Robyn Woodward and her sister Julie Aarons have loyally supported Carlton as Members for more than 50 years – from the moment Robyn first took happy snaps of her favourite players on matchdays at the old suburban venues.
Those precious photographs, tucked safely between the cellophane-sheeted pages of her album, have now found a new home at Carlton – along with the iconic duffel coats they religiously wore to games in the great days of Ashman, Doull, Jesaulenko and Southby.
The sisters recently handed their items over to the Club’s archive, on a pilgrimage back to the old ground that had given them both so much joy.
The images, captured on Robyn’s camera from 1976 through to 1980, feature the Carlton players pre-match and in-match, at old grounds including the Western Oval, Arden Street, the MCG and of course Princes Park. Informal training snaps are also there, along with pics of the Grand Final Parade in 1979 and the post-Grand Final celebrations back at the old ground.
The Western Oval images feature the likes of Peter Jones, Geoff Southby, Phil Pinnell, Rod Austin, Trevor Keogh, Rod Ashman and Robert Walls, some sporting their club blazers and carrying their kitbags into the venue prior to the Round 11 match on Monday, June 14.
The windswept Footscray ground was never a happy hunting ground for the visitors, and so it was in this instance, with the home team emerging 17-point victors over a Carlton 20 whose players included Danny Halloran, John O’Connell and Walls (all of whom have since passed away) and a first-gamer from Carlton by the name of James Robert Buckley.
Regrettably ‘Bucks’ doesn’t feature in the June ’76 pics, but we do see him against Hawthorn at Princes Park in Round 4, 1977 – practicing his pre-match goalkicking under the watch of Carlton’s Peter McKenna, who would himself boot five goals in the team’s 13-point loss.
This match would also mark an historic moment for the club, with the Carlton players sporting a sponsor’s logo (AVCO) on their guernseys for the first time.
The sisters were destined to follow Carlton given their distant kindred connection with Alby De Luca, a 32-game former player through seasons 1934 and ’35 whom they got to meet prior to his passing in 1978.
By then they’d already experienced matchday joy – their mother, a Member for 60 years, having offered to take them to Carlton games through the ’75 season – “and we came out here to Princes Park and just loved it”.
“We used to walk, catch a train and then a tram to the ground, and find a seat in the outer on the city side wing where the Avco sign was. We’d wait outside for the gates to open and then get to watch the reserves,” Robyn said.
“Later we got seats in the old Robert Heatley Stand and the old George Harris Stand, and when the final siren went we’d head into the Social Club. Jack Elliott (former Carlton President) used to come in and lead everyone in singing the theme song, and those experiences are what’s kept us going.”
Julie recalled her and Robyn first wearing the duffel coats in the mid-1970s (items that still fit she hastens to add).
But they now believe the time is right for a handover – to a place they’ll truly be treasured with every day that passes – and it’s doubtful either sister could give Carlton any more.
