Blueseum - History of the Carlton Football Club

1965

Round: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
Fixture by Round

1965 Summary

Having endured the worst season to date in Carlton's history in 1964, a newly-elected committee led by the pugnacious George Harris caused one of the biggest shocks in VFL history by almost immediately poaching Ron Barassi from the Melbourne Football Club. Barassi was installed as captain-coach of the Blues in 1965, with immediately positive results. For most of the season, the club floated between fourth and sixth place on the ladder - but after only winning five and a half games the year before, there was obvious improvement.

Barassi's Blues won four games in a row between rounds 4 and 7; another four out of five between rounds 9 and 13, finishing the year with 10 wins and 8 losses to hold sixth place on the ladder. More consistent in '65, Carlton may not have been the best side in the competition, but the scores suggest that we at last had a team giving their all for the jumper.

In fact, the only low point in the season came after round 14, when the club lost four straight games. After round 13 we were clinging to fourth spot on the ladder by percentage, but then fell away. A resurgent round 18 victory over Essendon saw us finish the year in sixth, two wins behind the fourth-placed Bombers. Such obvious improvement gave Carlton fans hope that Barassi was in fact the real deal, and that he could indeed turn around the fortunes of the famous Old Dark Blues.

Sadly, tragedy intervened against this optimistic backdrop when Carlton's popular 25 year-old ruckman Maurie Sankey was killed in a car crash shortly after the season concluded. Vice captain of the team, Maurie had played exactly 100 games for his beloved Blues.

Ladder

Pos	Team	Wins	Draws	Losses	Points	For	Against	%
1	St Kilda	14	0	4	56	228.205.1573	161.188.1154	136.3
2	Collingwood	13	0	5	52	212.201.1473	158.183.1131	130.2
3	Geelong	13	0	5	52	184.215.1319	155.158.1088	121.2
4	Essendon	12	0	6	48	204.241.1465	153.184.1102	132.9
5	Richmond	10	0	8	40	222.229.1561	177.187.1249	125
6	Carlton	10	0	8	40	181.231.1317	168.182.1190	110.7
7	Melbourne	10	0	8	40	180.185.1265	185.205.1315	96.2
8	Sth Melbourne	9	0	9	36	195.216.1386	219.236.1550	89.4
9	Nth Melbourne	5	0	13	20	156.207.1143	203.197.1415	80.8
10	Footscray	4	0	14	16	137.188.1010	184.206.1310	77.1
11	Fitzroy	4	0	14	16	158.166.1114	222.248.1580	70.5
12	Hawthorn	4	0	14	16	171.174.1200	243.284.1742	68.9