Book Winners
Winners of a copy of the new Ted Hopkins book, “The Stats Revolution”, the life, loves and passion of Football’s futurist are:

- Wayne DiVincenzo - Thomastown Victoria
- Alicia Dahlenburg - Wagga Wagga NSW
- Barry Fleiner - Cheltenham Victoria
- Claire Alexander - Richmond Victoria
- Mick Gwynne - Halls Head WA

Congratulations to our winners who correctly answered that Andy Lukimitis, who later changed his surname to Lukas, wore the number 7 Carlton guernsey immediately after Ted Hopkins.

The books will be forwarded to you in the mail this week.

To Carlton supporters he’s a football immortal . . . to Collingwood types the mere mention of his name still haunts . . . and to others he’s the riddle wrapped in an enigma inside a paradox.

So who is Ted Hopkins? Well the man best placed to answer that thorny poser has just put pen to paper to set the record straight.

Hopkins’ literary offering - The Stats Revolution, the life, loves and passion of football’s futurist - goes some way to righting the falsehoods perpetuated since he emerged from the dugout and into football immortality on Grand Final day 1970. 

The 1970 Grand Final - in which Hopkins played such a pivotal, almost mythological role with his four-goal return in Carlton’s incredible second half revival - is but part of the Hopkins journey.

And what a part.

“Throughout my junior and development years, I had practised, focused and dreamt on performing to my absolute peak when it mattered. I was prepared for coming off the bench and picking the patterns of play and having an impact. Of the 20 games I played for Carlton in 1970, I was selected as a bench player 12 times,” he writes.

A two-time Australian junior water skiing champion who with his partner the late Angelika Oehme ultimately championed the cause of matchday statistics, Hopkins means it when he writes: “My story - from my homeland, of marriages, sport, writing, art, music and publishing - is irretrievably wrapped into how Champion Data began, and how statistics in the AFL became a multi-million dollar business”.

Ted’s 212-page tome contains a myriad of anecdotes - from his early interests in statistical information; his marriages; his writings and poetry; his many and varied business dealings; his final, ignominious outing for the Blues; and his theories for the evolution of the great Australian game - a world away from Moe where the Carlton luminaries Newton Chandler and Harry Vallence first identified his footballing talent.

With football in a constant state of flux it’s more than reasonable to assume that the forward-thinking Hopkins will be there front and centre - just as he was after taking to the hallowed turf on Grand Final day 1970.

As he so rightly observes; “The game and the technology and the level of public expectations are advancing quicker than ever. I look forward to it. No gardens for me.”

Ted Hopkins’ The Stats Revolution, the life, loves and passion of football’s futurist, is published by the Slattery Media Group,  $30 RRP.