CARLTON Hall of Fame member Wes Lofts has passed away, aged 71, after a long battle with emphysema.
Lofts, a 1968 premiership player for the Blues, spent 40 years as a player and administrator at the club that gave him his debut as a 17-year-old in round six, 1960.
The burly youngster went on to establish himself as one of the best key defenders in the game, representing Victoria twice in 1963 and 1968.
Lofts was famously dropped on the eve of Carlton’s remarkable 1970 Grand Final win over Collingwood and never donned the Navy Blue again, retiring at age 27.
However, his most influential years were still to come, appointed the Blues’ chairman of selectors in 1978 and soon becoming a key powerbroker.
Lofts convinced business heavyweights Richard Pratt and future president John Elliott to join the board and oversaw a number of key recruiting decisions that were pivotal in Carlton’s four flags between 1981-1995.
In 2002, four years after he was inducted into the Carlton Hall of Fameand shortly before Elliott was voted out of office, Lofts stood downfrom the Carlton board.
