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Does anyone remember the turbulent times in early 1980 when George Harris and Jezza, 2 great legends of the club, walked out?

It must have been dumbfounding for all supporters to witness their Premiership champion captain/coach and charasmatic President all of a sudden out the door and in the case of Jezza heading to the lowly St.Kilda.

Any older members witness the EGM in February, 1980?

No internet then so you read about it in the "Sun".
Shattering news especially after the big hit Jesaulenko took from Magro in the 79 GF he was a real hero.
Little did we know the Premiership Cup would be Carlton's in 1981-82!

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Bawditawaba

I remember being a 6 year old standing at the front door crying because Dad wouldn't let me go with him. As he's stated many times since;

A Rhodes Scholar gets up in front of the microphone and addresses the members. Says he and other Premiership players will leave the club if Harris is re-elected. It wasn't clear cut that Jezza would leave the club when the vote was taken, but it would see the back of Harris and at despite what he'd done for the club - at that time - that had to happen.

Yes I do remember. I was 19yo.

I've poste plenty about the election of Rice and the ridiculous American style entrance he made that night. Bloody idiots, the lot of them. I found the whole exercise embarrassing, and couldn't stand the power hungry Rice.

Harris' vision, if he was allowed to see it through would have ensured a Black Friday would never have happened.

Sure we won in 81 & 82, but we should have won 4 on the trot and we should have backed the bloke who took us off the bottom and delivered Barrassi, and the flags thereafter following a 24 year drought.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Bondi...you must have been the minority that night....the club would have gone under long before we arrived at Black Friday...

I didn't know the issues at the time.

I knew what had been achieved with Harris, where we were at (on the surface) and where we were going. It all looked good to me.

Give us a brief heads up how Rice saved the club and how Harris was going to sink us?
That's news to me.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Well what George Harris wanted was to replace the 13 man honorary board and place the running of the club in the hands of a salaried board of 6 directors (that would be appointed by him). At the time, the press reported that many of George's marketing & property investments were losing money and sending the club into debt. These ranged from a Sports Medicine Centre, to housing developments, to the marketing of hinged chopsticks. Many of these did go over the edge. It was too big a risk....to his credit, until his dying day - he believed what he tried to do was right. The voting, in case any of you are interested was 1241 to Rice, 480 to Harris.

Look - I think extremely highly of George Harris. What he did for this club should never be forgotten. I went to his funeral in 2007. But Jezza acted on his own. He didn't appreciate the criticism of his coaching by committee members. It was his own protest and he thought it perfect timing to align himself to Harris.

Well put....and well said Doc.....

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

I was there that very hot evening.

It got off to a very bad start when the majority of the Members were ruled ineligible tbecause they were not registered to vote. That even increased the hostility on the night.

I arrived to witness the farcical situation of hundreds and hundreds of very angry members milling around outside the main entrance and refused admitance.

Things were looking very ugly but reason eventually prevailed and the non eligible members were allowed in and directed to the sides of the hall. They had no vote and were not allowed to speak for or against.

It was a very emotional evening but the large body of the ex playing group were in favour of the Rice Group and swayed the Membership.

To my mind Jezza backed the wrong horse and his loyalty to Harris would not allow him to back down despite the plea's of his mates.

It must be remembered that Harris was effectively looking at Autocratic power.

This was not the oly meeting on the issue, there was one on a Sunday at PP where the likes of Maclure, Jones and others spoke in support of Rice.

When Rice got in, he and Lofts brought in Richard Pratt and the one and only John Elliott and the rest is history....

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There's so much I could say...

...and to his credit JE (at the behest of John Nicholls) invited George back to the club in 1990.

Takes an autocrat to know an autocrat?


Seriously though, it's a fascinating political timeline dominated by some very powerful figures. It's also interesting to relate the shenanigans of the past decade to back then. It's quite a colourful history indeed.

Shit times, but there was a funny side to it. There was a Sunday morning meet with the faithful at PP.
I attended along with approx 2 thousand other Carlton faithful.
Ian Rice, Wes Lofts, Percy and Sellars put forward their side of the things. When Wes stepped forward to
speak, he was roundly booed.
Rice bolted to the microphone and said, ''You weren't booing Wes WHEN HE WAS KICKING ALL THOSE
GOALS'' !!
The joint erupted in laughter, and even Wes had a chuckle.

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

Well @#$%&! me swingin'.

Thanks for that Doc. I knew none of that.

Jaw has dropped

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

George Harris did a hell of a lot for the CFC , but in this particular case he was wrong . The situation at the time left no options . He had to go .

When Jezza walked out , it almost broke every supporters heart I reckon .
Much , much , much worse than losing Fev !

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Get the facts first.
Then you can distort them at your leisure.

Great perspective Klakker. I was fifteen at the time, and couldn't believe Jezza was going, and to St Kilda of all places.

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"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything." Oscar Wilde

Looks like Bondi and I are the same age...

I remember it all too well. My dad was livid but we were living 3000 miles away on a tropical paradise (which the boat people thought was a rotten island prison) and so missed the political stuff. For us the crusher was the departure of the wonderful Jesaulenko. Jezza, as has been pointed out above, aligned himself with Harris and said he's go if Harris went. From there, there was no turning back for him. As a footballer, he had to make a living so he had to play footy elsewhere. Those days at Carlton were full of political intrigue, not the least of which involved the plan to borrow money through a man called Teriff Khemlani (please for give the spelling if it is wrong) of dubious background. He was named in parliament at about the same time as a crook and IIR, Harris was involved with the whole thing. No doubt the details are mentioned in the various histories of the CFC.
Richmond is known to be a prety volatile club but we have been know to eat our own at times also. We were fortunate when this event took place to have been at the peak of our powers in the 'modern' era*. I agree we should have won 4 in a row but it wasn't to be.

* I know to most of you it's ancient history but to me it's the modern era

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Yes....I remember that too; and to explain to the younguns.....Loftsy was our hard as nails full back...not a goalkicker; although I do recall him being shifted to FF one day at Glenferrie Oval in an effort to buy some goals.

Strangely enough....he kicked 65 goals in his career.....I must confess to not remembering them at all except for that day against Hawthorn.

Although......did he play a bit of footy for us at CHF?.......it rings a bell somewhere in my memory.

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No ones listening till you make a mistake.

Yeah Warbs, early on Loftsy did play a few games up forward, but as you'll recall he was far better suited to the back line. Just a stat for the youngn's . Neither Peter Hudson or Peter McKenna kicked more than 4 goals in any game against W.V.Lofts.

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The problem with Socialism is, you eventually run out of other people's money.

That`s (the 65) what Rice was referring to.
I was 8 yrs old and devastated my hero (Jezza) was going. I had his number on the back of my jumper before i could walk. Even recently, i stood next to him at our local supermarket and could`t bring myself to say anything or even look in his direction. My wife stirs me about it saying i looked like a little nervous school kid.