THE BLUES are again box office – and as a consequence of their presence in Friday night’s Melbourne semi final, an attendance record tumbled after more than 60 years.

Friday night’s audience of 96,412 shattered the previous record for a Carlton-Melbourne final - that being the 82,773 who fronted for the 1962 first semi at the same venue - coincidentally the last time the Blues knocked the Redlegs over in a final, and by the same margin as Friday night (two points).

Carlton prevailed 11.7 (73) to 9.17 (71) on Friday night and back in ’62 it was 11.12 (78) to 11.10 (76) to advance to the prelim, with Carlton forward Graham Donaldson best afield with three goals and Sergio Silvagni also amongst the team’s most solid contributors.

Martin Cross, the great grandfather of Ollie Hollands, also represented Carlton in the ’62 semi, while the late Ron Barassi chased the leather for Melbourne. Incredibly, Cross was named 20th man for that match, with Hollands earning the vest as sub on Friday night.

It’s incredible also to think that Carlton wingman Blake Acres completed that unforgettable match-winning play despite the best efforts of Bayley Fritsch – Melbourne’s current keeper of the famous No.31 worn by Barassi, who passed away the following day.

For Carlton, the ’62 semi was in itself a drought-breaking finals victory – the Blues’ first since 1949 – which marked the end of five consecutive finals losses to 1959.

Carlton and Melbourne have, for the record, met eight times in VFL/AFL finals (last Friday night was the ninth) since 1897. The first of them came in the back-to-back Premiership year of 1915 and on that occasion Carlton won by 11 points – its only victory over Melbourne in finals other than the ’62 semi-final – and of course last Friday night’s epic semi.

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