HOW fitting that the four-time Carlton Premiership player Wayne Johnston returns to the place he owned through the 1970s and ‘80s to join Richmond’s Barry Rowlings in presenting the match-day football to launch his old team’s season.

The MCG in September was ‘The Dominator’s’ domain through those halcyon years under Jesaulenko, Parkin and later Robert Walls – and it is here that we turn back the hands of time some 40 years, to the premiership year of ’82 when the Blues went back-to-back.

The match specifically in question is the Round 10 match of the ’82 season (Saturday 29 May) when the eventual Grand Finalists of that year met before a full house at Princes Park. Johnston and Rowlings represented their respective teams in that contest, on an afternoon in which the former North Melbourne forward Stephen Easton made his one and only senior appearances in Dark Navy.

Flickering Betacam footage of the contest showcases the Carlton team at its barnstorming best, in a nip-and-tuck affair which more than lived up to its lofty expectation for three quarters.

Not until the final quarter did the good guys break the game apart, with the likes of Ashman, Fitzpatrick, Maylin and McConville contributing to an 8.1 final term to post a 17-point win: 18.16 (124) to 16.11 (107).

Richmond wingman Geoff Raines, who manned up on David Glascott in the contest, was quoted in Inside Football in comparing the match to a final. Said Raines:

“Saturday's Carlton-Richmond match at Princes Park was like a final. It had all the atmosphere and pressure of a game in September. There was a lot of physical contact and right throughout it was nip and tuck. 

“Defensive football was more the order of the day rather than attacking because both sides were desperate to contain the opposition and thereby grab the vital four premiership points. In the final analysis Carlton was the better side on the day. The six-goal burst at the start of the last quarter sealed the game for the Blues. 

“Supporters of both sides would have gone away from the match confident their team could win the return match in August. I know that we're looking forward to that meeting.”

The Round 10, 1982 game between Carlton and Richmond at Princes Park is memorable for the acrobatics of Ken Hunter, the barnstorming runs out of defence of Wayne Harmes, the barrels booted by Jim Buckley and the committed crowd cries of “Woof” with every Val Perovic roost.