Source : the age
By Michael Gleeson
Peter Bosustow was flamboyant, outrageously talented and utterly Carlton.
The very idea of his career is hard to grasp now. A showman, he arrived in the game in his twenties, dominated and left almost before he arrived. He played just three seasons with the Blues and quit to return to Perth when in his prime, leaving behind an outsized imprint on the game.
That might be the epitaph for his life, which sadly ended on Monday morning in Perth at the age of 67 after a long illness.
Peter Bosustow, premiership cup in hand and Carlton scarf flowing, leads the triumphant Blues on a victory lap of the MCG after the 1982 grand final.Credit: The Age Archives
Bosustow had a confidence and swagger that marked him as a Carlton player before he got to Princes Park in the summer of 1980. He was the son of ruck-rover Bob Bosustow, who played 20 games for Carlton in the mid-1950s. But the way Peter played the game, the way he matched action to confident words, he was so very Carlton. There was only one club he could really go to.
Bosustow was emblematic of that Carlton period in the early ’80s, when the VFL giants successfully harvested clusters of the best players from Western and South Australia. He arrived from Perth with fellow WA player Ken Hunter and transformed an already strong Carlton team.
He carried a nickname, “the Buzz”, that was clearly a play on his surname but also carried more than a hint of nominative determinism about it. There was always a buzz about Bosustow, a noise that preceded and surrounded him. When he started playing, he created electricity that crackled through the stands.
In his first season, 1981, Bosustow won mark and goal of the year – and played in the premiership team. Think about that. Hunter won the best and fairest in that same first season. They both played in Carlton’s 1982 premiership, too.
His goal of the year was a diving, full-bodied smother over Ian Nankervis’s boot as he ran from the goal along the boundary before he then jumped to his feet, scooped the ball up and snapped the goal over his shoulder. It was Cyril Rioli before Cyril Rioli.
Bosustow jumped to his feet and threw both arms in the air to celebrate, only for Wayne “the Dominator” Johnston to jump excitedly into his arms and collapse to the ground under the Heatley Stand at Princes Park. There might not be a more Carlton moment of that period.
Incredibly, Bosustow only played 65 games for the Blues. It feels like he played 200. But it was the manner he played those 65 that marked him out and means he still evokes nostalgic smiles from fans who long for that glorious period when Carlton were good and good to watch.
“I think of what a character Buzz was and how much he took to the big stage,” Hunter said.
“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.
“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 takes a screamer.Credit: Fairfax
Bob Bosustow became ill and Peter returned home to WA in 1984 when he was 24 and in his prime. He attempted a VFL return and came back to Victoria at the end of 1985 as part of an astonishing Blues recruiting coup that brought in Craig Bradley, Peter Motley, Stephen Kernahan and John Dorotich in the one summer. While he did much of the pre-season he had returned home by the time the 1986 season started.
“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,” his Carlton premiership coach David Parkin said.
“Peter had remarkable capacities in the air and on the ground, and was probably as exciting a player to watch as we ever had.
“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.”
Back in Perth he won the Perth Demons’ goalkicking three times and was named in their team of the century. He played State of Origin for WA.
He died on Monday morning, leaving behind his wife Shelley, son Brent and daughter Brooke.
