Ted Hopkins

Edward Hopkins, known as Ted, lived from 27 May 1949 to 20 November 2023 and was an Australian rules footballer, businessman and writer. A small rover from Moe, he played 29 senior games for the Carlton Football Club and is remembered chiefly for the 1970 VFL Grand Final against Collingwood. Starting on the bench, he was brought on at half-time as the nineteenth man, kicked three goals within fifteen minutes and set up another for Alex Jesaulenko as Carlton overturned a 44-point deficit, then added a fourth goal late in the match, helping Carlton win by ten points. He retired soon afterwards with ten career goals. Away from the field he wrote fiction and poetry, worked as a journalist, publisher and radio presenter, and co-founded Champion Data, a sports-statistics firm that focuses on Australian rules football.