THE GREAT Australian game has lost a little of its lustre today, with the untimely passing of one of its most spectacular exponents, the two-time Carlton premiership forward Peter Bosustow.
Bosustow, 67, died in Perth early this morning after a long illness. He leaves behind his beloved wife Shelley, son Brent and daughter Brooke who were all with him to say their goodbyes.
The son of Carlton’s 20-game ruck-rover of the mid-1950s Bob Bosustow, ‘The Buzz’ set Princes Park alight when on the cusp of the 1981 season the Perth forward joined Claremont’s Ken Hunter in crossing the Nullarbor to follow his football dream.
Both were instant football sensations – Hunter with his caution-free high-flying, Bosustow with his spectacular acrobatics and canny goal sense. Under David Parkin’s watch as Senior Coach and Mike Fitzpatrick’s on-field leadership as Captain, the fellow Western Australians Hunter and Bosustow featured in the Blues’ famous back-to-back triumphs of 1981 and ’82 – and their names are forever associated with those coveted all-conquering teams.
Hunter, Carlton’s Best and Fairest winner in his maiden season of ’81, said today that in thinking of Bosustow, “I think of what a character ‘Buzz’ was and how much he took to the big stage”.
“I look back on him in his first year, winning Mark of the Year, Goal of the Year and a Grand Final – him being a half forward, me being a half back,” Hunter said.
“He used to joke that I was the extrovert and him the introvert, when it was obviously the other way around. He was a unique character and a rare football talent in equal measure. That talent was obvious in Perth but it went to another level when he came to Melbourne.
“The Carlton people loved ‘Buzz’ and he loved Carlton.”
Bosustow’s Carlton career lasted just 65 senior matches through three seasons – his father’s illness requiring him to return to his native Western Australia – and yet few players across the competition made such an impact through such a short tenure. ‘The Buzz’ effectively exploded onto the scene, and his on-field impact was seismic. As a truly energised competitor with the capacity to turn a match with a quarter or two of football magic, Bosustow’s impact was both dramatic and immediate.
Blessed with a precocious football talent and a healthy ego to match, ‘The Buzz’ was a football showman who unhesitatingly walked the talk. That his passing should follow Sunday’s meritorious victory over Geelong would not be lost on Carlton supporters with long memories, for it was against the Cats that he completed that extraordinary Mark of the Year/Goal of the Year double in his maiden season – the huge grab over John Mossop in the shadows of the Heatley Stand in Round 18 at Princes Park; and the instinctive snap over the shoulder after smothering Ian Nankervis’ kick from the pocket in the Semi-Final at VFL Park.
Parkin, in paying tribute to an enigmatic player “who took me to the ends of the earth in both directions”, recounted that goal at Waverley to in part tell the whole of Bosustow the footballer.
“Peter was an exceptional talent. I’ve coached some outstandingly talented players, but on his day Peter could do things on a footy field few could emulate – a case in point that smother, gather and goal.
“Peter had remarkable capacities in the air and on the ground, and was probably as exciting a player to watch as we ever had.
“What was really good was that despite the ups and downs of a coach/player relationship we remained really good mates and shared so much over the journey. We used to call, text or email eachother a lot, particularly through the course of his illness which began 18 months ago. As a player he tested me like nobody else, but he was always quick to apologise to me and the players and it was just a bit sad that he decided to go home. But he was a gem of a bloke.”
On returning to Perth in 1984, Bosustow would again top the Western Australian Demons’ goalkicking table and represent his home state in contests with both Victoria and South Australia. A return to Carlton was later mooted, but neither Perth nor Carlton could come to terms on a clearance fee, and his ’84 year was brought to unfortunate finality when he put his fist through a sheet of plate glass.
The lure of returning to his Princes Park playground did however remain robust and in the summer of late ’85 he gave it another crack, at the time the Blues completed the recruiting coup of Bradley, Motley, Kernahan and Dorotich. But the comeback was short-lived and by the time season ’86 had rolled around Kernahan had claimed his old no.4 guernsey.
Notwithstanding his extraordinary achievements as a Carlton footballer, Bosustow also excelled with Perth from 1975-1980, 1984-1985 and again in 1987. There he put 375 over the goal umpire’s hat and earned the Redlegs’ goalkicking honours three-times. He was also named in Perth’s Team of the Century.
PETER BOSUSTOW
At Carlton
Player No. 888
Guernsey No.4
65 games, 146 goals, 1981-1983
First game: Round 1, 1981 vs Richmond, aged 23 years, 152 days
Final game: Round 21, 1983 vs North Melbourne, aged 25 years, 296 days
Premiership player 1981, 1982
Night premiership player 1983
Club Leading Goalkicker 1981 (59 goals)
