Of all that’s been written about Andrew Walker in the lead-up to his final on-field appearance for Carlton on Sunday, somehow overlooked was the fact that with ‘1AW’’s imminent retirement, Kade Simpson becomes Princes Park’s last man standing.

For of the 22 in Blue who took to the field in the famous Farewell Match – Saturday, May 21, 2005 – only Walker and Simpson remain at Carlton (bearing in mind that two more surviving members of that historic team (Jarrad Waite and Eddie Betts) are playing elsewhere.

Regrettably the Denis Pagan-coached home team went down to Neale Daniher’s Demons by 18 points in that one - with Melbourne (and later Carlton) midfielder Brock McLean earning three Brownlow votes for his troubles.

Kade Simpson in action during the Princes Park farewell game. (Photo: AFL Media)

Nick Stevens, with his second goal to the Garton Street end in that match, is acknowledged as the last Carlton player to kick a goal at Princes Park - 108 winters after Wally O’Cock kicked his club’s first at that venue – the sixth round of 1897 versus Collingwood on Tuesday, June 22.

O’Cock’s goal came not long after the first-ever six-pointer was booted there by Collingwood’s Dan Lanigan – whom, as fate would have it, later represented Carlton in 14 senior appearances through 1899.

But history records Walker as the last Carlton player to kick a goal to the old Heatley Stand end of Princes Park (now Ikon Park) and it can be seen one minute and four seconds into his highlights reel. 

Take a bow, @walkytalky1. #Thanks1AWhttps://t.co/PQZ3fY44b7

— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) August 2, 2016

The goal came with just 35 seconds left on the clock until quarter-time of the Melbourne match, with the home team kept goalless at the Heatley Stand end in the third term.

“I remember the goal well,” Walker said this week. “A handball came out, I think from Digby Morell, and I slotted it on the run from 40. Can I say I was hugging the boundary?,” Walker joked.

Andrew Walker is the last Carlton player to kick a goal at the old Heatley Stand end. (Photo: AFL Media)

More than 30,000 people saw Simpson, Walker and co. ply their craft in the Princes Park Farewell game – and captain Anthony Koutoufides hand the match-day ball to John Nicholls in a poignant moment not long after the final siren sounded the old ground’s death knell.

Walker, like Simpson, was named on the interchange for that historic encounter of 11 years past, and when reminded that ‘Simmo’ would soon be last man standing, the keeper of the No.1 guernsey replied: “You make me feel old”.  

The Carlton team v Melbourne - Round 9, Saturday, May 21, 2005, Princes Park: