Thirty years to the round after he launched himself onto the shoulders of Geelong’s John Mossop and into football immortality, the 1981 and ’82 premiership player Peter Bosustow has welcomed Andrew Walker into the Carlton aerialist’s collective.
 
It was back in Round 18, 1981, in what was Bruce Doull’s 250th senior appearance, that “The Buzz” completed the first leg of the Mark of the Year/Goal of the Year double - in both cases over the Cats.
 
Straddling Mossop and another noted aerialist, David McKay, ‘The Buzz’ completed the screamer to the roars of the Carlton audience, and promptly booted one of his four goals for the afternoon.
 
“I got the perfect ride,” Bosustow recalled. “Mossop was strong enough to hold me up and as he straightened he took me up with him, and whereas Walker took his mark in the stomach I took mine on the shoulder.
 
“I might also add that David McKay still reckons he’s entitled to some of the royalties because he reckons I took the footy out of his hands.”
 
So how did he rate Walker’s final quarter leap over Essendon’s Jake Carlisle?
 
“You wouldn’t believe this, but I’ve taken about 50 phonecalls since Saturday night,” Bosustow said from his hometown of Perth.
 
“What a great mark it was. I reckon it would probably be leading the charge for mark of the year alongside [Andrew] Krakouer’s, given that when Nic Natanui took the mark against us the pack collapsed on him and it didn’t look as good.
 
“By the time Natanui completed his mark he was only four feet off the ground, whereas with Walker you can see him looking for the ground as he’s coming down.”
 
Above and beyond anything else, Bosustow was heartened to see the return of the spectacular mark period. As he said: “Isn’t it great to see the long kick coming back into the game to give these guys the chance to take these sorts of marks”.
 
In reflecting on his own giant leap for mankind on the afternoon of August 1, 1981, Bosustow was heartened by the fact that the feat “had held its place in time” - particularly given the dearth of cameras to capture the moment back then.
 
“The mark is still selling after all these years. I still get one or two requests a week to sign copies of the image, and it’s all very humbling,” he said.
 
“The fact that it happened at Princes Park was also important to me, because that’s a place I still hold very dear to my heart and am passionate about.”