“Carson, cool and calculating, took the ruck honours with aplomb, prowling the midfield and dictating the flow of play to his smaller followers with an admirable air of authority.”The West Australian was full of praise for the South Fremantle big man after the defeat of East Perth in the first semi final of the 1975 season. Unfortunately, it was to end badly for the Bulldogs with a record loss to West Perth in the grand final. That first semi final exhibition was one of Carson’s best efforts for the Bulldogs, in a career that embraced over two hundred and forty appearances in the red and white, but many of those were in the reserves.   South Fremantle midfielder Barry Cooper said: “Bob Carson was an under rated ruckman. His tapping of the ball was excellent, and he knew where to put it.”Although a battling side throughout the Sixties, South Fremantle always had plenty of good ruckmen to choose from, with Fred Seinor, Colin Beard, Keith and Graeme Smith, Tony Ryan, Ivan Glucina, and Bob Bucat among those available. The seventies saw the advent of Stephen Michael and Mick Moylan. A loyal clubman, Carson never thought about moving elsewhere for more opportunities. “I was a South boy,” he said. Even the disappointment of being dropped for the 1970 grand final, which South won, didn’t affect his love of the club. “These things happen,” he said. “We won, which was a great result for the club.” A member of the rampaging Hilton Park juniors, where his team mates included future league team mates John Lange and Greg Ryan, Bob captained the undefeated under eighteens and won the fairest and best award. An inter-district knockout competition grand final between South Fremantle and East Perth under eighteens played as a curtain raiser for the 1965 East Fremantle- Essendon premiers playoff was notable for the inclusion of fifteen Hilton Park representatives in the winning South side. In 1966 Carson played thirds for South Fremantle. After the first four games, coach John Todd added him to the league squad and gave him a second hand jumper to wear. Making his league debut midway through the season, Bob came up against Ray Boyanich, John Wynne and Bill Dempsey at Leederville Oval in a game the Cardinals won, 13.15 to 2.18. With his side on the bottom, Todd persevered with the young ruckman for the remainder of the year.After battling for a regular spot in the late sixties, Carson found more opportunities under Hassa Mann and Mal Atwell, and enjoyed some good years, the dropping after the second semi final in 1970 being the dampener. In 1972 the South Fremantle players went on a trip to the United Kingdom, and Bob’s appetite for travel was  whetted. “A mate and myself decided we’d go there for an extended holiday, and started saving,” he said. The plans were starting to get shaky as Carson displayed some great form in the 1972 and 73 seasons, but they eventually went, and he had a year away from the game. Bob’s return in 1975 saw him at last as the leader of the South Fremantle ruck, and he relished the responsibility to be one of his side’s best in the finals, but a series of injuries the following season and 1977 brought the big man down to earth. In the meantime, a young Stephen Michael was taking all before him, and when finally regaining full fitness Carson found himself back to being a backup. He retired at the end of the 1978 season as a thirty year old.In a move he was to regret, Bob Carson was persuaded to play at Kwinana, under Brian Ciccotosto, with former South team mates Lange, Tony Micale, Warren Turnbull, and David Frazer. In a match at Canning, a thumb in his eye which cause the eye to pop out sent him to hospital, where he spent three weeks on  his back, losing vision in the right eye. “The specialists said they had done all that science can do,” Bob said. At the end of 2001, some twenty two years later, Carson was told by specialists they may be able to use modern laser treatment to help. Dr Ian McAlister used intense laser treatment and asked him to come back a week later. “They operated, put a new lens in, I woke up the next day and I could see out of the eye,” he told us. “It was amazing.”These days, Bob Carson is retired at the age of sixty two and enjoying some social golf. He rated West Perth’s Bill Dempsey as hardest to beat(“ never put in a bad game”), and Mike Fitzpatrick from Subiaco(“ quick off the ground, a one touch player, clever palmer of the ball with pace and spring”) as hardest to beat.Bob Carson was a great servant of the South Fremantle Football Club, a player who always gave a hundred percent, and was the ultimate team man. It was one of the travesties of the game that he wasn’t part of the only premiership in an otherwise lean decade for his club, but you’ll never hear him complain about it.