IT DIDN'T take me long after I arrived at Collingwood to learn who our big enemies were.

Along with Essendon, Carlton is probably our biggest rival and the one that all the players really enjoy beating.

Unfortunately, in my short time, it seems as though they’ve had the edge on us in most of our clashes. I can’t remember beating them too many times, especially recently.

Maybe we won a couple in my first year or two, but those victories seem a long time ago now.

One that does stand out in the mind though is a game when Shane Wakelin kicked a goal late in the game to help seal the win for us.

Wakes didn’t kick many goals at all. In fact that might have been the only goal he ever kicked for us, but he drifted down late in the last quarter and snaffled one on his left foot to help us sneak home.

I think it was only my second year at the club, but I remember all the boys getting around him and going berserk. I think Wakes was pretty happy with himself, too. I’m sure he still is.

There’s no doubt the song would have been sung pretty loudly that day – no matter how spent we would have been.

Games against the Blues always seem to be really physical. That probably dates back for years and years – well before I came to the club.

I can remember a couple of times there have been some good scraps around the middle of the ground.

One time I lined up Marc Murphy off the square, and that started a little bit of a scrap. Neither Murph or I are the hugest guys so it wasn’t the biggest clash of bodies, but it was good to get the blood flowing. Murph and I share the same manager, so we had a laugh about it after the game.

Another time I can remember Fev (Brendan Fevola) coming through a pack at half time and cleaning up Dids (Alan Didak) and it was on after that.

Players are keen to fly the flag in any game, but when it’s Collingwood and Carlton that’s probably raised to another level.

Carlton, like us, has a long and proud history with thousands of fanatical supporters.

That’s one thing you can be guaranteed of when the two teams meet – there’ll be a huge crowd making plenty of noise. This week, with so much riding on the game, that’ll be the case even more so.

Friday night, the MCG and fourth spot up for grabs … I can’t wait.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.