Carlton Football Club is one of Australia's oldest and most prominent sporting institutions. The Club boasts a long history of proud supporters, premiership success and the most iconic guernsey in the country.
Known as the Blues, a reference to our dark navy uniform, the Carlton Football Club is committed to be the most inclusive and united sporting organisation. Our people represent the diverse northern community and the club is strengthened by diversity of cultures and thought. We are focused on creating a sense of community and belonging for our staff, players and all of our supporters.
Carlton is synonymous with success. Our illustrious history is punctuated with premiership glory – 16 Grand Final victories in all – since our acceptance into the newly-established Victorian Football League (now Australian Football League) way back in 1897.
Carlton, more than any other club, can lay claim to the greatest Italian representation – from Albert Boromeo in 1919 through to Jack Silvagni and Darcy Vescio almost a century later.
That’s because our rich historic and cultural links with the Italian community have their origins in the neighbouring streets like Lygon and Canning, where migrants first took refuge after traversing the globe on ageing passenger steamers.
Our home base, Ikon Park, flanks what was once a tight-knit enclave of Italian migrants, who lugged their suitcases from the weather-beaten wharfs of Victoria Dock and Station Pier to the old boarding houses dotted in and around the area.
No other team in the pre-eminent Australian Rules football competition boasts stronger links with the Italians than the Carlton Football Club. A total of 30 Carlton players of Italian origin – including the game’s one and only Italian-born footballer Peter Bevilacqua – have donned the famous dark Navy Blue guernsey.
At a time when Carlton’s one and only president of Italian origin, Mark LoGiudice, presides, it’s truly fitting that the football club’s enduring links with Italy are savoured and celebrated.
We are proud to be a part of NotteZero, a celebration of the important role Segmento plays in the Italo-Australian community. Tonight, we are supporting Jonathan Di Maggio, a talented and passionate photographer from Melbourne’s north who, we feel, captures the essence of daily life masterfully.
