It's Easter, there's a new footy messiah, and the heavens have turned on blue skies for Carlton, writes Greg Baum.

IT'S a popular time of year for saviours. On Easter Saturday, 1965, Ron Barassi played his first game as captain-coach of Carlton after his stunning transfer from Melbourne.

It is a common conceit that football is bigger now than ever, but a sense of scale is important. Long pre-dating health and safety laws, more than 36,000 crammed into tiny Glenferrie Oval that afternoon — a ground record — despite five other simultaneous games, including St Kilda's first at Moorabbin, which drew 51,370. Footy was every bit as big back then as tonight, when Carlton meets Richmond at the MCG.

Carlton won resoundingly, prompting Percy Beames to write in The Age: "The Blues now know with reasonable certainty that the move is going to prove a profitable investment for the club." Three years later, the Blues won their first flag for 21 years.

yeh my thread was edited , but it said big nick was 19 when barassi came to the blues and 22 when we won the flag