TONIGHT - Friday 8 May 2026 – Northampton’s Patrick Cripps will lead 22 Carlton teammates onto the field of battle with Brisbane at the Gabba.

The Brisbane ground is located 1764 kilometres from the Brunswick Street Oval where Carlton and the then Fitzroy players made history before an audience of 3000 football devotees.

For it was on the afternoon of Saturday 8 May, 1897 - one hundred and twenty-nine years ago to the day - that Sebastopol’s Jimmy Aitken led 19 Carltonites down the race for the opening round match with the Maroons in the inaugural season of VFL competition.

Regrettably, Carlton lowered its colours to the home team and fell 33 points adrift - 2.4 (16) to the ‘Roys’ 6.13 (49) – with Bill ‘Winky’ Weir acknowledged as the visitor’s first goalkicker in a senior League contest for premiership points.

The Fitzroy team included the ruckman Mick Grace, who would later join Carlton under Jack Worrall’s watch, top both the Club’s and League’s goalkicking tables, and feature in the 1906 and ’07 Grand Final conquests.

All up, 39 players took to the field for Carlton through the 1897 football calendar year, 24 of whom had previously donned the dark navy strip in the then VFA. Just two – Charles Brooking (‘Brook’) Hannah and Ernie Walton – turned out for all 14 matches of the ’97 season, while six more missed just one match.

At the time of writing, Carlton has so far called on 34 of its listed players to represent the Club at senior level.