Back in 1980, the year after the Bryan Quirk-coached Carlton Under 19s team completed the second leg of the VFL back-to-back Premiership double, Craig Clements earned the George Millson Medal as the Unders’ Best & Fairest player.
Forty-five years after the event, Clements, now 64, returned to the old ground for the first time this week and was finally presented with the medal by Shane O’Sullivan, who recently located the medal within the confines of IKON Park.
For Clements, who has recently undergone chemotherapy sessions in his on-going battle with lymphoma, the belated receipt of a medal he never knew existed was truly uplifting for him.
“Oh, it's fantastic, really good, particularly under the circumstances for me health-wise, to discover that the medal actually exists . . . it’s a privilege to be rewarded with it after all these years,” Clements said.
“Back in 1980 I was presented with a silver coffee tray and set, which I still have back home in the cupboard with the trophies I won in the juniors for Hadfield, including competition best in the Essendon District Football League. The Carlton Best & Fairest medal with now find a place on the shelf with the rest of them.”
Clements first chased the leather for the Carlton Under 19 team in 1977, under the watch of the then Coach the late Chris Pavlou – a rude awakening for the former at only 15 years of age “because some of the boys were 18 at the time and like monsters”.
Under Bryan Quick in ’78, Clements plied his craft either off a wing, half-back or back pocket - and he experienced the ultimate success in his team’s come-from-behind Grand Final victory over a Collingwood outfit which included a young Peter Daicos and Denis Banks.
Clements would have made the cut for Grand Final day 1979 too, were it not for a disastrous mishap on the neighbouring No.1 oval at the completion of the final training session prior to what proved to be a brutal affair with Fitzroy.
“Dougie Caruana, a big boy, was returning to the team after being out for something like eight weeks with a dislocated shoulder,” Clements recalled.
“Anyway, the players were coming off the ground when ‘Quirky’ called me over and said ‘I want you to tackle him, hit him hard and throw him onto his shoulder to see if it’s any good’. I did so for about ten minutes, and as I dragged him down in the last tackle he landed on me and my ankle went ‘bang’.
“I ended up with my leg in plaster watching on from the stands as the boys went back-to-back, on the same day the seniors knocked Collingwood off. I remember celebrating back at the ground that night and when a few drinks kicked in I threw the crutches away.”
Clements pursued a prospective Carlton senior career with the best of intentions, but was probably a victim of circumstance with the emergence of the famed ‘Mosquito Fleet’ under the tutelage of the newly-appointed Senior Coach David Parkin.
As he said: “It was a childhood dream to play here in the ones, but at the end of the day the team was very, very strong and it was difficult to break through”.
But that was then, this is now, and the George Millson Medal means more to Clements than ever, as a tangible reminder of what he achieved in his youth at Carlton, and as a precious keepsake that can now be shared with his children and grandchildren.
