Ten new Inductees of the Carlton Hall of Fame - on-field titans through the Football Club’s formative years in Victoria – have been revealed to mark the 160^th anniversary of Carlton’s inception.

Each member of the distinguished group of Inductees have played a pivotal role in shaping Carlton’s identity through the pre-VFL period of 1864-1896. Amongst them are the club’s (and the game’s) unrivalled backman of the 1860s and its first golden era of the ’70s Harry Guy, the VFA Premiership captain Tommy Leydin, and pivotal figures John Gardiner and Robert Heatley - after whom the Ald. Gardiner Stand (still standing at IKON Park) and Robert Heatley Stand were respectively named.

Collectively they laid the foundations for Carlton’s early successes.

The ten Hall of Fame Inductees were identified from a broad list of more than 1000 players known to have been named in Carlton teams/squads up to and including 1896. They now join Carlton’s Champion of the Colony George Coulthard in the Hall – Coulthard having been the Club’s only pre-VFL footballer so acknowledged since the Hall was established in the Carlton Premiership year of 1987.

They are the first in a total of 21 identities to be officially inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fame through the coming months, after Jack Carney, the late Neil Chandler and Brendan Fevola were similarly recognized in March.

The first ten Inductees represent Carlton in the Challenge Cup/VFA years (the 1860s through to 1896). A further eight Inductees are the “Hat-Trick Heroes” (the club’s Premiership players who featured in each of the 1906, ’07 and ’08 Grand Final victories), with three more Inductees the Premiership Coaches and Captains post-1897 – all to be revealed in due course.

The 21 Inductees have been ratified by the Club’s Board on the recommendation of its Heritage Sub-Committee.