Last week Gavin Wanganeen was reunited with his 2004 premiership jumper, which was stolen from the MCG dressing room a couple of hours after the grand final. He was the only Port Adelaide premiership player not to have his jumper framed.
The AFL’s website reported the club was contacted in January. Information suggested the thief was an MCG cleaner.
Following another call in June, the jumper was retrieved by assistant coach Josh Carr after Port’s loss to Richmond in round 17 at Docklands.
‘I’d pretty much given up and was resigned to the fact that I’d never see it again,’ Wanganeen said.
‘It will be able to stay in my family, that I’ll be able to hand it down to my son, Tex.’
There was no mention of police involvement. Perhaps the club was more intent on collecting the jumper than pursuing the thief.
You have to wonder what the thief could do with the jumper.
Back in 1970, my second cousin Owen was a kid, maybe ten years old. He supported Melbourne but went to the 1970 grand final with his mate Dave (not his real name), a Carlton fan.
After the game, they got into the Carlton rooms and stood in silent awe as Barassi celebrated with his players.
‘We weren’t supposed to be there but no one told us to leave,’ Owen said.
No one paid the kids any attention. They moved about the rooms slowly, almost in fear they might be asked to leave. John Nicholls held the premiership cup aloft during the song. Later Vin Waite emptied it of champagne, drinking a gulp and spilling the rest.
As the festivities went on, Owen suggested it was time to get home. It was already late and getting cold.
Before they left the clubrooms, amid the maelstrom, Dave stole John Nicholls’ blazer. They bolted from the MCG, Dave holding the bundled up blazer to his chest.
At Richmond Station, waiting for the train, Dave tried it on. He could’ve slept in it. Owen wanted to know why he stole it.
‘Dave didn’t really know,’ Owen said. ‘He had no idea why. It was there so he took it. But it almost touched the ground when he put it on.’
The navy blazer, as Owen recalled, was like a suit coat and carried Carlton’s emblem over the heart. Big Nick’s name was sewn on a tag into the neck. Dave folded it up and told Owen he was going to keep it.
It didn’t take too long for Dave’s crime to be discovered.
To start with, he was home later than expected, so his parents were waiting for him. He couldn’t hide the blazer, such was its size. Seconds after he walked in, his mother wanted to know what it was and where he got it.
Dave said he found it on the train.
His mother unfolded the blazer and inspected it, finding Big Nick’s name on the neck. She didn’t believe her son. Nicholl’s played for Carlton. It was grand final day. Her son had been at the MCG.
Under intense questioning, Dave told the truth. He was in trouble. His mother laid awake for a few hours that night, wondering whether to confess the truth. On Sunday she called the club and said she had Big Nick’s blazer.
She said her son found it on the train.
Owen said Big Nick arrived on Monday night to pick it up, offering thanks. Dave skulked in the background, hoping the Carlton captain wouldn’t recognise him from the change rooms.
When Owen told me that story, I wondered what Dave was going to do with the blazer.
Just a kid, there is no way he could’ve kept it hidden from his parents. The blazer was never going to fit him. It didn’t fit the criteria for memorabilia. It wouldn’t look good in a frame. It would only gather dust in a wardrobe.
Last week, Melbourne’s 1948 premiership flag was recovered by police after being put up for sale on eBay. Somehow it had gone missing years ago from Melbourne. Amazing such a vital piece of football history could disappear without being noticed.
More amazing is Carlton’s 1970 and 1972 premiership cups being stolen following a club function in the eighties. The club might’ve had them secured, but someone made off with them without being noticed.
It’s a fair bet the thief was a Carlton fan. I wonder why someone would steal a premiership cup from their own club.
And what would the thief do with them? Putting them in the pool room might brighten up the ambience, but you wouldn’t be the envy of your mates. If they had any sense of football history, they’d dob you in.
I wonder what the thieves were thinking when they swiped these historical artefacts. They couldn’t be displayed or sold, not publicly anyway. There would always be the fear of possessing stolen property. There would always be self-evaluation, why did I steal this? Worse would be knowing they did nothing to deserve them.
There would always be the fear of getting caught.
These artefacts would need to be held like a hostage, deep underground. No one could know your secret.
Dave was caught by his mother. The police picked up a 66-year-old man in possession of Melbourne’s premiership flag.
No one in the AFL industry is congratulating the thieves who stole Carlton’s premiership cups and Wanganeen’s jumper, just because they were returned.
So, I wonder again, why do the thieves steal these things? To sell them is to get busted. To show them off is to get busted. Worse is judgement of your family and mates.
Every AFL club should take stock of all their premiership memorabilia and report anything that is missing to the police and the media. If anything is missing, the AFL should announce an amnesty.
Premiership flags, cups, jumpers and blazers are not public property.
There is no point stealing this stuff, if there is nothing you can do with it…
