Hoggett, you see, hailed from Longford in north-east Tasmania where the Baileys are domiciled - and when the former traversed Bass Strait to try his luck at Princes Park back in ’64, George’s father John Bailey began to follow the team’s fortunes.
“Ever since Roger Hoggett went to Carlton I’ve followed Carlton,” John said. “He was the link. There was nothing on TV then, but I was the odd one out because everyone was barracking for St Kilda because of Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart and Verdun Howell.
“I got abused by St Kilda supporters in those early days, but I had the last laugh. There’s no Carlton Premiership I haven’t seen since.”
John, whose father-in-law also happens to be a great friend of the former Prime Minister and No.1 Carlton ticketholder Malcolm Fraser, said George and his sister weren’t afforded any wiggle room in terms of their League club of choice.
As he quipped: “I told my son and daughter that if they wanted to eat they barracked for Carlton”.
John and George were both capable Australian Rules footballers. John, a canny rover, chased the leather for a few local Tasmanian teams before relocating to New Zealand for a four-year stint as a farmer at the tender age of 22 – “and I wasn’t going to play rugby, so I stood out”.
George Bailey with Blues ruckman Matthew Kreuzer in 2011. (Photo: Carlton Football Club)
George, who with the likes of Carlton’s Assistant Coach – Backline Brad Green represented Launceston Grammar in both football and cricket, turned out for Tasmania at Under 18 level as a centreman and, according to his Dad, “still laughs at the fact Carlton never rang”.
Notwithstanding the Grand Finals, John (who volunteers Wayne Johnston as his all-time favourite) has traditionally taken in two or three Carlton games a season, many of them with his boy. More recently, when Australia took on the Poms in England, father and son would engage in lengthy telephone conversations between day sessions to debate the football team’s latest fortunes.
For John, it’s a no-brainer. As he said, “as soon as Easter comes you chuck the cricket ball in the bag and bring out the footy”.
Thanks to Roger Hoggett and father John, George Bailey’s allegiance to Carlton upholds the tradition set by so many Blues-supporting Test cricketers before him - David Boon, Adam Gilchrist and Dean Jones to name but a few.
