Peter Jones (Australian rules footballer)
A Carlton supporter offered Jones a ride home to his grandmother in St Kilda, but lost control of the car on Royal Parade and smashed at high speed into a tree.Often criticised early on by Ron Barassi for seeking out his best mates "Gags" and Brian Kekovich with his hit-outs and his passes, Jones developed into one of the most talented, exuberant and reliable ruckmen who had ever played for Carlton.In a match against Hawthorn at Moorabbin, Jones is vividly remembered for breaking free from his opponent in the goal-square, running into an open goal, and missing the ball entirely and kicking the goalpost (see Video on YouTube).Although the team performed well during the regular season in round one of 1980, Jones' first match as senior coach, Carlton soundly beat the highly favoured Collingwood, at Victoria Park 19.18 (132) to 13.16 (94)[10] and reached the semi-finals.In 1980, as coach of the senior side, Jones (whose right ankle had been operated on at the end of the 1979 season [9]) used every persuasive trick that he could muster to convince the Carlton selection panel to allow him to play just one more match,[13] in order for him to reach the 250 game bench-mark.Jones turned up long after the team arrival deadline of 11:00AM (which gave the players at least 35 minutes to prepare to play at 11:35AM), claiming that he had been grid-locked in a traffic jam along Queens Road, a street that was, in fact, the most direct route between Cintra Avenue and the Lake Oval.To make matters even worse for Jones, and the potential acceptance of his fanciful excuses, was the fact that not only was he late, but he had arrived along with one of his Reserves team-mates for the day, the deeply troubled Maffra champion Billy Bennett, who was already showing strong signs of his inability to adjust to life in Melbourne (he went back to Maffra after only playing 11 senior games); and, not only was it already bad enough for both Jones and Bennett, yet another player selected in that side, Graeme Anderson,[12] had failed to arrive in the rooms on time.However, by the following Tuesday (the first training session of the week), a very delicate set of negotiations had taken place which allowed Jones to retract his (verbal) resignation, and on Saturday 25 May 1968 (round 7) he was best on the ground in the Carlton team that beat Collingwood 15.11 (101) to 9.13 (67) at Princes Park.[28] Married to Jan (née King), and with a daughter Georgia,[13][14] Jones has spent most of his post-football life running hotels [15] [16] [17] in inner suburban Melbourne (including "Percy's Bar" in Lygon st, Carlton during the 80's).