Discerning followers of the mighty Blues tend to look for the little things thesedays . . . a deft Marc Murphy handball here, an emphatic Josh Kennedy mark there . . . and while the on-field cogwheels in the Carlton machine turn slowly forward, it’s time that the 142 year-old club properly acknowledged one of the truly iconic moments of its long and illustrious past.

Image With discussions reportedly progressing in relation to the on-going redevelopment of the old Princes Park ground, the powers that be should now be factoring in the creation of a bronzed, life size-and-a-half sculpture of Alex Jesaulenko’s famous mark over Graeme Jenkin in the 1970 Grand Final - to be funded by the state government, the corporate sector and the football club’s members and supporters.

The statue, in keeping with the well-known photograph captured by Clive Mackinnon of The Sun news-pictorial, should be strategically placed at the end of the driveway linking Royal Parade with the stadium’s main carpark. It should form the centerpiece to the redeveloped venue’s entrance, much the same as the Smorgon family-funded bronze of the late great EJ Whitten, so prominently featured in the roundabout adjacent to the oval bearing Ted’s name.

Mitch Mitchell, the man who fashioned the Landy-Clarke statue, and more recently the Jack Dyer and Bob Rose effigies, has declared that he is up to the lofty task of fashioning the sculpture at an estimated cost of $150,000.

Now before Mr Smorgon and the Carlton Football Club’s beancounters balk at the bikkies, news has recently filtered in from across the Nullarbor that the West Australian State Government has pledged $70,000 to help fund a statue capturing John Gerovich’s famous mark over Ray French in the 1956 WAFL preliminary final - as captured by photographer Morrie Hammond of The West Australian (pictured left). West Australian Sport and Recreation Minister John Minister Kobelke revealed that the statue would be located on the roundabout outside the main entrance to Fremantle Oval.

“As well as being a significant part of our sporting imagery, the mark also entered our sporting vernacular,” the Minister was quoted as saying. “Since that great day 50 years ago, generations of young footy players have ‘taken a screamer like Gero’.

“The statue will celebrate more than the moment. It will be a permanent celebration of a unique feature of Australian Rules. The State Government’s donation will be specifically for the artist’s costs to recreate this magical moment in eternal bronze.”

WA Premier Alan Carpenter said he was equally delighted the State Government could play a role in immortalising an image which had become synonymous with football in the west.

“What Morrie Hammond’s photo of John Gerovich’s mark has done is captured the magic of football,” Premier Carpenter said.

Not surprisingly, South Fremantle Football Club president Terry Dean welcomed the State Government’s generous contribution.

“We already have a number of financial supporters for the project and when you add the state’s contribution we only need to raise a further $50,000,” Dean said. “The South Fremantle Football Club and the Western Australian Football League see part of our role as preserving the game’s heritage. This statue will immortalise what many people consider to be the mark of the century in WA football.”

If Gerovich’s grab of ’56 engenders such fervor in the west, the impact of Jesaulenko’s mark on the home of football is incalculable. For Jezza’s mark is still universally acknowledged as the greatest ever taken.

Notwithstanding number 25’s impeccable timing in completing the successful launch on the game’s greatest stage at the world’s greatest sporting milieu before an unprecedented football audience of 121,696 (and if each of them paid a dollar then you’d basically have your statue), Jesaulenko’s leap left an indelible impression on many others, including members of Carlton’s vibrant migrant community.

Many of them have cited the mark as emblematic of their own life’s watershed - the moment in which they rose from the shadows of community prejudice and isolation to gain acceptance and, ultimately, legitimacy in their new country. After all, Jesaulenko was himself born in Salzburg to Ukrainian parents.

While loyal supporters of Carlton would welcome the opportunity to contribute to a fund to immortalise the mark in bronze, the Victorian Government, through its Sports Minister and sometime former Carlton ruckman the Rt Hon J. Madden, ought take the WA lead here (and “Harry”, if you feel hopelessly conflicted, flick-pass this one to Steve Bracks) - along with the Herald & Weekly Times (in acknowledgement of Mackinnon’s contribution), the Seven Network (which once used moving images of the mark to promote its programming), adidas (given that Jesaulenko and Jenkin were sporting the maker’s brand on that last Saturday in September) and the AFL, through its major sponsor Toyota, which has drawn on the famous mark’s marketability by way of a soon-to-be-released TV advertisement.

Other prospective financial sources include Visyboard, managed by billionaire and former Carlton footballer Richard Pratt for whom Jesaulenko was employed, as well as Tattersall’s, which has supported the Parade of Champions series of bronze sculptures at the MCG precinct and once boasted former Carlton director Peter Kerr as a trustee.

For all its lofty successes, and for reasons best known to itself, the Carlton Football Club has failed in its duty to showcase its long and illustrious history for the benefit of future generations filing into Princes Park.

Now is the time for the famous old dark blues to “do a Jezza” and complete the quantum leap.

Anthony De Bolfo