In a wide-ranging interview with club historian Tony De Bolfo ahead of his 300th AFL game, Kade Simpson reflects on his formative years from under-10s at Emerald in the Yarra Valley through to season 2018 as a Carlton senior player and everything else in between . . . so far.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest finals player ever to grace the field, Wayne Johnston made the month of September his own. That he never secured the Norm Smith Medal remains one of football’s great injustices – but 'The Dominator' will doubtless settle for the four premierships and two club best and fairests that came his way in Carlton’s halcyon years of the 1970s and '80s. A three-time Victorian and All-Australian, Johnston was inducted into the Carlton Hall of...

In this episode, Lucie Jamison explores the circumstances that led to Carlton's drought-breaking Grand Final win over the Bombers in 1968.

Imagine you’re a 19 year-old country kid earning “Mr. Football” as your first opponent? This was the daunting prospect facing the former Carlton aerialist David McKay. Somehow, the boy from Newlyn survived, emerging unscathed from his direct dealings with the late Ted Whitten, in a back pocket at the Western Oval in the wild and heady days of flower power. It was the third round of 1969 - the first of McKay’s 263 games over a 13-season career for Carlton. And what a career – the...

Syd Jackson's is an extraordinary life story. Taken away by formal arrest warrant when he was only three, separated from his family for twenty years and reunited with his parents only twice before they died, the pain of separation was truly profound for him. In that context, the Great Australian Game served as a panacea for the prodigiously-gifted player. It took Syd from from Roelands Native Mission in the Western Australian port city of Bunbury, to the big smoke in Perth and ultimately...

Milham Hanna quite literally walked in off the street, but in truth he came to Carlton from half way round the world. Born in Kantara in Northern Lebanon, Mil found his feet in neighboring East Brunswick, just a short tram ride down Sydney Road to the front entrance of the place then known as Princes Park. Arriving in Melbourne with his mother and sister on Cup Day 1971, Mil, then five years old, had a premonition he would one day play for the Carlton Football Club. It would happen some 15...

Milham Hanna quite literally walked in off the street, but in truth he came to Carlton from half way round the world. Born in Kantara in Northern Lebanon, Mil found his feet in neighboring East Brunswick, just a short tram ride down Sydney Road to the front entrance of the place then known as Princes Park. Arriving in Melbourne with his mother and sister on Cup Day 1971, Mil, then five years old, had a premonition he would one day play for the Carlton Football Club. It would happen some 15...

“In 1971 Ron Barassi asked me to join him as his assistant at Carlton and I knew then what I never had. I found Barassi’s coaching the ultimate... it changed me from a fellow who was dejected and disappointed at not being successful as a coach to a winner in a club which had a tradition of success...” These are the recollections of the former North Melbourne club champion and coach Keith McKenzie, in a speech he penned for a keynote address more than 30 years ago. The speech was hidden...

David Rhys-Jones’ was a triumphant if tempestuous career with more than its fair smattering of highs and lows. It began in South Melbourne, ended at Carlton and took in Sydney in between. In the end it afforded him 182 games in total, 106 of them at Carlton, and a Premiership Medallion and Norm Smith Medal to show for it.

He was but a teenage kid from Lalor when he completed his senior debut for Carlton in mid-1992... and it’s fair to assume his 11-letter surname posed some early concerns for members of the football writing fraternity. But in the pantheon of League football he’ll be universally remembered as a game-changer, forging his handsome reputation as THE prototype player of the 21st century from the moment he completed the famous one-handed pick-up.

Peter Bosustow's all-too-brief playing career – 65 games in three seasons from 1981 through 1983 – took in the two Grand Final triumphs of 1981 and ’82 – the former the third leg of the mark of the year, goal of the year, premiership year treble. As those who saw him play will truly attest, Bosustow was a living, breathing highlights reel - complete with the high marks, spectacular goals and the collective triumphs that set the David Parkin-coached Carlton teams apart.

A Morrish and Gardiner Medallist in successive seasons, Vin Catoggio's senior career was confined to 71 senior appearances over eight seasons with a Grand Final appearance amongst them. But has there ever been a greater Carlton cult hero than “Vinny The Cat”?

That the little man in the No.34 guernsey managed to play the game at all, let alone at League level, is something of a minor miracle given the incredible challenges he faced as the son of new Australians who settled in Thomastown. And yet it was “right place, right time” for the 134-game member of the 1979, ’81 and ’82 Grand Finals and Carlton Hall of Famer, whose talent was identified by the Grand Old Man of Princes Park, the late Newton Chandler.

Wearing the No.10 made famous by the late John James, Adrian Gallagher is the only man in this club’s history to have represented Carlton at all levels – Under 15s, Under 16s, Under 17s, Under 19s, reserves and seniors. His 165 games over nine seasons also took in the Premierships of 1968, ’70 and ’72 . . . but don’t bother asking ‘Gags’ to name a favourite. As he said: “Premierships are like children - you can’t pick your favourite”.