Carlton Football Club president Luke Sayers will from this day forward be known as “a Rochy boy”, after revealing at the annual Melbourne supporters’ luncheon on Friday that he had spent seven of the first nine years of his life in the town.
His father, Graham, was principal of the high school during his formative years and — in fact — was principal in 1972 when Rochester 300-game legend Bruce Watson was completing his final year of high school.
Sayers, who left Australia with his family and played ice hockey in Canada as a young boy, was born in Rochester and remains connected to the town through his mother Coral, who has retained life-long friendships.
The family spent two and a half years in Calgary, eventually returning and laying the foundations for Sayers’ selection for Australia in ice hockey.
One of his mother’s relationships is with 94-year-old Marj Sharp, whose family was Hopetoun St neighbours with the Sayers in the 1970s.
Sayers and Andrew Sharp saw each other for the first time in more than four decades at the luncheon at the Bourke St hotel that hosted the annual fundraising event.
Sharp was also a headline act at the luncheon, having donated a five per cent ownership share in a racehorse (with his brother Geoff, trainer Colin Scott and another owner Gerry Van Ameyden) as an auction item.
“There was a door in the fence and Andrew would always come through and play cricket and football with us. I am not sure if he was there to play sport or see my sister,” Mr Sayers said.
“Mum is now 86 and talks about Val sharp all the time. Rochester has always stuck in my heart as a great place to grow up,” he said.
There was a strong Carlton flavour to the stage as host Brad McEwan is a life-long “blue bagger’’, his great-uncle Jim Clark (originally from Elmore) a legend of the club.
McEwan said from today onward people would refer to Sayers as “a Rochy boy”.
“It is a bit of a weird feeling, because I feel an emotional connection to Rochester,” Sayers said.
“Running across from my meeting this morning I rang mum, who was so excited about the event.
“I haven’t seen Sharpey for 40 years, it is just awesome and I really thank everyone for inviting me back.”
Sayers said his Carlton connection came as a result of his mother bringing him to the city for speech therapy.
“My godfather lived at the back of Princes Park and that’s where it all started,” he said.
Sayers said his ambition on accepting the club presidency was to create a “united’’ Carlton, in what has historically — and even more so in recent times — been a fractured club.
“When I took over 15 months ago the club did need a clean out. We forced an external review, which was the first time in 158 years non-Carlton people had reviewed the club,” he said.
“There was a culture of arrogance and the first thing I did was get Brian Cook (club CEO).
“He is calm and composed, while Carlton people are hysterical. We are trying to change that culture.”
He offered advice for Rochester president Justin Cleary, who was among half a dozen former club leaders at the lunch, to make sure he had people that could calm the outside noise.
As for modern football he revealed a conversation with former Bendigo boy, dual Brownlow medallist and present Carlton football director, Greg “Diesel” Williams had suggested a potential return to the “old days” of zones.
“I was having a chat with Diesel last week and he was talking about the re-introduction of zones,” Sayers said.
“I would love Carlton Football Club to have that relationship with Bendigo again,’’ he said, adding a nod of acknowledgement to a figure at the back of the room of the luncheon — former Bendigo recruit, two-time best and fairest and Carlton Team of the Century fullback Geoff Southby.
— Brad McEwan explained after the lunch despite his life-long love of the Blues he had been unaware of the Luke Sayers connection to Rochester
“A school mate of mine, Chris Godfrey, said to me he was from Rochy,” McEwan said.
“My mum (Marg) and stepdad Bob had a letter showing his dad’s name as Rochester high principal.
“A lof of people were querying his involvement in the lunch until he explained the connection,” McEwan said, explaining his own passion for the club had come from his mother’s uncle Jimmy Clark’s famous footballing pedigree.
Clark, who died at 88 in 2013, coached Echuca, Rochester and Gunbower after joining Carlton from Elmore. He played 161 games from 1943-51, was the Carlton best and fairest in his final year, played five times for Victoria and in two Carlton premierships (1945 and 1947)
“I remember hearing about people who would go to football for the sole reason of listening to Uncle Jimmy talk at the breaks,” McEwan said.
