Thursday night’s second round contest between Carlton and Hawthorn will more than likely attract an audience of 75,000 to the MCG – fittingly enough as the 60th anniversary of one of the most historically significant matches between the two combatants approaches.

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 17, 1965 the Hawks hosted Carlton in the season opener at Glenferrie Oval - and the late Ronald Dale Barassi, then 29, led the Blues out for the first time as the newly-appointed Captain-Coach.

More than 36,000 spectators somehow crammed into the place, a minor miracle given the diminutive  facility. To quote the three-time former Carlton rover Adrian Gallagher: “The people must have spilled into the neighbouring railyard because Glenferrie Oval was narrow and you felt as though the crowd was on top of you”.

Gallagher followed Barassi and ‘Big Nick’ down the race that day – and was duly adjudged best afield in that match comfortably won by Barassi’s Blues - 12.19 (89) – 8.6 (54). Twenty-five year-old second ruckman Maurie Sankey, who would be tragically killed in a car accident seven months later, booted three goals for Carlton, as did Sergio Silvagni from full-forward - while Gallagher and first-gamer Terry Board, as resting rovers, each booted two on the resident Hawthorn back pocket David Parkin.

“I remember the small changerooms in the bowels of the Glenferrie Oval grandstand,” Gallagher recalled this week. “It was a wet day, a typically heavy deck, and I was pretty happy I didn’t get hit.  The Hawthorn team of the 1960s was a pretty hard, physical team – you had to watch where their players were - and my direct opponent Ian Law was one of the toughest.

“Barass said that if we could match Hawthorn physically we knew we had their measure for talent, and as time went on we tended to play well against them. Years later we kicked the record 30.30 against them, which was huge – and I thought I’d arrived as a player when on the Sunday after that game at Glenferrie I was invited to appear on Tony Charlton’s footy show to be interviewed by Geoff Leek.”

Also etched into Gallagher’s memory is Hawthorn Coach John Kennedy’s arm-waving at Barassi from the Lynda Crescent bench, and a toothless ‘Barass’ verbally responding – timeless footage captured by the HSV7 cameraman. As Gallagher said: “Barass was 29 then and still an influential figure on the field, until 1968 when Jack Wrout suggested he concentrated on his coaching”.

The Hawthorn-Carlton season opener of ’65 stands as a seminal moment in Carlton history in the it heralded in what was perhaps the club’s most successful era both on and off the field - and Gallagher, as a great student of the game, is in no doubt.

“As a player coming through the junior Leagues, the thirds and the reserves I believed at the time that Ron Barassi coming to Carlton was absolutely the turning point,” Gallagher said.

“In the club’s Centenary Year of ’64 we’d finished tenth of 12 so you can imagine how we (the players) all felt. ‘Barass’ coming in was huge, as was George Harris as President. They were both fantastic.

“Barass changed everything. He brought so much change, it was change for the better and the effect he had on the leaders of the club was monumental. He brought discipline to Carlton and he took Carlton into the modern era with his professional approach.

“The other thing with ‘Barass’ was that he promoted the club so well. The press loved him and I reckon The Herald’s Alf Brown had a direct line to him.

“In Ron Barassi, Carlton got the whole package - the coach, the disciplinarian, the media performer and the changemaker – and he was all so very positive.”

Of the 19 Carlton senior players who followed the late great No.31 down the race on that historic Autumn afternoon in ’65, ten are still living – Ian Collins, Gordon Collis, the Gill brothers Barry and John, John Kemp, Murray Kick, John Nicholls, Jim Pleydell, Cliff Stewart and of course ‘Gags’.

The Carlton 20, including Ron Barassi in his first appearance as Captain-Coach, which met Hawthorn in Round 1, 1965.

B:               Roger Hoggett        Graeme Anderson     Ken Greenwood

HB:               John Goold                Gordon Collis               John Gill

C:                 Murray Kick                    Ian Collins           Cliff Stewart

HF:              Berkley Cox                      Wes Lofts            Jim Pleydell

F:               Maurie Sankey            Sergio Silvagni             Terry Board

Ruck:    John Nicholls (vc)           Ron Barassi (cc)        Adrian Gallagher

Res:               John Kemp                      Barry Gill