Warren posed for this image for good reason. His grandfather, “Champagne” Charlie Hammond, had his hand in all five of them and remains Carlton’s only five-time premiership player in League history.
Warren, a 64 year-old courier by profession, made the trek to Melbourne with his wife Sandy and brother-in-law Barry from his hometown of Epsom, just north of Bendigo. He came armed with some of Charlie’s premiership medals too and added that while the 1908, 14 and 15 medals were in his family’s keep, the whereabouts of the 1906 and ’07 medals remained something of a mystery . . . “and maybe someone out there knows where they are”.
Born in March 1886, Hammond cut his teeth with the Northcote Brickfielders. He joined Carlton on the recommendation of the then Carlton coach Jack Worrall and never looked back.
Hammond would represent the old dark Navy Blues in 154 matches from 1905-1909 and 1914-1918, building on his reputation wearing the No.16 guernsey. But ill health would cruelly curtail his life and he died in December 1936.
“Charlie was 50 when he died and Mum was only 14 so she never got to see him play,” Warren said.
“But Mum gave me Charles as my middle name, we’ve always known the story of Charlie and I’m a bit surprised he wasn’t named in Carlton’s Team of the 20th Century.”
Naturally a rabid Carlton supporter, Warren, whose mother Olive (the last of Hammond’s six children) died a little over three months ago, regarded his return to the old Carlton ground as a precious personal experience for him.
“To be back here where my grandfather played is all a bit mind-boggling. It’s tremendous to get the opportunity to see the premierships and the old No.16 locker,” Warren said.
“My Mum would have been over the moon to know that I was here at Carlton, pointing at the name ‘C. Hammond’ on the locker.
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Geoff Warren in front of his grandfather's five Premiership cups.
