5.The 1970 Grand Final
Result: Win by 10 points
“At the 21 minute mark of the last quarter, Syd Jackson smothered the ball off his opponent's boot, recovered and fired out an instinctive handpass to Hopkins, who was streaming at full pace towards goal. Teddy’s fourth major cut the margin to just one point. The Collingwood players' heads dropped, and miraculously, right around the MCG, Carlton fans sensed –no, damn it – we knew it.
Three minutes later, when Crosswell won a free kick 40 metres out on a slight angle, his neat drop punt never looked like missing. For the first time in the match, the Blues were in front.
Then came one last, magical, unforgettable moment. Wheeling out of a pack, Jezza let fly towards an open goal from 40 metres. The ball bounced once, twice, and through the goals for the sealer. Ten points in front – we’re home!
Collingwood did manage to send the ball into their forward line one last time, in the final minute of play. Ross ‘Twiggy’ Dunne took a mark 50 metres out in front, but his shot for goal was marked right on the line by McKay.”
4.The 1945 Grand Final
Result: Win by 28 points
“The Melbourne skies opened up during the half time interval, and rain started to fall. Again, Percy Bentley, in his element amongst all the confusion, instructed his boys to concentrate on the ball while we had the wind. It turned out to be a master-stroke, as his opponents had become totally preoccupied with bringing about an untimely end to Bob Chitty.
While Chitty waged a one-man war with the entire South Melbourne line up, a rejuvenated Carlton line-up, inspired by the return of battered youngster Ken Hands, set about taking advantage of the strong breeze. Carlton kicked 5.4 that quarter to South's 2.1, skipping away to a healthy 23 point lead. Chitty, complete with blood streaming from his head, hands and legs, and carrying a broken foot, led his team to the third quarter break with one goal in mind - do whatever it takes to stop South's more skillful lineup from taking advantage of the breeze in the last quarter.”
3.The 1999 Preliminary Final
Result: Win by 1 point
“55 seconds left – the kickout was strongly marked by Bomber Barry Young. He sent the ball back inside 50 to a massive pack. Dean Rice cleared – straight to Dean Wallis, who had knocked Mil Hanna out in the 1993 Grand Final to set the Bombers on their way to victory in that match. Wallis tried to get around Fraser Brown, but couldn’t – Brown dragged him down with a tackle made from sheer determination. Justin Murphy picked up the loose ball, ran away from the Essendon forward line before kicking short to Brett Ratten who marked and passed it back to Murphy with 15 seconds left. Murphy was content to let the clock run down to 0, and there it was – CARLTON WERE IN THE 1999 GRAND FINAL!”
2.The 1987 Grand Final
Result: Win by 33 points
“Some games are won and lost well before the last quarter. Others are won and lost in small periods of time where one team flexes their muscles and pounces. The 1987 Grand Final was the latter, with the Blues taking the game early in the last quarter with a spectacular run of goals to boil our Blue coloured Blood to fever pitch. First, Adrian Gleeson roved the pack and kicked a goal; next fellow Mosquito Mark Naley roved the pack, completed a dodge, took a bounce and roosted a major. The third of four heart pounding goals in succession went to Kernahan with a massive long kick and finally Warren McKenzie with his third mark, successfully converted. The Blues were romping away and a few late goals to the Hawks would not pull us back. Our final goal of the day went to Fraser Murphy after a deft tap by Adrian Gleeson, and as the siren sounded at 29 minutes 27 seconds, the Blues had won their 15th Premiership.”
And finally, the most popular game in the Blueseum as at our second birthday:
1.The 1995 Grand Final
Result: Win by 61 points
“The first quarter was dominated by Hanna on the wing, Ratten on the ball, Rice at half forward and Madden in the ruck, who would win the first tap out. But the theme of the quarter was desperation, with huge tackles, bumps and smothers giving the Blues the ascendancy. One such smother would come from Rice, with the ball dribbling out to Bradley who would goal from the right forward flank after about 2 minutes a Clape hit to feed the ball to Williams, a Dean pick up and run and a Rice tackle, and the Blues looked on-song. The desperation was typified by Peter Dean, who would beat both Colbert and Barnes in a 2 on 1 to win the free on the Member’s wing. A tough free against Kernahan could have given us our second, but it didn’t matter as Williams gave him one 30 seconds later with a brilliant tunnel handball near the goal square.
The Ang Christou Woof! was loud across the ground when he kicked, Hanna was tearing Aaron Lord apart and Ratten was clearing from the middle. A Kernahan tap out to Diesel 2 minutes later and you could sense something special was happening, not just the fact that 2 Carlton legends had created another goal from nothing. Hanna again created some space, and a superb pass to Pearce lead to our fourth goal. Ratten was tackling Hocking out of the game. Carlton was the dominating team, with Geelong only looking like it in the last few minutes”
Now after all of that, take a breath and cast your eyes and mind forward to the thought of the Blues creating a new top game in future for us to behold.