Jim Mooring

Hailing from the Mallee town of Piangil, Jim Mooring was a gifted all-around sportsman whose path to VFL stardom was defined by a stroke of luck for the Blues. After an initial training stint with St Kilda fell through because the club could not secure him employment, Mooring returned to country football in Creswick. It was there that he had a chance encounter with Carlton captain-coach Brighton Diggins, who promptly recruited him to Princes Park. A classy rover and dangerous forward with innate goal sense, Mooring made an immediate impact, winning the club's best first-year player award and quickly establishing himself as a consistent performer during the tumultuous wartime era.

Mooring's legacy is headlined by his role in one of the game's most notorious encounters, the 1945 "Bloodbath" Grand Final against South Melbourne, where he booted two goals to help secure the premiership. However, his career was also marked by misfortune; despite being a key architect of the Blues' dominance in 1947, a broken finger forced him to watch that year's Grand Final victory from the sidelines. He claimed the club Best and Fairest in 1942 and topped the goalkicking in 1944, but injuries to his knees and shoulders eventually took their toll, bringing a premature end to the career of a player later named among Carlton's 150 greatest.