Carlton’s four-time premiership player Wayne “The Dominator” Johnston will deliver the match ball to umpires before being inducted to the Carlton Ring of Honour at the MCG on Saturday afternoon.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest finals player ever to grace the field, 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 best and fairests 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”.
Help us welcome Johnston back onto the MCG when he delivers the match ball at 1.26pm.
