1932

The Carlton AGM to be held February 03 states;
"that unemployment, due the depression, was responsible for a drop in membership from 5844 to 4123 (excluding honorary and life members) but the club's share of gate receipts from the 18 home and home matches increased from £2625 to £2645, which is a League record for any club, and incidentally, for the sixth year in succession the club's gate receipts were the highest in the League - a tribute to the popularity of the club and its drawing capacity." (Sun-News Pic January 15 p18)

In 1932 Sir William Brunton would open the Robert Heatley stand, which cost 7000 pounds to build. On the field, Carlton would build on the improving form of the past 6 season, and go on to compete in our first Grand Final since 1921.

After losing the first two games of the season, the Blues showed great form, winning 11 games straight, including wins against Collingwood, Richmond and Geelong, who had been the clubs main competition over the past few years. The club was in first place on the ladder, by percentage from South Melbourne, one of the two teams to have beaten us in the first two rounds.

The winning run was upset by a close 5 point loss at the hands of Richmond in round 14, but another four wins on the trot would follow to end the home and away season. The last of these games, in round 18, resulted in an 87 point thumping of St Kilda, a perfect confidence builder to enter the finals on. Carlton finished the regular season in top spot, half a game ahead of Richmond and one game in front of Collingwood. Both shaped to be major dangers to the Blues in the finals, Collingwood having won four straight flags between 1927 and 1930, and Richmond having knocked Carlton out of the finals three years running (1927-1929). Geelong, who had won the last two Grand Finals, slipped out of the top 4 and finished in fifth place.

Carlton would enter the second Semi Final against Richmond having split their home and away games. Richmond had proven to be Carlton's bogy side though in the late 1920's and early 1930's. It appeared that the Blues might have finally gotten over this when they jumped the Tigers in the first quarter, kicking 5 goals to 1 to open up a 24 point lead. By three quarter time, Richmond had pulled the deficit back to 13 points, and went on to win the match by 25 points (18.16 124 to 14.15 99) by kicking 8 goals to 2 in the last term.

In the Preliminary Final Collingwood opened up a 6 point lead at the first break, but a 7 goal to 3 second term gave the Blues a 14 point buffer at half time. Carlton destroyed Collingwood in the third quarter, kicking 10 goals to 3 to destroy the game as a contest. Two unanswered goals in the final term saw the Blues 75 point winners (23.19 157 to 11.16 82) to set up a rematch with the Tigers for the flag.

The Grand Final lived up to expectation and was close all day, but unfortunately Richmond maintained a slender lead at every break to run out 9 point winners (13.14 92 to 12.11 83). This Grand Final was near the end of our 23 year Premiership drought (between 1915 and 1938, a period in which we would play in three losing Grand Finals - 1916, 1921 and 1932.

Blues legend Harry Vallence would come as close as he ever would to kicking 100 goals in a season, falling horribly short, by only 3 goals. Vallence was a mainstay of the Blues forward line from 1929 onwards.

Ladder

People of 1932

Captain: Colin Martyn
Coach: Dan Minogue
Leading Goal-kicker: Harry Vallence - 97 goals (new club record)

Debuts

Round 12: Keith Shea
Round 5: Ron Cooper, Horrie Bullen
Round 4: Jim Park
Round 3: Charlie Street
Round 2: Ralph Green, Frank Walshe, Jim Williamson
Round 1: Gordon Mackie, Leo Opray, Jack Young

Practice Matches

April 02 at Princes Park
Crowd; 4,000
The new grandstand is nearing completion
Frank Gill and Colin Martyn captained the teams.
Herald p3 Argus 04 p9 to be completed