Australian Football

Alex 'Bongo' Lang¹ was one of the finest, and ultimately one of the most controversial, VFL footballers of the pre-World War I era. He began playing for Carlton in 1906, and was a rover in the club's 1906-7-8 premiership teams. Clever, dashing and persistent, he was rated by 'The Australasian' in 1909 as the outstanding player in the VFL.

The following year, however, Lang found himself at the centre of enormous controversy when he was dropped from Carlton's Second Semi-Final team amidst allegations that he had accepted a bribe to play dead. When the allegations were proved to the satisfaction of the Carlton committee, he was banned from playing for five years.

In 1916, after the ban had expired, Lang actually resumed with the Blues, and was a member of that year's losing Grand Final team against Fitzroy. When he finally hung up his boots at the end of the following season he had amassed 105 VFL games and booted 82 goals. 

Author - John Devaney