This game is widely considered to be one of the greatest Grand Finals of all time and, according to one of the key protagonists Ted Hopkins, heralded "the birth of modern football".

Percy Beames, chief football writer for The Age, predicted a Collingwood win, along with four other colleagues, while three tipped a Carlton premiership, among them Geelong full-forward Doug Wade.

[3] In his article, Beames cited the Magpies' tenacity, strong finishing ability Collingwood named an unchanged line-up from the team that had defeated Carlton in the Second Semi-final.

For the next 20 minutes, the Magpies midfielders continually won the ball and drove deep into the forward line with long kicks, while the Blues struggled to maintain any sort of meaningful possession.

Collingwood opened the scoring with behinds before former captain Tuddenham gathered the ball from a handpass under pressure from Max Richardson, evaded an attempted bump and snapped the first goal of the game at the 5-minute mark.

Star full-forward McKenna followed up with his first goal of the match at the 13-minute mark, converting a free kick set shot after great play upfield from O'Callaghan, Price and Tuddenham.

After his snap shot hit the post earlier in the quarter, Britt received a handball from McKenna in the forward pocket to score Collingwood's third goal at the 23-minute mark.

Collingwood responded at the 29-minute mark when a pass from Wayne Richardson found McKenna, whose set shot from 20 yards out on a slight angle gave him his second goal for the game.

The Blues finally scored their first goal of the game in the second minute of the quarter, when rover Gallagher converted his free kick set shot after a careless bump from Jenkin.

Then at the 8-minute mark, the Magpies scored two goals in quick succession; the first came when Clifton intercepted an attempted pass by Gallagher on Carlton's half-forward line and kicked long into attack.

Coming out from Collingwood's forward line to gather possession of the ball, Dunne grabbed it on the half volley, turned on to his non-preferred left foot and snapped a long-range goal.

[6] Although the Magpies had built a formidable and seemingly insurmountable half-time lead, there was one incident that had fans worried; Collingwood's superstar full-forward McKenna was groggy after teammate Tuddenham had accidentally floored him with a hip-and-shoulder while flying for a chest mark.

[8]During the break, champion Carlton coach Ron Barassi instructed his players to handball and play on at all costs, instituting a strategy to try to nullify Collingwood's long kicking game.

[9] These changes were highly effective and in the early part of the third quarter, Carlton staged one of the most remarkable purple patches in league history, kicking seven goals in eleven minutes to draw the margin back to only three points.

Finally, in the 14th minute, from a ball-up in the forward pocket, Hopkins managed to kick the ball to Alex Jesaulenko who scored a goal to bring the margin back to only three points, 10.14 (74) vs 11.5 (71).

[2] After imploring his team to take risks and play on at every opportunity at half-time, Barassi changed his tone at the three-quarter time huddle, eyeballing each player and declaring, "Win, lose or draw, I'm proud of you."

[2] Soon after, Carlton had three shots inside three minutes to narrow the margin back to eight points, largely through the efforts of ruckman John Nicholls who was resting forward.

In the critical passage of play in the 28th minute, Peter McKenna claimed an overhead mark in the forward-line, having gotten his hands to the ball but just been spoiled from behind, but the umpire called play-on; ten seconds later, Carlton had cleared to centre half-forward, where Jesaulenko gathered and kicked towards the vacant goal, and the ball took four bounces and went through for a goal to put Carlton 11 points ahead.

In a typically eloquent report for the Canberra Times, respected journalist Rohan Rivett described the Grand final as a 'once-in-a-lifetime match': Years hence thousands of boys who yelled themselves hoarse will be trying to tell sons or grandsons how it happened.

[...] For the uncommitted spectator, if anyone could, remain uninvolved in the frenzy, there were 10½ minutes of luminous football in the third quarter which transformed a hopelessly one-sided struggle into one of the historic sporting occasions.

"[14] In addressing the moment in the dying stages of the game when McKenna was not paid a mark from which he might have put Collingwood back in front, Beames wrote that he sided with umpire Jolley's decision.

Besides their scoring inaccuracy, Beames also criticised Collingwood for their lack of heart and ability to rise to the challenge in the final quarter, as well as focusing too much on their spearhead McKenna, while citing Carlton's evenness as the key to victory.

[2] The game, and Barassi's half time instructions, are sometimes referred to as "the birth of modern football",[1] a label which critical historical analysis views as symbolic, rather than literal.

[19] Niall also claimed that, to a greater extent, the game also symbolized the values shifts that Australian society was undergoing at the time, where Collingwood was seen to epitomise the "old Australia", being as it was at the time a working-class area with its egalitarian ethos and old-school values of playing for the guernsey, while Carlton, led by ambitious businessmen and recruiting players with somewhat eccentric personalities like Brent Crosswell and John Goold, symbolized the rise of a more enterprising, commercial and cosmopolitan society.