August 8, 2026 — 8:36pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. AAA There will be plenty of familiar faces on both sides when Carlton take on St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in what is arguably the most consequential clash between the two
There will be plenty of familiar faces on both sides when Carlton take on St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in what is arguably the most consequential clash between the two clubs since the 1972 preliminary final.
Liam Stocker will be donning a Saints jumper for his 100th AFL game when he lines up alongside other ex-Blues Jack Silvagni and Tom De Koning, while former Saint Blake Acres will wear the No.13 Carlton jumper Stocker wore in his 28 matches with Carlton.
Another win under interim coach Josh Fraser will kick the Blues two games clear of St Kilda in the race for a wildcard spot, while Ross Lyon’s team will leapfrog Carlton if they win – with a softer draw in their remaining two matches likely to see them home.
It’s a huge game, particularly so for the Saints, who grabbed Carlton free agents De Koning and Silvagni during last year’s trade period to set them on a course for finals.
However, the animosity that existed between the two clubs in recent years as former Carlton list manager and club great Stephen Silvagni grabbed players from the list after an acrimonious departure from the club at the end of 2019 is said to have dissipated.
Sources from both clubs, and former club officials who wanted to remain anonymous in order to speak freely, said there was no longer any angst towards each other, with the regime at Carlton now different from the one in place when Silvagni, Jack’s father, departed.
While the Blues fought off an attempt to poach Brodie Kemp at the end of 2024, and weren’t happy to lose De Koning to such an outrageous offer last season, Silvagni was not a player they tried desperately to retain, despite his name being synonymous with the club.
A minor skirmish earlier this year, when the clearance of Carlton VFL player Ethan Phillips to St Kilda’s VFL list took longer than necessary, also showed the clubs were happy to play the game hard.
But when the two teams line up on Sunday evening a rivalry will be the furthest thing from their minds.
“Every week it is about a faceless opponent, everyone builds up who you are playing, [but] your biggest opponent is yourself,” Lyon said after Silvagni and De Koning played against their former club for the first time in round eight.
The two clubs have shared 46 players over their history, with former Blues Jack Carroll and Paddy Dow still on the Saints’ list, but they have hardly built a rivalry.
The two teams have played against each other in just five finals, with the ’72 preliminary final their most recent. The Saints’ winning record of 26.75 per cent over Carlton is their lowest winning rate against any side in their history.
In the late-1980s they tried to reverse that, with the Carlton crew consisting of premiership Blues Alex Marcou, Peter McConville and Ken Sheldon joining St Kilda at the end of their careers alongside other Blues Spiro Kourkoumelis, Warren Jones and Ricky Nixon.
They had joined soon after the most famous Blue to become a Saint, Alex Jesaulenko, controversially joined the club in 1980 after coaching Carlton to a flag as captain-coach in 1979.
None of the moves worked for the Saints, who spent that decade languishing at the bottom while the Blues kept playing in grand finals at winning flags.
But the arrival of Carlton’s Aaron Hamill at Moorabbin in 2001 began to reverse that winning record, particularly at Marvel Stadium.
The Saints now lead the head-to-head battle at that venue 22-8, with their two-point win over Carlton in the final round of 2024 tipping the Blues out of finals momentarily before Port Adelaide beat Fremantle later that day.
They defeated them comfortably earlier this season when the Blues, then coached by Michael Voss, suffered a familiar second-half collapse and Jack Silvagni showed he was on the path to an outstanding season.
Sunday night is different.
Lyon noted during the week Fraser has improved Carlton’s defence by six goals and jokingly nominated him for coach of the year for his effort in turning the Blues around.
Fraser, for his part, was not getting caught up in any suggestions this game was anything other than business as usual – a game to win against a faceless opponent who had a talented bloke wearing No.7 (Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera) they had to worry about.
“These are the games you want to play in,” Fraser said.
“These are the opportunities you want to be afforded. We’ve done enough to this point to have the opportunity to play in a game like this. We’ll lean into it, but it won’t be about the outcome – it’ll be the brand of football we want to play,” Fraser said.
Nothing about the opposition. Nothing about the want to defeat the mob that contains a few of their former players.
The process – that’s what Ross and Josh will focus on.
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