Defenders are the most revered of our football heroes. Within the Australian psyche is a near-compulsion to support the underdog, especially on the football field. And while it’s true that soaring marks and goals from clever play by forwards do provide much of the spectacular entertainment of our game, it is the consistently honest and brave defenders who are truly loved.
History shows that Carlton’s first VFL full-back was William ‘Winkie’ Weir - a 23 year-old who took on the key defensive post when the Blues met Fitzroy at the Brunswick Street Oval on Saturday, May 8, 1897. Carlton was overwhelmed by 33 points, and Bill Weir never played at full-back again. But a line of succession had been established – a line that over the succeeding 100 years and more would include some of the all-time greats of the game.
Here, in historical order, the Blueseum profiles five great Carlton full-backs – our Godfathers of the Goal Square.
1. ERNIE JAMIESON
Career : 1909–1916 & 1921-1922
Games : 125
Premiership Player 1914, 1915
One of the finest full-backs of his era, Ernie Jamieson won two flags from four Grand Final appearances for Carlton, during an interrupted playing career spanning 13 seasons. At first a pacey, long-striding wingman, he was shifted into defence in his third year with the Blues, and became a star.
Not the tallest or strongest of key defenders, Jamieson brought finesse to a position previously dominated by brawn. His pace, anticipation and uncanny ability to read the flight of the ball were his assets. Rather than engaging in arm-locking, goal-front wrestles with his opponent, he relied on his speed off the mark to beat his man to the ball, or his good spring to leap over the pack and punch the ball away. Few full-forwards could match him once the ball hit the ground, and he was a glorious long drop kick out from the goal square.
In August 1914, Carlton beat South Melbourne by one straight kick in a cliff-hanger Grand Final at the MCG. Deep into the last minute of that match, the Blues were clinging to a six-point lead when a long kick sailed toward South’s Tom Bollard – alone in the goal square. Bollard seemed certain to take an easy chest mark - until Ernie Jamieson came from nowhere in the last split-second, to leap over the top and punch the ball away. South’s fans howled furiously for a free to Bollard - claiming a push in the back - but umpire Harry Rawle refused them and Carlton won the flag.
Jamieson celebrated back to back Premierships with an emphatic 33-point Grand Final defeat of Collingwood in1915, before his luck ran out in the 1916 Preliminary Final against Fitzroy. A badly-broken arm not only ended his season, but complications after surgery hampered his recovery, and for some time it seemed that his VFL career was over.
Five years later, however, Ernie Jamieson surprised the football world and delighted Carlton fans by returning to Princes Park keen to play again in guernsey number 4. Although by then 33 years old, Ernie was a solid contributor throughout a hard-fought final series, culminating in a heart-breaking 4-point Grand Final loss to Richmond on a muddy MCG.
2. FRANK GILL
Career : 1929 - 1942
Games : 205
Premiership Player 1938
Captain 1933
Victorian Representative 1932
Best and Fairest 1939
Regarded as one of the very best in an era of star full-backs, Frank Gill was a Carlton stalwart for 14 seasons. Recruited from Nhill in north-western Victoria, he began his league career with the Blues in 1929 and went on to play 205 games. Fearless and utterly dependable, his anticipation, strong hands and pace off the mark were his greatest assets, along with his booming long kicks to position. His favourite ploy was to dash out front of his opponent, then prop or push back just as the ball arrived. His superb judgement then usually resulted in a mark, or a free kick for a push in the back.
He was appointed club vice-captain in 1931. In 1932 he was selected in the Victorian state team, and was among Carlton’s best in the Blues’ Grand Final loss to Richmond. Largely because of his tireless efforts that day, he was made captain in 1933. His second Grand Final appearance came six years after the first, in 1938 against Collingwood. Carlton went in as favourites, but Collingwood were in hot form after dismantling Geelong in a daunting Preliminary Final in which Collingwood’s gun full-forward Ron Todd kicked 11 goals. In a typically hard, physical contest, the Blues triumphed by 15 points. Defenders Jim Park, Jim Francis and Frank Gill were superb. Todd managed three goals but was kept in check all day.
Carlton slipped to finish fifth in 1939, as Frank maintained his consistent form to win our Best & Fairest for the first time, aged 30. By then the war clouds were gathering over Europe, and the VFL went into decline as thousands of young men and women joined up. In a time when Carlton needed stability and experience, Frank was as durable and reliable as always until finally hanging up his boots in 1942.
3. OLLIE GRIEVE
Playing Career : 1942, 1944, 1946 - 52
Games : 137
Goals : 4
Premiership Player 1947
Club Best & Fairest 1952
For seven seasons immediately after World War II, Carlton’s champion custodian of the goal square was Oliver Kelvin ‘Ollie’ Grieve – a brilliant, close-checking defender who was a glorious high mark and a powerful, driving drop-kick. Grieve came to Princes Park from his home town of Bacchus Marsh in 1942, but managed only six matches in his debut season before his football career was interrupted while he served his country.
On his return in 1946, Carlton coach Percy Bentley acted on a hunch and sent Grieve to full-back. That move was a masterstroke. Along with his considerable football ability, Ollie had been born with the sportsman’s priceless gift of unshakeable concentration – a quality that brought a new star to the last line of defence for the Blues.
With Grieve settled in at full-back and the equally brilliant Bert Deacon at centre half-back, Carlton’s defence was the launching pad of the Blues’ magnificent, last-gasp Premiership triumph in 1947. Trailing Essendon by five points inside the last minute of the Grand Final, Carlton’s Fred Stafford pounced on the ball 25 metres from goal, and his neat left foot snap went sailing between the posts to give Carlton an astonishing victory by one point.
In 1948 Grieve represented Victoria mid-season, and on Brownlow Medal night, was recognised as one of the game’s outstanding defenders when he finished second (by three votes) to one of the favourites; Richmond ruckman Bill Morris. However, perhaps the one game that stamped Ollie Grieve as one of the greats was Carlton’s humiliating defeat by Essendon in the 1949 Grand Final. Spearheaded by their sensational full-forward John Coleman, Essendon thrashed the Blues by 73 points.
Coleman had started the game needing six goals to crack 100 for the season, but by the last change Grieve had kept the Bomber star to only two successful shots at goal from a mountain of opportunities. Still, Essendon were ten goals up and in complete control. Throughout the last quarter the Bombers thought only of getting the ball to Coleman by hand or by foot, and in the end, he achieved his dream when he punted through number six with only a minute or so left on the clock. Coleman got his reward, but Ollie Grieve won universal admiration for his grit and determination against the odds.
4. GEOFF SOUTHBY
Career : 1971 - 1984
Games : 268
Premiership Player 1972, 1979
Best and Fairest 1971, 1972
Carlton Hall of Fame Legend
Carlton Team of the Century
From Bendigo League club Sandhurst, Geoff Southby arrived at Carlton in late 1970 as a 20 year-old, and was revelation from his first practice game. At 188 cm and 87 kg he was the perfect build for a key defender of that era, and went on to play 268 games in Carlton's number 20 guernsey.
Beautifully balanced and with wonderful reflexes, Southby was a strong mark and a gloriously long kick. But his defensive instinct and coolness under pressure were perhaps his greatest attributes. He invariably made the right decision to mark, or to punch the ball away, and he always seemed to have that second longer to dispose of the ball - as all champions do. Indicative of his impact at Princes Park, he won Carlton's Best & Fairest in his first season as the Blues missed the finals, then won the same award again in 1972 after Carlton crushed Richmond in the Grand Final.
By 1973, Geoff was firmly established among the elite defenders of the competition. He loved to run with the football, and his soaring torpedo punts were a real offensive weapon. Such was his influence that at times some opposing teams actually placed a defender at full-forward in an attempt to nullify him!
Following their defeat in '72, Richmond were burning for revenge when they met Carlton again in the 1973 Grand Final. Early in the second quarter, Southby was crashed to the ground by a king-hit that he didn't see coming, and the resulting concussion was so severe that he was a passenger for the rest of the day. In fact it was well into the next season before he fully recovered.
Thankfully, by 1975 Geoff was back to his brilliant best and was selected in the Victorian state squad for the fifth year in succession. Carlton made the finals again that year - and the next two seasons - without progressing past the Preliminary Final. It wasn't until 1979, when new captain-coach Alex Jesaulenko led a resurgent Blues outfit into the Grand Final against Collingwood, that Carlton won its twelfth flag and Southby collected his second Premiership medal.
The Blues were the powerhouse of the competition in 1981 and '82, sweeping to back-to-back flags. However, Southby was injured late in each season and missed both Grand Finals. At Waverley in round 16, 1983, Geoff celebrated his 250th game with an emphatic win over Fitzroy, before playing in the last final of his illustrious career at the same ground in September, when Essendon beat the Blues in a one-sided Elimination Final.
In August of the following year, aged 33, Geoff announced his retirement. By then, only six other Blues had played more games for the club, and none were more admired or respected. In 1994 Southby was elected to the Carlton Hall of Fame, and six years later in 2000 he was named in a back pocket in the Blues' Team of the Century. Then in March 2013, Geoff was elevated to Hall of Fame Legend status – only the twelfth player in Carlton's illustrious history to be given that honour.
5. STEPHEN SILVAGNI
Career : 1985-2001
Games : 312
Premiership Player 1987, 1995
Best and Fairest 1990, 1996
All Australian 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999
AFL Team of the Century
Carlton Team of the Century
Carlton Hall of Fame (1996)
AFL Hall of Fame (2005)
Stephen Silvagni believed that he would begin his career with the Under 19's at Carlton, only to be stunned when coach David Parkin informed him during the 1985 pre-season that he was earmarked for a senior debut. It only became real when he was presented with the number 1 guernsey - the same number his father had worn in his wonderful 239 game career with the Blues between 1958 and 1971.
Stephen was a skinny, gangly kid of 18 who by the end of that season was a popular winner of Carlton's Best First Year Player award and the AFL Rookie of the Year. In 1986 he tore a hamstring in his first game, before contracting glandular fever. It was about this time that he was christened "SOS" - for Son of Serge - by his friend and team-mate Peter Dean. The nickname stuck for the rest of his career.
In 1987 Silvagni was at full-back when Carlton revenged their defeat of the previous year by beating Hawthorn for the Premiership. At just 20 years of age, he held the Hawks' stand-in full-forward Peter Curran to one goal as the Blues triumphed by 33 points. When David Parkin replaced Robert Walls to begin his second stint at Princes Park in 1991, ‘SOS’ spent time at both ends of the ground. Later, he settled permanently into his most effective role at full back.
In Round 14 of 1988, playing at full-forward in the Match of the Round at the MCG, he used Collingwood's Craig Starcevich as a step ladder to take a soaring Mark of the Year. In 1990, at the age of 23, he won Carlton's Best & Fairest award by 10 votes from club captain Stephen Kernahan, and polled 16 votes to finish third in the Brownlow Medal. In Round 9, 1992 at Princes Park, he kicked 8 goals in Carlton's 24-point loss to the West Coast Eagles. And in Round 16 of 1993, Steve booted 10 goals 6 behinds as the Blues piled on 20 goals after half-time to beat Fitzroy by 86 points at Princes Park.
By 1995 however, ‘SOS’ was firmly entrenched as the premier full-back in the game. His battles with the gun full-forwards of the time - Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett and others - were eagerly anticipated. While tall enough at 194 cm to cope with most opponents, at 99 kg he sometimes found himself out-muscled, so he had become the master of the desperate late spoil. With his steely concentration, his balance and concentration, he was the rock of a daunting Carlton defence in a team that won 23 of its 25 games for the season - including the Grand Final.
Topping off a stellar season, Silvagni was named 1995 All Australian for the first of three successive years. Then in 1996, after winning his second Best & Fairest at Carlton, he was sensationally awarded the full-back position in the AFL Team of the 20th Century. Three years later, at three-quarter time in the 1999 Preliminary Final, Stephen’s impassioned plea to his team-mates was one of the factors in the Blues glorious upset win over Essendon. And though Carlton lost that year's Grand Final to the 'Roos, ‘SOS’ kept a rampant Wayne Carey to one goal and was clearly Carlton's best.
In 2001 persistant groin and hip injuries hindered Steve's pre-season, but he was back to near top form when he played his 300th career game in round 11 against Richmond at the MCG. Carlton lost by 27 points. When the final siren sounded, the Richmond players were herded to the visitor's race by their coach Danny Frawley to form a guard of honour. In a unique mark of respect by a traditional enemy, ‘SOS’ was clapped from the ground by the entire Richmond team and their coaches.
Two weeks later, Carlton's 2001 season - and Stephen Silvagni's career - ended with another loss to Richmond in one semi-final. ‘SOS’ kept the Tigers' Matthew Richardson to a handful of possessions and two goals, then announced that he was taking his doctor's advice to call it a day. He was 34 and had completed 16 seasons. There were tributes galore from friends and foes. Respect, skill and courage were words commonly heard.
In early 2000 Stephen and Sergio Silvagni stood together at the announcement of Carlton's Team of the Century. That night, the barrel-chested, big hearted ruck-rover and his taller, leaner but no less determined son were left in no doubt about the affection and admiration held for them among generations of Blues' supporters and indeed, the wider football community.
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Godfathers of the Goal Square
Author: Warren Tapner - Published Thu 03 of Mar, 2011 19:02 AEDT - (14877 Reads)
Carlton's Five Greatest Full-Backs
First published: March 2008
First published: March 2008