IT'S ALMOST 60 years since Martin Cross last laced a boot for Carlton – but with the drafting to the Club of his great grandson Ollie Hollands, it’s fair to say the 36-game former rover, now 83, has found a spring in his step.

From his home in Wodonga in Victoria’s north-east, Cross watched the first round of the 2022 NAB AFL Draft play out on television – and none were more delighted than him when Ollie’s name was called at selection No.11.

“Brilliant. Fantastic. Couldn’t have gone off better,” was Cross’ response to Ollie’s drafting.

“With the draft you’re never sure of course with options all around, but it’s left a good taste in my mouth I know that. It blows your mind away a bit to think that 60 years later another family member is attached to the old dark Blues. It’s quite surreal.”

Cross waited until the morning after to place the congratulatory phone call to Hollands - “just to tell him that I was proud of him” - and indicated that when he got the chance to chat a little more it would “not only be about the responsibility, but about the appreciation of where you are at a great club like Carlton”.

“I guess that when I went there (to Princes Park) I wasn’t fully aware of that,” Cross said.

“I was younger back then and the history of the Club probably wasn’t explained to me... I was given ‘Berty’ Deacon’s guernsey which was a Brownlow Medallist’s guernsey and I loved ‘Berty’ Deacon, he was a beautiful man. But I didn’t go out on the ground every week thinking ‘I’m going out in a Brownlow Medallist’s guernsey’ and I don’t know I ever really got it through my head the responsibility I had in wearing that No.23.”

Cross said he had previously shared some of his experiences as a Carlton senior footballer, in the years which coincided with John F. Kennedy’s time in the Whitehouse – from his senior debut with Tom Carroll and Ian Collins against St Kilda at the Junction Oval in the opening round of 1961; the Grand Final against Essendon at the MCG in ’62; through to final senior appearance (again involving the Saints at the Junction) in Round 13 of ’63.

“I’d like to sit down and have a yarn with him about where he is and the implications – and the amazing opportunity, for only a short period of time, to be able to do what you love and use your talents and skills as best as you can.”

With St Kilda preceding Carlton at No.10 in the draft, it’s worth noting that Cross - as a North Ballarat footballer - originally signed with the Saints as a 17-year-old.

“I went and played a practice match for St Kilda, and I stayed down in Melbourne for the whole pre-season of 1957,” Cross recalled.

“The following year I got drafted for national service, which took about 18 months of my footy life... and when I left the Army I returned to North Ballarat where I lived.

“St Kilda at that time had undergone a lot of upheaval. The coach (‘Alan’) Killigrew was gone, and so too the President and Secretary, and I never heard from them, so I ended up playing for North Ballarat. And then one night I was told a bloke was wanting to see me outside the club rooms, so I went out and he asked me if I wanted to do a pre-season with Carlton.

“I finished up going down to Carlton for the pre-season and went all right... got a few kicks... so they then shifted me down to nearby Coburg with my wife and our little baby – and that’s when my career started.”

Cross joined Carlton with fellow first-year players the late Graeme Anderson, Tom Carroll, Gordon Collis, and Murray Kick, and the annual report of 1961 noted the Club’s pride in the performances of the aforementioned. To quote the report:

“Though their mid-season form sagged a little, as is usual with inexperienced players, they recovered magnificently later in the season and, having now been thoroughly blooded in victory and defeat, shown great promise for season 1962. It is fair to forecast that with the experience gained by our younger players we can confidently face 1962 with a thoroughly schooled, powerful and well-knit side.”

Under Ken Hands’ watch as Carlton Senior Coach, Cross warmed to the task as a lightly framed athletic footballer with a canny goal sense – as exemplified in Round 15 of 1961 when he booted eight from a pocket against South Melbourne at Princes Park.

Alas, injury would bring premature end to the then 23-year-old’s promising League career.

“I didn’t leave [Carlton] because I wanted to – I left because I’d ruptured a disc in my back,” Cross said.

“I copped the injury a few games into my third year and missed the rest of the season, and because my back was no better the following season they [Carlton] delisted me. That was a huge disappointment and the injury caused me a lot of problems over time.”

But Cross was not lost to the game. He would later turn out in 160 games for Myrtleford Football Club and in 1970 coach the team to an Ovens & Murray League premiership, coached the Dederang Bombers in the Tallangatta and District League for four years from 1972, before returning to the O&MFL with North Albury and taking the Hoppers to a famous Grand Final victory in 1984.

It’s been some time since Cross got to see his beloved Blues in the flesh – but he can’t wait for the season to roll around now that Hollands is part of the fold.

As he said: “Now that he [Hollands] has got a bit closer I might be able to get down to see a game or two”.   

“It’s up to him now to make his own mark on footy, on life and whatever else.”