- Ray Card in hospital after fatal crash in Victoria
- Played more than 100 games for Geelong Cats
Former Geelong footy star Ray Card is in hospital under police guard after being badly hurt in a car accident that killed a woman on Saturday night.
Card, 67 of Grovedale, was driving a vehicle on Geelong Ring Rd at Lara, just north of Geelong, when the accident occurred.
Card’s female passenger in the Ford Ranger, a 57-year-old woman, was tragically killed in a collision with a BMW occupied by a a 23-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman.
The former Cats star was seriously injured in the accident and was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Card is under police guard as authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident.
‘The exact circumstances surrounding the collision are yet to be established,’ Victorian police said.
Former Geelong player Ray Card (pictured) is in Royal Melbourne Hospital after being badly hurt in a fatal car accident on Saturday night
Card (pictured) played 110 games for Geelong between 1977 and 1987
Card, a best-and-fairest winner for the Cats in 1983, played 110 games for Geelong between 1977 and 1987.
A tough defender, he continued playing football locally as captain-coach of the Wangaratta Magpies in 1988 before then coaching Milawa.
‘He was very popular with the players… a man’s man,’ recalled one of his Magpies players in a 2018 interview.
‘Any dust-ups on the field were usually settled by Cardy fronting the opposition aggressor. He played hard and partied harder.
‘His powers of recovery astounded us. After a big night we’d drag ourselves along to KFC for brekkie, and notice him going past, pounding the bitumen on a 10km run.’
Card was seriously injured in the collision and was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital
Card moved his family back to Geelong in the late ’90s and became involved with his old club. He served as both a runner and as an assistant coach of the Reserves for the Cats.
While there he worked with youngsters who went on to become stars for the team, including Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett and Paul Chapman.
‘I took a keen interest, in particular, in the progress of Steve Johnson, who’d been a little tacker hanging around the rooms when I first started coaching at Wangaratta,’ Card said.
Card’s father George played 46 matches for Geelong in the 1940s.
