In recent years, clashes between the two sides have been less than inspiring with both clubs enduring rare periods out of the football spotlight. But as their stocks rise in tandem, so does the prospect of future blockbusters, like the one we had on Saturday at the MCG.
With that as our inspiration let's take a snapshot of 10 other great rivalries in League football.
10. Geelong and St Kilda, 2004-present.
With the early part of this decade dominated by interstate sides, the Victorian football media was keen to anoint a new heir to the throne to come from the resurgent Victorian teams.
Opinions were equally divided between St Kilda and Geelong, a fact not lost on coaches and players from both sides, who regularly referred to their growing rivalry. The man who fired the first formal shot was Geelong on-baller Paul Chapman who said his Cats were a better team after they lost a pre-season Grand Final to the Saints in 2004.
Chapman was to be proved right as Geelong would go on to win two AFL premierships, the second of which came at the expense of the Saints in 2009 in a thriller that saw Chapman win the Norm Smith Medal.
9. North Melbourne and Essendon, 1882-present.
Geography plays a strong part in many sporting rivalries and that was the case with North Melbourne and Essendon when they played in the VFA in the 19th century.
Although North was initially overlooked as part of the newly formed VFL in 1897, the two clubs resumed hostilities in 1925 when the Shinboners finally moved from the VFA, along with Hawthorn and Footscray.
It was fitting therefore that Essendon should be North's opponent when they made their first Grand Final in 1950. The Dons won that game by 38 points, after a seven goal to four opening quarter.
In recent years one of history's most famous clash took place between these two clubs, when North led by 69 points at quarter time in their Round 16 clash in 2001 only to be run down by the rampaging Dons, led by Jason Johnson, James Hird and Matthew Lloyd.
In his time as Bombers coach, Kevin Sheedy added fuel to the fire that has burned regularly between the two clubs, when, in 1998, he made a typical throwaway line aimed at North's off-field personnel, claiming they had the strength of marshmallows.
The great showman was pelted with the pillowy confectionary by Kangaroo fans when the two clubs next met.
8. West Coast Eagles and Fremantle - the Derby
When a city boasts two AFL clubs it is inevitable that encounters between the two will be fiercely contested. The marketers stepped up for that first meeting between West Coast Eagles and Fremantle in 1995 and billed the clash as 'The Derby'.
They need not have worried about adding any spin to these contests, as games between the two Perth teams quickly became the must-see item on the annual WA sporting calendar. Interest was added with West Coast, then at the height of their powers, winning the first nine Derbies and establishing a clear hierarchy.
These games have been played with an intensity generally not associated with West Australian football and in round 2, 2000, it all got too much for Freo’s Dale Kickett who went on a sustained rampage earning a nine-match suspension along the way (the breakdown was two weeks for striking Andrew Embley, three weeks for striking Phillip Read, and four weeks for another strike on Read).
The wheel has turned in recent years with Fremantle winning the past seven derbies, a sequence that started in the second derby of 2007 (round 18).
7. Collingwood and South Melbourne, 1934-1936.
The two glamour sides of the mid-thirties met in five finals in three years, including two Grand Finals. The Bloods won two of those encounters but most importantly Collingwood prevailed in the Grand Finals of 1935 and 1936. The result may well have been different in 1935 had South Melbourne's champion full-forward Bob Pratt not been knocked down by a truck on the eve of the Grand Final forcing him to to miss the game.
Although there was never any proof to suggest he was intentionally incapacitated, South Melbourne fans long held the view that certain colourful identities who supported the Pies were behind the 'accident'.
6. Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles, 2005-2007.
A rivalry borne out of mutual respect would be the best way to describe what transpired between the Swans and the Eagles between the Grand Final of 2005 and their first meeting in 2007.
Over that period the two clubs met on six occasions with four points being the greatest margin separating them. The sequence started with the Swans' four point win in the 2005 Grand Final and by the time it ended with a one point victory to West Coast in round 1 of 2007 they had won three games each that included one head-to-head premiership each. By the end of the battle, participants from both sides agreed that sharing the spoils after such marvellous battles was a just result.
5. Melbourne and Collingwood, 1955-1960 and 1964.
The Melbourne Football Club presided over the sport in the mid- to late-fifties. It played in seven Grand Finals between 1954 and 1960, winning five of them. Four of those Grand Finals were against Collingwood and one of the great football rivalries was created, although Melbourne were the masters and Collingwood very much their juniors.
But all great things eventually come to an end and Collingwood managed to cause a huge upset by winning the 1958 Grand Final against the Redlegs and in doing so preserve their own place in history as the only side to have won four consecutive Grand Finals - 1927-1930, under the legendary Jock McHale.
There would be one more great Grand Final between these two VFL heavyweights, a memorable 1964 encounter that went down to the wire before Melbourne once again prevailed, via a fluky late goal by back-pocket Neil Crompton, who had eased his way up-field against the instructions of the AFL's coach of the century, Norm Smith.
4. Richmond and Collingwood, 1908-present.
This is another case of neighbours who couldn't get on, but in the case of the tough inner city suburbs of Collingwood and Richmond this rivalry, at least in its early days, was played out by hard men who knew how to mete out punishment.
Legend has it that Jack Dyer would not serve children who followed Collingwood in his milk bar and whilst that may be apocryphal, what is known is that Dyer would tell all Richmond players when they joined the club they automatically became haters of all things black and white.
The feuding clubs went to war in the eighties when Richmond lured young Magpie star Phillip Walsh across to Punt Road.
Walsh had just been named the League’s recruit of the year in 1984 when he signed with the Tigers. Over the next few years an inordinate number of players would move between the two clubs in a tit-for-tat war that had little to do with list management, and seemed only to fuel the flames of hatred between the two.
In recent years the rivalry has gone dormant as Richmond has fallen on lean times, but rest assured when the Pies and Tigers are once again powerhouses hostilities will be resumed.
3. Adelaide and Port Adelaide, The Showdown.
Like its western cousin, the Showdown pits to proud clubs from a two-team town against each other. As in Perth, these bi-annual events have become the biggest matches of the year for the two South Australian AFL sides and for some fanatics that even includes the finals.
There are a number of reasons why the Showdown ranks higher on this list than the WA Derby. Traditionally a South Australian football fan either barracked for Port Adelaide or despised them and when their initial bid for a spot in the AFL was scuppered by the Crows that natural divide grew broader.
History lessons are all well and good but proof of the ill-feeling between the two clubs came after Showdown XI. In 2002 the Crows had won an exciting game against their arch rivals and as fate would have it both teams wound down the following day at the Ramsgate Hotel.
The pub was full of Crows and Port players and there was no sign of trouble until Mark Ricciutto and Josh Carr caught sight of each other. Port Adelaide’s Carr had run with Ricciutto all game the previous day and in his usual style got under the skin of the Crows skipper.
It's not clear how they locked horns or how the fight spilled out into the carpark, but at one stage 25 players were involved either fighting or trying to separate others. It has become the stuff of legend and whilst the pub brawl was more country footy than AFL it helped elevate the rivalry between the two clubs to a lofty third on this all-time list.
2. Carlton and Collingwood, 1970-79.
Both Carlton and Collingwood have long laid claim to being the biggest Australian Rules football club of all and though Collingwood may be holding the advantage in the moment, the fight was never more intense or captivating as it was in the 70s.
The decade started and ended with famous Carlton, Collingwood Grand Finals, and in-between times every game they played was a blockbuster in front of capacity crowds. The rivalry provided us with a number of iconic memories.
We had Alex Jesaulenko's famous mark over 'Jerka' Jenkin and Teddy Hopkins' four goals from nowhere in the 1970 Grand Final. There was Stan Magro's huge hit on Jezza and Wayne Harmes' knock from the boundary line that resulted in a Ken Sheldon goal and secured victory for the Blues in the 1979 Grand Final.
So at the end of such a famous period in their respective histories you may wonder whether the two clubs may finally have developed a grudging respect for each other? The answer to that question and last word for the decade fell to Carlton president George Harris.
The gnarly Blues' boss took time out from his premiership celebrations in 1979 to tell the world that the only thing sweeter than beating Collingwood by 100 points in a Grand Final was to beat them by less than a kick.
1. Essendon and Hawthorn. Mid 80-present.
In the 1980s two of football's greatest teams ran smack, bang into each other. The Hawks were a mature team filled with stars as ruthless as they were brilliant. Leigh Matthews, Dermott Brereton, and Robert DiPierdomenico led the charge for the brown and gold; in the other corner stood Essendon stars such as Tim Watson, Simon Madden and Terry Daniher.
Hawthorn won the first Grand Final meeting between the pair by a then record margin of 83 points in 1983 with Matthews dominant at full-forward.
When they beat the Bombers in the 1984 second-semi final it appeared as though they were set for back-to-back flags. That looked a certainty when they led Essendon by 23 points at the last change of the 1984 Grand Final, but step in Leon Baker who led the charge in a brilliant last quarter during which Essendon kicked nine goals, the first coming from Baker within seconds of the centre bounce.
The Dons would make it two in a row against the Hawks in 1985 and although the clubs wouldn’t play in another Grand Final the fierce rivalry that was borne out of the mid-eighties looks set in stone.
Brereton invoked the spirit of those clashes when he inspired the infamous 'line in the sand' game in 2004 during which Hawthorn and Essendon players turned the clock back with a bench clearing all in brawl just after half-time.
From a beginning that came from brilliant teams in great head-to-head clashes, this rivarly stands as the all-time greatest.
