When Kouta knew time was up

Len Johnson | August 1, 2007

ANTHONY Koutoufides bowed out of AFL football yesterday, officially with a hip injury, but the Carlton champion said the rest of his body was not that far behind.

The realisation hit him at a pool recovery session on Monday, when his shoulders ached. "I couldn't swim eight or nine years ago," Koutoufides said. "I shouldn't have learnt because it's destroyed my shoulders.

"I knew (Monday) my shoulders were no good, too. I knew it was the right decision."

Koutoufides said he was told on Monday night that the hip injury that forced him from the ground on Saturday against St Kilda was "a bit more serious than I thought".

He will see a specialist about possible surgery later this week, but Koutoufides did not need to listen to the diagnostic detail to comprehend that the football prognosis was grim.

"I didn't listen to the doc too much," he told yesterday's news conference. "But it was pretty serious. He said there was a tear in the cartilage in the hip area, a tear in the muscle and a bit of degenerative wear and tear in the bone."

That, he decided, would do it, despite the fact that it would leave "a huge hole" in his life.

Koutoufides first listened to his coach, Brett Ratten, and football director Stephen Kernahan say what the loss of Koutoufides meant to the club.

"Irreplaceable," was Kernahan's verdict. "He's a giant of this footy club, a giant of the AFL. Everyone loves him. He's a fantastic, humble champion."

Kernahan said Koutoufides' three finals games in 1999, which included his crucial role in the one-point defeat of Essendon in the preliminary final, were "outstanding, absolutely unbelievable", and of his 14 matches from round six to round 19 the following year: "I haven't seen any other footballer in my time do the things Kouta did in those games."

Kernahan and Ratten were premiership teammates of Koutoufides in 1995. Ratten, who has just taken over as caretaker coach after Denis Pagan's departure, goes back even further.

Koutoufides said: "I played in Carlton under 19s with him and now he's my coach, or was for one senior game anyway."

Koutoufides then spoke movingly of what playing for the Blues had meant to him, saying he had many memories and friends that "will last with me forever".

First among those memories, he said, was the 1995 premiership, an honour that has become more valuable as he got older. "Obviously, number one (highlight) is winning a premiership with your teammates," Koutoufides said. "That's the thing you really strive for. First, you want to play finals footy, but to hold that cup at the end of the day at the end of September, that's what you dream of. I was fortunate enough to do it at the age of 22."

David Parkin was coach at Carlton from the time Koutoufides made his 1992 debut until the end of 2000. Koutoufides said Parkin had "a huge impact on my career", but said Wayne Brittain, Parkin's assistant first and then senior coach in 2001-02, was "probably the biggest influence on my career".

"Wayne Brittain is probably the guy that stood out for me. He taught me little bits about the game, the way to play it, and set a lot of the game plan around me and I benefited from it."

Parkin agrees with this assessment, saying that for a lot of Koutoufides' early time at Carlton, "we thought he was going to be a wonderful athlete that just wasn't going to bear fruit". "Wayne Brittain, (fitness adviser) Peter Schockman and (assistant coach) Barry Mitchell allowed him to develop into the wonderful player that we saw."

Brittain said the best thing he did for Koutoufides was remove the weight of expectation on him. "One thing I tried to do was take that off him and say that the expectations weren't any greater on him that they were on Darren Hulme."

Koutoufides will join James Hird and Glenn Archer in retirement next year. But will the number 43 jumper go with him? It is Carlton practice to "retire" the number of premiership players for 12 months, and Kernahan said the jumper would be retired permanently, if that was Koutoufides' wish.

Koutoufides plainly thought otherwise, saying he wanted someone playing in his number, just as he had played in David McKay's. "Whoever comes along can take it and I'll be watching them perform. I was lucky; I had Swan McKay wear the 43 before me and he held the AFL games record with (that number)."

Koutoufides said rookie Aisake O'hAilpin was already keen to wear it. "Why not give it to a mad Irishman," he asked. "There's nothing wrong with that."