He has worked at Carlton for 25 years, but most Carlton supporters wouldn’t know him, his name...Laurie Carter.
Laurie commenced at Carlton after the 1982 Grand Final and Round 22, 2007 was his last game as Carlton’s bootstudder.
“I’d have to say it has been a real thrill to come in everyday and be part of the Carlton Football Club.” Laurie told carltonfc.com.au.
Laurie has seen the highs and lows during his time at Carlton. “The 95’ Premiership would be the highlight, we were never going to lose it that year.” Laurie said.
“I look back and the highlight of that day would have to be Big Earl. He was my wife’s favourite player...Earl Baby, the block and goal summed up the day and year.” Laurie added.
Laurie has prepared “screws ins” and “molded” boots for some of the greatest players to represent the Carlton Football Club, all of whom carried there own little traits.
“Silvagni was the worst,” Laurie joked, “he would never decide what boots he was going to wear until the last minute.”
During the mid to late nineties, Laurie took on another role at the footy club, he still was chief bootstudder, but he also took on the role of putting in Brett Ratten’s quaddie.
“Just before we would go into our team meeting I would head over and see Laurie, I’d give him my numbers and the money and he would take care of the rest. We had a great system going.” Ratten told carltonfc.com.au.
Laurie remembers one occasionally vividly.
“He used to go ok; he’d have a few winners everyone so often. Each time he gave me the numbers it used to total approximately $50. Sometimes he would be a couple of dollars short and I’d tell him not to worry about it. But I can remember one time he was short a couple of dollars and I said not to worry about, but he insisted that he take a horse out of his quaddie, and of course this time it cost him...the horse that he dropped took out one of the legs, he had the other three legs and it paid $29,000! He was never a couple of dollars short again.” Laurie jokes.
Laurie is extremely confident that Ratts will turn the fortunes of the Club around, “I think he will defiantly be a great coach, he has already made big inroads and I am confident he will do a fantastic job.” Laurie said.
Laurie told the players of his decision to call it a day prior to the team’s final training session of 2007, and in one final highlight he lead the Carlton team on to the MCG for its Round 22 match against Melbourne.