True Blue: Les Petsinis to play his 500th match for Carlton Cricket Club

Blues coach Evan Gulbis says Les Petsinis ‘lives and breathes’ Carlton and the work he’s done for the club cannot be measured.

Carlton milestone man Les Petsinis.

Les Petsinis said it was “ridiculous’’.

Others aware of his impending milestone at Carlton Cricket Club described it in more glowing terms.

Former Test leg-spinner Bryce McGain called it “extraordinary’’.

Ex-Carlton coach Peter Di Venuto said it was a “magnificent achievement’’ and Petsinis was “one of the great people I’ve been fortunate to meet in cricket’’.

This Saturday, Petsinis, 49, will play his 500th match for the club.

“Do you mean 400?’’ someone asked when the games tally was mentioned on social media.

There was no slip of the finger: 500 it is for a cricketer who has represented the Blues in all four grades and says much of his enjoyment in doing so has come from watching other players succeed.

Carlton won the First XI grand final two years ago, memorably overhauling Geelong’s 400-plus tally.

Petsinis had captained a lot of the players in the Second XI, and it gave him a thrill to watch them take the club to its first flag in almost 40 years.

“It was an incredible three days,’’ he said.

It had been a long time between drinks. And it’s a long time since Petsinis joined the Blues.

It was ahead of the 1990-91 season.

From South Morang, he’d played in the Dowling Shield for Collingwood, but the father of Carlton player Ash Cavigan (these days coaching Essendon) told him the pitches at Princes Park were good and he was better off going to the Blues.

That bit of advice led to a long association between player and club.

Les Petsinis batting for the Blues.

“From the first day I walked in I was welcomed and the environment was so encouraging,’’ he said. “Still is. You speak to the firsts players, you speak to the fourths players. We’re all one unit.’’

Seen as a leg-spinner who could bat, Petsinis started in the fourths. “Where all District cricketers start,’’ he said.

By 1993-94 he was seen as more of a batsman and was in the First XI, getting a debut against a Footscray team with Merv Hughes and Tony Dodemaide.

Another Bulldog, Daryl Clemson, trapped him LBW for a first-ball duck at the Western Oval.

His 66 First XI games were spread over 16 seasons; the last was in 2010-11.

“I was a guy who was in and out a fair bit, playing that No 5 or 6 role,’’ he said.

A left-hand batsman, he did make a century, 101 not out, in the First XI.

And there were other tons in the twos, where he played almost 300 matches, some of them under the captaincy of the great Jeff Moss.

His reach at Carlton goes back to legendary figures like Moss and John Douglas.

Petsinis captained the seconds for 15 seasons, a mentor to many cricketers who would advance to the top team.

“I think Matthew Drain was the coach at the time, and I said to him I thought I was best suited in the twos trying to develop young guys to play in the first grade,’’ he said.

“I loved it. It was a passion. I was really proud when they went up to the ones and performed.’’

As for his own success, he played in three Second XI one-day titles, but never a two-day premiership.

“Funny game, cricket,’’ he said. “You go around all these years…’’

Les Petsinis stretches a Second XI One day flag.

He played one year as a wicketkeeper in the seconds, which filled a gap with the gloves, but denied the side his brilliant fielding.

Douglas said he would be surprised if any other District/Premier cricketers had played 500 matches.

Cricket Victoria has put the question out there.

There are suggestions former state allrounder Brendan “Bushy’’ McArdle, who started at Northcote when he was a schoolboy and finished at Dandenong captaining the Second XI, might have given it a nudge.

Douglas said Petsinis had made a remarkable contribution to the Blues.

“Enormous really. He’s got great respect from everyone who has been through the club,’’ he said.

“They love Les and anyone who has played under him, in the seconds in particular, speak very, very highly of him. They enjoyed everything he had to offer.’’

Les Petsinis is in his 30th season with Carlton.

Petsinis is looking after the Third XI this season and acting as a development coach under Gulbis.

Gulbis played his first match for the Blues in 2003-04, in the seconds.

Of course, the scorecard shows L Petsinis was a teammate.

Gulbis said Petsinis “lives and breathes’’ Carlton and he had been a “phenomenal’’ clubman.

“There aren’t too many words that come to mind that could actually do justice to what Les means to the club and what the club means to Les,’’ he said.

“The work he’s done for Carlton can’t be measured, and I don’t think there will ever be anyone like him again.’’

Evan Gulbis.

Bored one day during the COVID-19 lockdown last year, Petsinis began to make a list of the cricketers he’d played with at Carlton.

It was incomplete because mycricket had started quite a few years after he began with the Blues.

Still, he came up with about 400 names, and they included overseas pair Carl Hooper and Abdul Qadir, Moss, Douglas, Gulbis, Rohan Larkin, Nathan Pilon, Ian Wrigglesworth, Tim Welsford, Jake Hancock, Tim Ludeman, Ashley Gilbert and Phil Hetherington.

That’s a fair chunk of the roll-call of Carlton greats.

Petsinis would never hold himself up as a champion cricketer. “I gave it my all,’’ he said.

But his longevity and loyalty have made him a true Blue legend.