Two former Carlton greats, one of them part of this club’s last Grand Final triumph, followed their children into the winner’s circle at Etihad Stadium late on Saturday afternoon.

Earl Spalding, centre half-forward in the Blues’  all-conquering 1995 Premiership team, tailed his 11 year-old boy Campbell in the aftermath of the Greater Western Sydney match, while Simon Beaumont came with the clan – wife Bianca, eight year-old daughter Sophia and six year-old son Charlie.

And their kids were all decked out to the hilt in Carlton gear, with Campbell sporting Robert Warnock’s No.11 (formerly the old man’s) on his back.

“When I was involved at Fremantle, Campbell wore the purple jumper for a while, but as you can see he’s now wearing two Carlton guernseys to make up for it,” said Spalding, who thesedays fulfills duties as Senior Coach of Western  Australian A-Grade Amateur club  Wesley Curtin.

Spalding, who had jetted in from Perth for the match, talked shop with his premiership teammate and Carlton General Manager – Football Operations Andrew McKay, while Beaumont took the liberty to renew acquaintance with Jarrad Waite.

“I don’t really get back much, particularly during the football season. But if I can, I do,” Spalding said.

It’s 18 years now since Carlton’s last Grand Final triumph, and as “The Duke” conceded “I used to have hair then . . . and a lot less weight around the girth”.

But “The Duke”, a 102-game player for Carlton from 1992-’97, was heartened to see that the team was making significant in-roads under Senior Coach Mick Malthouse.

“Mick’s been around for a long time and I’ve been fortunate to have played under him at state level - so I know about the professionalism he brings to the place and, more than that, the expectation he puts on players,” Spalding said.

“People want a quick fix and that never happens, but over time the result will be a good one.”

Beaumont, a 152-game Carlton player over nine seasons from 1995 through to 2003, was rapt that his children had rekindled his enthusiasm for Carlton and the game itself.

“The kids have dragged me back,” Beaumont said.  “After I finished footy, as is the case with a lot of guys, I felt that I needed a bit of a break. But now that my kids have taken an interest I’ve almost rediscovered footy again.

“Sophia and Charlie were so excited to get in the rooms and mix with the boys and it was good for me too. I hadn’t seen ‘Waitey’ (Jarrad Waite) for a couple of years or ‘Sticks’ (Stephen Kernahan) and ‘Bear’ (Adrian Gleeson) for that matter.

“It’s almost ten years since I left, but it’s amazing how many old faces are still around. The club went through a turbulent period, but it’s great to see the resurgence.”

Now employed with the Nab in financial markets, Beaumont confessed that he still dines out on the 17^th round of 1999, Collingwood at the MCG, when in his 50^th game for Carlton he booted a lazy eight before half-time.

“I reckon I’ve met 60,000 people who were there that day. I can’t believe how it’s stuck in people’s minds,” said Beaumont of the day Brendan Fevola also made his senior debut. “It was just one of those days when everything went right. Even my eighth goal, which came from a snap over the shoulder, was a miskick.”