks, knicks and boots for your own use, please,” Bell wrote.
Ken couldn’t get to Carlton quick enough.
But while he made a clear impression at reserve grade level, taking out the club’s best and fairest trophy in 1949, Ken never got the senior call-up he so desperately wanted.
Harry Bell's letter to Ken Shaw
“Dad told me that he trained at Carlton for a while but could see he wasn’t going to break into the team,” Julie said. “In those days you trained for a position and Bert Deacon kept him out of centre half-back.”
Ken eventually saw the writing on the wall and so pursued his football career in the sticks. He captained and coached at Echuca, then Nagambie (winning the Morrison Medal for best player in the Goulburn Valley League in ’56) and finally Finley, leading “The Cats” to 1958 premiership glory with son Greg on hand as mascot.
When Ken got the nod as Carlton’s reserve grade champion in ’49 he was presented with a silver teapot for his troubles. He took possession of the receptacle at a presentation before the members who had gathered for the annual meeting at Princes Park on the evening of February 1, 1950.
Almost sixty years later, during a break in a Carlton school clinic at Finley Recreation Reserve in August 2008, Ken approached Chris Judd for a photographed armed with his prized possession, the silver teapot.
The Carlton captain, then relatively new to the club in the wake of his much-heralded transfer, duly obliged... and Ken cherished the moment.
“What a great honour and privilege to meet such a wonderful player,” Ken said at the time. “Even better now that he is at Carlton.”
