SUPPORTERS filing into Marvel Stadium this Friday night have good cause to expect a more fiercely-contested Carlton-Brisbane encounter than the historic inaugural meeting between the Blues and the newly-established Bears entity some 35 years ago.
Turn back the hands to Saturday, May 30, 1987 – the Round 10 match of that year, and supporters manning the Princes Park terraces saw first-hand the eventual ’87 Premiers in full flight, in what was a 103-point rout of the visiting Brisbane Bears.
Carlton’s record scoreline of 27.22 (184) to 12.19 (81) still stands against this opponent, in a game in which the Blues boasted 14 individual goalkickers.
The game also doubled as the Carlton senior debut for Fawkner’s fleet-of-foot leftie Mark Majerczak, who was named on interchange with Swan Districts recruit Brad Shine for that match and would string together 17 appearances through five seasons in total.
In putting one over the goal umpire’s hat with his first kick in senior League football, 19 year-old Majerczak featured in the rout as one of his team’s 14 individual goalkickers, together with Fraser Murphy who booted 6, Mick Gallagher and Justin Madden (3), Craig Bradley, Adrian Gleeson, Stephen Kernahan and Paul Meldrum (2), and Ian Aitken, Richard Dennis, David Glascott, Milham Hanna, Darren Ogier and the late Mark Naley (1 each).
Speaking from Brisbane, where he has lived and worked for the best part of 20 years, Majerczak fondly remembered the Bears contest. As he said: “A goal with my first kick. How could I ever forget it”.
“A funny thing about that game was that my first opponent was Mark Buckley, the former Carlton footballer who my Dad coached at Fawkner,” Majerczak said.
“I remember Mark saying I was too quick for him and that he’d better find another opponent, but I think he was looking after me.”
In reflecting on his years at Princes Park, Majerczak could only speak in glowing terms.
“I wish I could have had a few more years at Carlton. I absolutely loved it. It was a great place with great players and great people in the days when everyone could go out and have a beer and a laugh,” he said.
“’Wallsy’ (Coach Robert Walls) was one of the best coaches I ever had. He was tough but fair and he always gave me a go, as did ‘Jezza’ (Alex Jesaulenko) who followed him.”
The late Phillip Walsh turned out for Brisbane in that match at Princes Park – and the record books show that Carlton’s games record holder Craig Bradley earned three Brownlow votes for his troubles, with 1987 Norm Smith Medallist David Rhys-Jones, in a portent of things to come, earning two, and Brisbane’s Brad Hardie (who pipped Madden by a vote in the ’85 Brownlow count) earning one.
The then Brisbane Coach and three-time Hawthorn Premiership player Peter Knights was sold on the Blues as a flag contender, having seen them bang on 8.5 in the second quarter and 9.7 in the last.
Writing in Inside Football, Knights unhesitatingly declared Carlton Coach Robert Walls’s outfit “the best side I've seen in the Premiership race this year”.
“I really thought Carlton was vulnerable and certainly for the first half I was proved correct. We were pretty competitive, but it’s a measure of Carlton’s strength that, even with only nine members of last year’s Grand Final side, it could hit the accelerator and humiliate us in the dying stages,” Knights said.
“At three-quarter time I simply asked my guys to fly the flag, but unfortunately they were not able to do that, and Carlton did pretty much as it liked in the last quarter. It’s a healthy sign for Robert Walls that he has so many good young players coming through, and even if they don't play in the finals this year, they will benefit enormously from the experience.
“Look at the members of last year’s Grand Final side that were missing - Wayne Harmes, Bruce Doull, Des English, Jon Dorotich and Peter Motley from the backline; Wayne Blackwell, Wayne Johnston, Bernie Evans, Ken Hunter and Mark Maclure up forward, and interchange player Warren McKenzie. Not a bad bunch.”
