Just who is Carlton’s greatest player? It’s a question that has forever and a day provoked heated discussion amongst any Blue believers blessed with an opinion.
And in this the 150th anniversary of its hallowed existence, the Carlton Football Club has seen fit to settle the debate by naming Numero Uno and the cream de la crème of its senior playing ranks – the top 12 Carlton players of all time – in order of merit.
Number 8: Wayne Johnston
Widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest finals player ever to grace the field, Wayne Johnston made the month of September his own.
That he never secured the Norm Smith Medal remains one of football’s great injustices – but “The Dominator” will doubtless settle for the four Premierships and two club B & Fs that came his way in Carlton’s halcyon years of the 1970s and 80s.
A three-time Victorian and All-Australian, Johnston was inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame in 1991. By decade’s end, he was named on a half-forward flank in the club’s Team of the Century, and is one of an elite group of just 12 players so far named as Legends of the Carlton Football Club.
Perhaps David Parkin put it best when he said of the famed No.7; “‘He had an enormous capacity to pump himself up and get the best out of himself when it mattered. He had a fire in his belly – a passion for the contest like few other players”.
