Last week, familiar Navy Blue names returned to the old Carlton ground.
IKON Park’s feel-good days are quickly becoming a tradition.
Last Thursday, the Blues’ next generation took to Royal Parade, with names like Allan, Beaumont, Dean, Lappin, and Pearce running around on the old Carlton stadium.
With father-daughter, father-son, and Next Generation Academy prospects all coming together, it presented an opportunity for future Blues to interact — and for their parents to reconnect with former teammates.
Sunny Lappin, the daughter of former Carlton fan favourite Matthew ‘Skinny’ Lappin, relished her first Carlton Academy day and everything that it included, having visited the Gabba with her family just a week previously for the preliminary final.
“I haven’t played much football in the last month and a half, so it’s been good to get back into it.” “I had a great time,” Sunny stated.
“A few of us attended the AFLW final meeting to hear the coach’s final words.” We headed out on the track for some skill and handball games to get back into the swing of things.
“I spoke with Jess Good previously. “She was like, ‘we’ll see, if you get here, I might have to give you my jumper number’!”
Then there was her grandfather, who thoroughly enjoyed (no pun intended) the festivities of the day.
“Sitting out in the sunshine with a couple of my ex-teammates like Brad Pearce and Peter Dean . . . catching up with them and being able to see my own daughter as well as their kids out on the track, it was awesome,” Matthew said.
“A lot of old memories came flooding back.”
Charlie Beaumont and Harry Dean, the sons of Simon and Peter, were two players who were familiar with the afternoon.
Last year, Peter praised the professionalism of the day, while 16-year-old Harry said he enjoyed going to the 1995 premiership player’s old house.
“He used to play back and I used to play back; I ask him for advice if I’m playing on a smaller player or a bigger fella.”
“Looking back [at their highlights], maybe that’ll be us one day.” You just never know.”
According to Charlie, who plays football off half-back for the Sandringham Dragons, the memory of Simon’s eight-goal haul in a half against Collingwood doesn’t receive much play in the Beaumont family.
“He rarely brings it up because he’s very humble — but he does like to put it on now and then!”
He’s always really encouraging, and he believes that if you are knocked down, you get back up. I’m grateful to have him as my father.”
It was all about “connecting with everyone else, enjoying your footy, and trying to get better every day… Carlton helps develop me,” said Next Generation Academy prospect Jack Ison, who represented Vic Metro at under-16s level this year.
It was the start of a brilliant weekend for members of the Carlton Academy, as two more sons of a gun faced up on the MCG less than 48 hours later.
Ben and Lucas Camporeale represented opposing sides in the under-17s Futures game, which took place on the morning of the AFL Grand Final, proving their wares among the top underage talent in the country.
Lucas demonstrated his versatility and class with 19 disposals and nine marks across the ground, while Ben shined, gathering 30 disposals in the midfield to claim best-on-ground.
