Peter Jones | |||
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Personal information | |||
Date of birth | 20 October 1946 | ||
Place of birth | Hobart, Tasmania | ||
Original team(s) | North Hobart | ||
Debut | 13 August 1966, Carlton vs. Melbourne, at Princes Park |
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Height / weight | 198 cm / 109 kg | ||
Playing career1 | |||
Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
1966–1979 | Carlton | 249 (284) | |
Coaching career | |||
Years | Club | Games (W–L–D) | |
1980 | Carlton | 24 (17–7–0) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1979.
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Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com |
Peter Kevin "Percy" Jones (born in Tasmania, 20 October 1946), is a former Australian rules footballer who played 249 games for Carlton in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He played as a forward and ruckman.
Jones, who was born in Hobart, is the son of Kevin and Mollie Jones (née Macleod),
He played first grade football with North Hobart Football Club, and was selected in the Tasmanian State Team in 1965 (when just 18 years). He was one of the best Tasmanian players in the team that lost to the combined V.F.A. team, 11.10 (76) to 12.11 (83), in the interstate match played at Toorak Park, on Sunday 18 July 1965 -- he rucked well, and he kicked two goals.
Jones was initially supposed to play with Richmond.
Graeme Richmond, the Secretary at Richmond, who had visited Jones in Tasmania, had given him several gifts, including a suit, in consideration of Jones remaining in Tasmania for the 1966 season and moving to Victoria to play for Richmond in 1967.
However, Carlton officials visited him shortly after and promised that if he came over to Victoria immediately they would play him in 1966.
Jones had worked as an apprentice auto electrician in Tasmania. Carlton promised him that, upon his arrival in Melbourne, through the intervention of a rabid Carlton fan in the Accounts Section of the Department's Melbourne organisation, they would be able to arrange for him to appointed to a junior administrative position with the Melbourne office of the Commonwealth Department of Social Services, where Adrian Gallagher (and his uncle Murray) also worked.
Jones had no qualms about moving to Melbourne because his grandmother lived in St Kilda.
He nearly died in a very serious car accident when a car, driven by a Carlton supporter, smashed at high speed into a tree in Royal Parade on the way home from a 1966 early pre-season practice session at Carlton's home ground, Princes Park. Jones had no driver's license at the time, and the supporter had offered him a lift to St Kilda, where Jones lived with his grandmother.
Due to the speed of the car's impact with the tree, Jones suffered extremely serious skull, facial and eye-socket injuries, nearly lost one eye, badly broke his nose,[4] and broke both of his ankles [5] (the broken ankles were the reason he never played with Carlton Firsts against Hawthorn on wet days at the extremely muddy Glenferrie Oval).