I can still clearly remember the day I began barracking for Carlton. I was no older than 5 and I was kicking the football back and forth across our street with my neighbour who was slightly older. Between practicing my drop punts and bananas he asked who I barracked for to which I responded “I don’t have a team”. My neighbour with a bewildered look on his face took it upon himself and said “right, you can barrack for Carlton and your favourite player will be Stephen Silvagni”. The impressionable young boy that I was happily accepted and I have barracked for Carlton ever since.

This was around the early 1990’s when Carlton was entering a period of success. I was lucky enough to go to the football every week with a very generous family from my primary school that was also Carlton supporters. We sat in the social club at Princes Park and cheered for the “Blues”. Our heroes of that time were Greg Williams, Justin Madden, Peter Dean and Stephen Kernahan. We would sit on the fence after the match and wait anxiously for the second siren to ring before sprinting to the middle. We always played kick to kick on the ground following the game trying to re-enact passages of play from our heroes. These are some of my most cherished childhood memories.

As a Carlton supporter living in the middle of Essendon, my favourite memory and one that is shared by most Carlton supporters was the preliminary final of 1999. Carlton beat a far superior Essendon side that was expected to win the premiership comfortably that year. It was a David and Golitah style match up and a classic game of Football. I was also fortunate enough to attend the 1995 Grand Final, the year Carlton defeated Geelong by 8 goals. As we walked out of the MCG that day, the father of the family I went to the game with stopped the young children and said “these things don’t come around often, so enjoy it while it lasts”. These were very wise words as Carlton has not won a Grand Final since.