It was the penultimate round of the 2004 season - “the day I chased Aaron Davey around” as he put it - when fate decreed he’d be the last Carlton player to complete his senior debut on the ground formerly known as Princes Park.
“Carrots” did the job on his fleet of foot opponent and the good guys got up by 31 points, so it’s of no real surprise he holds that memory both near and dear.
But this true Blue boy can cast his mind back further, as far back as 1994, to the day when he and his father Peter and older brothers Matt and Nick would take up their vantage point in the shadows of the Richard Pratt Stand to cheer on their heroes.
Carrazzo was there when “Braddles” booted perhaps the greatest goal ever kicked on the Carlton ground and he was there in ’96 for “Kouta’s” 18-grab game.
He was also there at the MCG, the place at which he breasts the banner for game number 150 on Saturday night, when fate dealt Essendon a cruel, cruel hand on the day Bracks toppled Kennett at the polls.
“In the ’99 prelim me and my family were about five rows back when big Lance (Whitnall) kicked that goal in the last quarter,” Carrazzo said.
“That was a fantastic day and it’s funny how often your memories of family revolve around football.”
As a kid, Carrazzo used to swan around in the No.1 of Stephen Silvagni. “I used to wear ‘SOS’ on my back and I reckon Mum’s still got a couple of my No. 1 jumpers at home,” he explained.
So it’s of no real surprise that the man has a great empathy for Carlton - in no small part due to his family and territorial links with this hallowed northern pocket of inner city Melbourne - and it’s refreshing to hear him talk of his innate respect for the dark Navy Blue guernsey and what it represents.
“The simple fact that our family barracks for Carlton is enough motivation for me to give a little bit more if I’ve got it,” Carrazzo said. “I’ll be a Carlton supporter until the day I die and so it will be for my family. The Carlton Football Club is a special club and there’s that historic element for me and my own.”
Have the seasons flown?
“It’s weird,” came the reply. “I played a sequence of about 70 games in a row from my debut and that part of my career to game number 100 seems to have gone quickly, whereas the past 50, with injuries and what have you, has taken a little while.”
Despite the obvious setback in the fourth round, where his arm WAS effectively ripped out of its socket against Essendon, Carrazzo is in imperious form.
There is still much to be played out, but for the John Nicholls Medallist in the Justin Madden guernsey - a thinking man’s footballer and as unflappable a character as you’ll ever find out on the paddock - there are no regrets.
“I think about what I know now and how to prepare properly to get myself mentally right for a game and what to do afterwards, and I sometimes wish I could have taken this thought back to when I was 21 or 22,” he observed.
“But I know you just can’t do that and that it’s all about building on experience and I’m completely comfortable about how I’ve worked.
While the 28 year-old Carrazzo has managed to master the things over which he’s had control, both he and his contemporaries - the likes of Scotland, Simpson, Thornton, Waite and Walker - were all unwitting victims of the AFL’s savage penalties enacted on their club.
Together they weathered the worst days of the previous decade, and one wonders if there remains any residual damage.
Not so according to Carrazzo, who’s adamant the players have found the beacon at the tunnel’s end.
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Andrew Carrazzo on debut.
“Maybe two years ago, amongst the group, we were still referencing that period where we’d hark back on it and say ‘Look how far we’ve come’,” Carrazzo said.
“There’s not many of us left and as we enter the latter phases of our careers we tend to worry less about what happened years ago and instead live the moment . . . and after all, the circumstances have changed. The facilities are better, the resources are better and the team’s playing better, which makes this a great place to be.
“I feel I’ve got plenty left. At the age of 28 my body’s in a good position and there’s the mental side of the game. From here on in the motivation is to play off in a Grand Final and that’d be one thing I’d kick myself for if I didn’t achieve it at career’s end. Quite simply you want to achieve team success and if you ask any of the older players they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Andrew Carrazzo’s senior debut, versus Melbourne, Optus Oval, Round 21, 2004:
Backs: David Teague, Luke Livingston, Adrian Deluca
Half-backs: Andrew Carrazzo, Bret Thornton, Matthew Lappin
Centres: Brett Johnson, Cory McGrath, Jordan Bannister
Half-forwards: Scott Camporeale, Jarrad Waite, Heath Scotland
Forwards: Digby Morrell, Brendan Fevola, Daniel Harford
Rucks: Barnaby French, Anthony Koutoufides (c), Nick Stevens
Interchange: Andrew Walker, Lance Whitnall, Justin Davies, Adam Bentick
Coach: Denis Pagan
