In the 115 years since Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda made up the numbers in that maiden season of 1897, eleven more teams (including the now-defunct University) have been admitted.
 
And the good news is that of the 11 first-up matches involving those respective teams, the old dark Navy Blues have triumphed in ten of them.
 
The bad news is that the one game dropped happened at Football Park in the 10th round of 1998 against a Port Adelaide outfit coached by none other than Mark Williams - who as senior assistant to coach Kevin Sheedy at Greater Western Sydney is currently plotting Carlton’s downfall at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
 
Carlton president Stephen Kernahan ably officiated as captain in five matches involving “first-up opposition teams West Coast, Brisbane, Adelaide, Fremantle and Port Adelaide, with Ray Brew the captain in three games against fledgling outfits Hawthorn, north Melbourne and Hawthorn in 1925.
 
Fred ‘Pompey’ Elliott led his men into battle as captain when Carlton took on the fly-by-nighters Richmond and University in 1908.
 
Last year, Chris Judd did the honors as captain for the Gold Coast match, in what also doubled as his 200th League game.
 
 
Carlton’s first-up matches involving competition newcomers:
 
Round 8, 1908 - Carlton 17.13 (115) defeated Richmond 2.15 (27)
Round 9, 1908 - Carlton 7.15 (57) defeated University 6.15 (51)
Round 4, 1925 - Carlton 10.10 (70) defeated Hawthorn 6.13 (49)
Round 9, 1925 - Carlton 14.11 (95) defeated North Melbourne 10.7 (67)
Round 11, 1925 - Carlton 9.12 (66) defeated Footscray 7.11 (53)
Round 4, 1987 - Carlton 29.17 (191) defeated West Coast 15.14 (104)
Round 10, 1987 - Carlton 27.22 (184) defeated Brisbane 12.9 (81)
Round 2, 1991 - Carlton 15.14 (104) defeated Adelaide 12.9 (81)
Round 13, 1995 - Carlton 15.16 (106) defeated Fremantle 7.7 (49)
Round 10, 1997 - Carlton 7.13 (55) lost to Port Adelaide 14.9 (93)
Round 2, 2011 - Carlton 26.15 (171) defeated Gold Coast 7.10 (52)