THE LATE Ken Hands’ formal contract to coach Carlton on a part-time basis through the 1962, ’63 and ’64 seasons has been discovered.
The three-year sealed and delivered contract, signed by Hands and countersigned by the then President Lew Holmes, has been graciously forwarded to the club’s archive by members of the Hands family.
Ken died at the age of 91 in December 2017. His son John recently stumbled onto the remarkable document whilst clearing out his father’s filing cabinet in the family company’s office in Flemington.
“I went through every piece of paper in that cabinet and this sprung out. I read it and . . . wow!,” Hands said.
“The family would like to see items like this document go to the football club for all to see. There’s no point having it sitting in a filing cabinet in the office.”
John Hands with his father's original contract (Photo: Carlton Media).
The four-page binding agreement, prepared by club advocates Molomby & Molomby Solicitors in 1961, offers a fascinating insight into the club’s arrangement with its former player, who was at that time also holding down a full-time job with KG Luke’s electroplate manufacturing outfit in neighbouring Clifton Hill.
It was finalised after Hands, Holmes, former player Albert “Mick” Price and local Elgin Street Master Baker Alan Watson, came to terms on eight points of order, the first three of which were as follows, that:
- Subject to the provisions hereinafter appearing the Club will employ the Coach and the Coach will serve the Club as coach of the first eighteen for the 1962, 1963 and 1964 Victorian Football League seasons.
- The Coach’s duties will commence six weeks before the opening premiership match for each of the said seasons and will continue to the conclusion of the last premiership match for each of the said seasons to be played by the Carlton Football Club whether in connection with the ordinary premiership or the night football premiership.
- The Coach will receive a salary of twenty pounds a week and in addition five pounds a week for his travelling and entertainment expenses such payments to be made weekly during the said seasons.
Point 7 also warned that “in the event of the Coach failing to observe satisfactorily any of his obligations under this agreement the Committee of the Carlton Football Club shall be entitled to terminate his appointment upon giving to him not less than seven days prior notice in writing”.
While the names of most to have signed the contract are immediately recognizable, Alan Watson’s is some shrouded in secrecy. But John Hands was able to reveal more.
“Alan Watson, or ‘Watto’ as Dad called him, had a bakery a couple of doors down from Percy Jones’s old pub The Astor Hotel. I remember going there lots of times with Dad to collect the odd cake as Alan used to handle the catering for most of Ken Luke’s functions.”
Though Hands had not yet done the math, 20 pounds a week in 1961 would be worth, by today’s standards (according to the Reserve Bank’s pre-decimal inflation calculator), around $580 plus five pounds a week in expenses (approximately $145.00) – for a combined weekly total of $725 a week.
The contract covered the second coaching stint for Hands, who coached the club through the 1959, ’60 and ’61 seasons. Hands coached Carlton to the 1962 Grand Final, but whether he received a bonus for doing so remains a mystery as nothing was factored in to the recently-discovered contract.
