Leatham

Only the second Blue to wear guernsey number 45 in a senior game for Carlton (after Gil Lockhart in 1966) John Leatham was a speedy wingman recruited from Maffra Rovers in the North Gippsland Football League. He donned the navy blue strip for two consecutive games early in 1967, but couldn’t settle in at Princes Park, and his career was over by season’s end.

Leatham made his debut for Carlton against North Melbourne at Princes Park in round 3, 1967. His centreline partners on that cloudy afternoon were Ian Robertson and Cliff Stewart, and the Blues ran out comfortable winners by 16 points.

The following week in round 4, Carlton’s unbeaten run continued when a sharp Blues combination shook Melbourne off early in the contest, and then thrashed the Demons by ten goals. Although just about every Bagger got a swag of possessions, the match committee still made changes for round 5, and Leatham was one of those omitted.

No doubt deeply disappointed, he then suffered a hamstring injury playing in a Reserves match a few games later, and was automatically ruled out playing for about six weeks. Near the end of the year, he was drafted for National Service to serve in Vietnam. However, he later failed a medical test on very minor grounds and ruled unfit to serve overseas. John was then placed on Carlton’s supplementary list and it was suggested to play with a team in Bendigo which was in Carlton’s Zone at the time.

This plan was rejected as being impracticle and he was working in Melbourne and the expected travel would be too great. John decided to forsake the dream of playing VFL football and crossed to Coburg in the VFA despite all teams having only sixteen players without wingmen. In 1968 John Leatham played 6 games and kicked 6 goals with VFA club Coburg. John later joined DVFL club, Epping where he was captain in 1972, winning a best and fairest, playing close to a hundred games and being named on the wing in the Epping team of the century.

Here at the Blueseum, we believe that John was the first ex-player to contribute information to his own biography – and for that we are most grateful.

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