For those old enough to remember, the return after 27 years of State Of Origin football evokes memories of the years when the likes of Alex Jesaulenko, Geoff Southby and this state’s most-capped player John Nicholls were all regulars for the Big V.
With the confirmed return after 27 years of State-Of-Origin football years, the thoughts of older Carlton supporters invariably turn to the pre-State Of Origin days when John Nicholls was a Victorian fixture. Nicholls, with 31 appearances for the Big V, is forever consigned to history as the state’s most capped player.
But few would know that another former Carlton great who chased the leather way back in the pre-VFL days, also features prominently in the vaunted Victorian football fable – the legendary John ‘Tiger’ Gardiner after whom the oldest surviving grandstand at Ikon Park is named.
For it was Gardiner who captained Victoria in the first interstate fixture formally recognized – the intercolonial match with South Australia at the old East Melbourne ground on Tuesday, July 2, 1879 – to mark Separation Day when in 1851 Victoria separated from the colony of New South Wales.
It’s 145 years now since Gardiner led them out – a vaunted team of outstanding VFA footballers, amongst them George Coulthard, generally acknowledged as Carlton’s first star and best afield in that historic match.
Gardiner’s Victorians were each decked out in blue knickerbockers with red, white and blue jersey, cap and hose; captain McMichael’s Croweaters, to their eternal credit, in all dark blue. Gardiner won the toss and pointed to the Fitzroy Gardens end.
The Argus correspondent reported that Victoria-South Australia intercolonial match “proved a great attraction” to the 10,000 people who turned out to see the home team emerge emphatic victors, seven goals to none.
Peter Pindar, covering the contest for The Australasian, noted a gathering of 5000 patrons at the match “besides those who viewed it on the cheap from neighbouring heights”.
“Considering the little practice they have had together, the Victorian team played splendidly, working together as one man, and sinking all thought of individual glory in desire for the common weal; the style in which was played to each other being the theme of general admiration,” the journalist noted.
“For Victoria, Coulthard was certainly the best among many good, but Downes and Robertson ran him hard, and Goer, Lording and Rannard were not far behind. Sillett played better than he has played this season, and Gardiner was also to the fore along with Gibson, Miller, M’Kenzie, and Gunn.”
Gardiner was at the forefront of what was a long and illustrious Carlton connection with Victorian representative football, with Nicholls the pre-eminent figure. As The great man once told this reporter: “I’m still proud to hold the record of 31 games for Victoria. That’s a record that will never be broken”.
Nicholls also noted that his predecessor as Carlton ruckman, the late Ken Hands, captained and coached Victoria, and that so many others were worthy Victorian representatives – amongst them Jack Reekie, Carlton’s first player to earn state honours in the year the VFL was formed.
