Former Carlton player, Champion Data founder Ted Hopkins dies

One of the heroes of Carlton’s incredible 1970 Grand Final comeback — Ted Hopkins — has died at the age of 74.

Ted Hopkins with the stats bible AFL prospectus in 2006.

Ted Hopkins might best be remembered for an extraordinary hour of football in one of the VFL-AFL’s greatest comebacks, but his impact on the fabric of the game will live on forever for different reasons.

Hopkins, who died on Monday, aged 74, made two very distinct contributions to the game that made him famous, even though he was always a little uncomfortable with the attention that fame brought.

He was, firstly, a flashy, blond, will-‘o’-the-wisp forward who emerged from his customary role on the bench just after halftime of the 1970 Grand Final and helped to transform footy in the space of two quarters.

His coach Ron Barassi, who died only two months ago, made a snap decision during the halftime break to bring Hopkins into the game, as the Blues starred down the barrel of a 44-point deficit, which was then considered almost insurmountable.

Barassi yelled to Hopkins: “Get ready, Teddy, you’re on” as the Blues ran back out onto the field against Collingwood.

The coach had instructed his players to ‘handball, handball, handball’ and take risks at all costs, which played into the hands of the opportunistic Hopkins, who was playing only his 28th game.

Within an hour, Hopkins had kicked four goals – including three in the first 15 minutes of the third term – and Carlton produced footy’s version of a miracle in storming home to a premiership victory often seen as changing the face of modern football.

He had played on the bench in more than half of his games in the 1970 season.

As Barassi told this reporter in 2007: “We made a few positional changes, the biggest one was bringing Ted Hopkins onto the field. On the way into the rooms at halftime we had talked about the need to get Bert Thornley off and Hopkins on.”

“But we were worried about getting injuries and decided as a match committee to defer the decision until 10 minutes into the third quarter. Then, just as the players were about to run out onto the ground, I had a strong sense that I just had to do it there and then.

“I pulled the switch without further consulting the match committee. Luckily for me, it worked and Teddy ended up kicking four goals.”

Incredibly, that watershed moment would be Hopkin’s penultimate league game.

Ted Hopkins is chaired off the ground after the 1970 VFL Grand Final.

Hopkins was a waterski junior champion before joining the Blues.

The 21-year-old played for the Blues in their round 1 clash with North Melbourne the following season. But by the time of the 1971 grand final, he had retired from VFL football, and was working as a head ranger at Falls Creek National Park.

Hopkins found the limelight too consuming and preferred camping in the bush and his own space compared to the overwhelming nature of VFL football.

He did later play for a time with Albury and Yallourn. He also wrote a number of poetry and fiction.

But in 1995 – 25 years after his signature football moment – he helped to found statistical company Champion Data, which would become the AFL’s official data partner in 1999.

Hopkins and Champion Data would go on to change the way in which players, clubs, and even footy fans started to look at and analyse the game.

While Hopkins’s greatest on field moment was born out of the visionary coaching nous of Barassi, his own vision – and the vision of others at Champion Data – helped to transform the way we use stats in football.

They helped to create a series of measurements which became a part of footy’s lexicon, including clangers, inside 50s, loose ball gets, hard ball gets, player rankings, metres gained and clearances.

For Blues fans of all ages, Hopkins’ endearing legacy will be his contribution to their 10th premiership in one of footy’s most seismic matches.

But while he left Champion Data a number of years ago, his contribution to the way the game has been analysed – and will continue to be – by its participants and the public will live on deep into the future.

Vale Ted Hopkins - waterskier, author, poet, publisher, broadcaster, data analyst … and as a Carlton Premiership player of 1970 football’s most famous benchwarmer.
More to come. pic.twitter.com/kkWvOtOQRj

— Tony De Bolfo (@tony_debolfo) November 20, 2023