Carlton great dies: Blues mourn loss of Sergio Silvagni, father of Steve and grandfather of Jack
When Sergio Silvagni showed up for his first practice game, his career was almost over before it started. Glenn McFarlane recounts the life of the Carlton Legend.
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The Silvagni surname has been almost as synonymous with Carlton as the suburb’s famed Lygon Street across the past six decades.
But it almost caused a stumbling block long before the start of a great family dynasty of Blues footballers.
Sergio Silvagni, who died on Thursday morning, aged 83, was the first of three generations to wear the Navy Blue, although his heart-and-soul, tough and celebrated career was almost over before it started.
When the born-and-bred Carlton kid with the proud Italian heritage showed up for his first practice game in the Blues’ under 19s in 1956, the coach couldn’t pronounce his surname.
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Instead of getting the kid’s name wrong, the coach left him running the boundary for the first three quarters before he awkwardly wrapped his tongue around the Silvagni surname — and thankfully the rest is history.
Silvagni — born Sergio but affectionately known as Serge — dominated that under-19s trial game and he would go on to become one of Carlton’s favourite sons across 14 seasons.
He would also have a son and two grandsons drafted to Carlton under the father-son rule — a connection that survives to this day.
On one of his regular visits back to Princes Park back in 2015, for an iconic image with his son Stephen and his newly drafted son Jack, Serge relayed the story of how his career was almost tripped up on a coach’s reluctance to say his name.
“He (the coach) couldn’t pronounce it, so he made me run the boundary,” Silvagni told the Herald Sun six years ago.
“I did it for three quarters before he finally came up to me at three-quarter time and sent me to full-back.
“I played on this handy forward and he didn’t get a touch, and they finally thought, ‘Maybe this kid can play’.”
The thick-set youngster — whose frame had been fashioned early on by working in his father’s concreting business — could definitely play.
As a tough, but fair ruck rover, Silvagni would go on to play 239 games with the Blues from 1958 to 1971.
He played all but one of his 14 seasons in the No.1 jumper, the guernsey his son and grandson would also come to wear.
In that time, he played in two premierships (1968 and 1970), won two best-and-fairest awards (1962 and 1968), was a club leading goalkicker in a season (1959), and was even captain for a season (1964) before the arrival of Ron Barassi.
Serge was also named ruck rover in Carlton’s Team of the Century, while his son Stephen was named full-back, the same position he was selected in the AFL’s Team of the Century.
“We’ve been at Carlton for a long time now,” Serge said in 2015.
That stretched back to Serge’s father, Giacomo, who spent his first night in Australia under the stars and a Moreton Bay fig in Carlton’s Exhibition Gardens in 1924.
Giacomo had arrived at Station Pier after a long voyage from his homeland of Italy to find that his sponsor hadn’t fronted.
So he had to sleep out for a night under a pile of newspapers before eventually making his home in Canning St, just a few kilometres from the Blues’ home ground.
Giacomo could never have imagined then how his son, Serge, grandson Stephen, and now, great-grandson Jack, would have so much newspaper space devoted to them in the years ahead.
That trio has collectively played 625 games for Carlton, while Jack’s brother, Ben, also spent time at Carlton, without playing a senior game.
As much as Serge loved his time at Carlton, and continued to serve as a committeeman, a selector and even briefly as a caretaker coach for three games in 1978, he was even more thrilled to see his son and grandson represent the Blues at the highest level.
“When you are a grandparent, all you want to do is get out of the house, and go and watch your grandkids play sport,” Serge said when Jack was drafted to the club in 2015.
“To see Jack go on and make it to the club is fantastic.”
Illness in recent times prevented him from being a regular at Blues games to see Jack play, but those close to him insist he fought his health challenges just as tenaciously as he did in his playing days.
Sadly, one of the great links with Carlton’s past is gone, but Silvagni’s legacy — and his surname that now rolls seamlessly off the tongue — will live on forever.
BLUES LEGEND BIG NICK ON SERGE
Carlton great Sergio Silvangi was always prepared to sacrifice his own needs for the club he loved and for the teammates he loved playing with, according to Blues legend John Nicholls.
On the day that Silvagni, 83, passed away following a long illness, Nicholls said the Blues had lost not only a great footballer, but a man who played a huge role in the club’s golden era.
“He just performed week after week and he just did anything the club needed him to do,” Nicholls said. “He could be a ruck rover playing on (Melbourne’s) Ron Barassi or one day he even played at centre half-back on (St Kilda’s) Darrel Baldock - and beat him.”
“We spent 13 years together in the first ruck. Apart from being a great person and a great family man and a great Carlton bloke, he was also a bloody good player.”
Nicholls, 81, said Silvagni also helped to foster an enduring link between Melbourne’s Italian community and Carlton Football Club.
While Silvagni may have looked unfashionable with bandy legs and his socks down around his ankles, Nicholls said his importance to the Blues should never be underestimated.
“He has been a part of Carlton for more than 60 years,” Nicholls said.
“He was captain of the under 19s at one stage and we wanted him to come up and play in (in the seniors/reserves) because he was too good for the under 19s,” Nicholls said. “But he didn’t want to leave his mates.
“In those days, he was still concreting (in his father’s business) on a Saturday morning.”
But when he graduated to the seniors in 1958, he formed a great partnership with Nicholls.
Nicholls and Silvagni were named as the ruck and ruck rovers of the Blues Team of the Century such was their impact and team work.
Another former teammate, Ian Collins, said Silvangi was the epitome of what Carlton has stood for across its long history.
Blues mourn dual-premiership legend
Glenn McFarlane and Ashton Tresidder
Carlton has lost a legend and one of its great family patriarchs after Serge Silvagni died over night.
The father of full-back-of-the-century Stephen and grandfather of current club forward Jack passed away at the age of 83.
He had been suffering from ill health.
Silvagni played his first game with the Blues in 1958 and went on to play 239 in the famous old dark navy blue as a ruck rover, retiring in 1971.
He captained the club in 1964, played in two premierships in his time at Princes Park — 1968 and 1970 — and won two best-and-fairest awards in 1962 and 1968.
He handed over the captaincy in 1965 when Ron Barassi arrived to take charge of the club.
Carlton president Mark LoGiudice said Sergio was a legendary Blues figure who will be remembered as one of the greats of the club.
“Sergio was and always will be a legendary Carlton person,” LoGuidice said.
“He was such an important figure to many Carlton supporters growing up during the 1960s, particularly those who had migrated to Australia and could instantly identify with one of their heroes.
“He would go on to become one of our greatest ever players and his impact on the club will forever hold a significant place in our history books.
“The Carlton Football Club mourns the loss of one of its legends. On and off the field he embodied what it means to be a Carlton person and we offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.”
The Blues will wear black armbands on Sunday’s clash against Collingwood.
Stephen took over his father’s No.1 guernsey in 1985, going on to play 312 games for a total of 551 — and the family isn’t finished yet, with grandson Jack on the list this year.
While Serge entered the club’s Hall of Fame in 1989, seven years ahead of his son, Stephen countered by beating him to Legend status by 19 years.
Serge was inducted as a Blues legend in April 2016.
He told a club function at the time he was embarrassed by the accolade.
“I was never that good. I was a battler,” he said.
He played all his football at Carlton and never left, later becoming a committeeman, selector, coach of the reserves and caretaker coach of the seniors for three games in 1978.
Asked for the highlight, he said it was the 1979 premiership, which he did not play in, but helped mastermind as a committeeman.
“It’s really satisfying when you deliver something you promised,” he said.
He is survived by wife Rita, son Stephen and three daughters Lisa, Danielle and Michelle.
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