The last time Carlton and Collingwood played in a game that really mattered was the 1988 qualifying final.
There were 83,032 fans at the MCG that afternoon – the largest crowd of the year to that stage – and they saw the latest in a long line of cracking games between the bitter foes.
The Blues kicked away in the second half to win by 38 points and there was genuine disappointment that results didn’t fall so that they could meet again that September, or perhaps the next year, or the year after that.
But then somehow the magic died. Not once since that sunny September afternoon 29 years ago have Carlton and Collingwood squared off in a final.
There has been a sprinkling of big games between them since then, but the buzz has invariably been manufactured more around events such as anniversaries and milestones.
Let’s not bury the lead any further. Carlton versus Collingwood doesn’t matter all that much anymore.
Once upon a time it did, but that was when the Australian Football League was the Victorian Football League, there were 11 teams from Melbourne and one from Geelong, the SCG was the cathedral of rugby league and the Gabba a dog track.
Get your Footy Record below 👇