A MATTER of days after Eddie McGuire learned that Greg Swann had crossed over to the dark navy blue side, Dale Thomas began packing his bags.

The gifted youngster had lived at the Swann residence throughout his first season, and while "Daisy" would have moved out in the course of 2007 anyway, Swann's defection certainly expedited his change of address. Collingwood players don't live with the enemy.

Swann's sudden departure angered McGuire; that he had dumped Collingwood for Carlton - the club that brings out the most passionate tribal instincts in Eddie - upset him further, the Magpie president saying at the time that he was unhappy with "the timing" of his CEO's exit (on the eve of the 2007 season) and particularly disappointed with the destination.

Swann, he said, was now "a Carlton person" - not a compliment. Eddie felt blindsided.

So began another page, if not a chapter, in the 100-year war between Carlton and Collingwood, the inner suburban yin and yangs.

The animus between these clubs was forged mainly in battle. We think, principally, of storied grand finals - the violent 1910 grand final won by Collingwood, Carlton's five-point victory in 1979 on the back of Wayne Harmes' tap to Kenny Sheldon (was the ball out?), and perhaps the most remarkable grand final in the game's history, 1970, when Ron Barassi is said to have re-invented the game, encouraging handball, and resurrecting Carlton from a 44-point half-time deficit.

What happened on the field hasn't always stayed there, either. In 1938, the Carlton committee instigated a complaint against Magpie champion Harry Collier, who had struck a Carlton player without a report. The tribunal suspended Collier for 14 matches, despite a guilty plea and apology. He missed the grand final, in which the Pies were defeated by, yep, the Blues.

But on-field conflict has been muted over the past decade and a half. Nathan Buckley recently noted that he did not play a single final against Carlton in his 14 years with Collingwood. When Carlton was good (1995-2001), the Pies were at their nadir, and vice-versa (2002-2007), as the national competition and draft system conspired against a persistent rivalry.

Hot war went cold, the clubs entering a period of detente. There was the odd skirmish - Brendan Fevola running amok, Scott Camporeale getting belted, Collingwood cheersquad provocateur "Joffa" Corfe brandishing a giant wooden spoon in 2002 - but the pause button had been pressed. Moreover, the Blues and Pies became quasi-allies in the '90s, since they and Essendon constituted a Victorian vested interest, the big club/blockbuster bloc.

Today, there are unmistakable signs of a Carlton restoration, via the jarring combination of Carlton's traditional chequebook (Richard Pratt) and those AFL equalisation measures (three No. 1 picks and Chris Judd) that brought the Blues unstuck in the first place. Collingwood is travelling nicely, hence today's game carries a genuine sense of occasion. Weather willing, it might attract 80,000.

Before the last encounter in round four this year, McGuire addressed the Collingwood players at a club dinner, exhorting them to beat Carlton and ensure that the Blues broke their own record for consecutive defeats (14); Carlton upset the Pies, avoiding that ignominy, surprisingly winning five of eight since round three.

Carlton is the only "traditional" club to have beaten Collingwood more often than the Magpies have beaten it (121 to 111), and the Blues haven't always been gracious victors. "What's better than beating Collingwood by 10 goals?" Carlton president, the late George Harris, famously roared after the '79 grand final. "Beating them by five points!"

In their efforts to regain their swagger under Pratt, the rapacious Blues have intruded on Collingwood turf. They poached Swann, won the two-club contest for Judd's services (due, in some measure, to Swann), and last year attempted to coax Magpie development coach and ex-player Alan Richardson from the nest. Richardson, wooed through his friendship with Brett Ratten rather than Swann, was under contract to Collingwood, and remained at Lexus.

Despite sniping from both camps, Carlton insiders note that Swann has not brought a single Collingwood staffer across with him, and that he retains friendships with Collingwood people, including Thomas.

Swann's departure also triggered a little spat between Pratt and McGuire, the billionaire bagging his Collingwood counterpart in an interview in The Age's Melbourne Magazine in April. Pratt suggested Swann had left Collingwood to get away from an interfering McGuire, saying: "Some presidents . . . take on the presidency of the club as an alternative to either being lord mayor or prime minister. . . That's why Greg (Swann) came over to Carlton. Eddie wanted to be king." Eddie resisted the temptation to bite back, but noted to others that he'd been in Sydney running Channel Nine for the previous two years.

McGuire and Pratt subsequently went to lunch and cleared the air. They will share a table at the president's lunch today, alongside Collingwood vice-president Alex Waislitz, who is married to Pratt's daughter Heloise. McGuire counts Heloise Waislitz as a friend, a relationship evident in Collingwood's dealings with the philanthropic Pratt Foundation.

Sources say Pratt's initial spray was motivated by his belief that Eddie had been stirring the pot with the AFL hierarchy on the subject of Pratt's suitability for office, following the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission judgement against the "cardboard king" for operating a cartel.

McGuire, however, insisted to Pratt that he merely cautioned the AFL against introducing a universal "code of conduct" in the wake of the Ben Cousins scandal, because such a stringent code might hurt Pratt, among others. In another interesting admission, Pratt has said that Swann was recommended to him by AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick, whom Pratt knew from Fitzpatrick's days as a Carlton board member.

That the AFL chairman, an ex-Carlton premiership captain, had pushed up another club's CEO to Pratt raised eyebrows at Collingwood, which has, nontheless, moved on. "I've got a ripper (CEO) in Gary Pert and our club's going from strength to strength," said McGuire. "That (Swann leaving) was 18 months ago, that's a long time ago.

"There's no new spice for me - there's always a good reason to hate Carlton." On the subject of Judd, McGuire takes the view that, due to Carlton's better position in the draft, the Magpies couldn't compete. "It wouldn't matter if Rebecca Twigley was the recruiting manager at Collingwood, because you couldn't do the deal."

The affable Swann, too, broke bread with Ed in the spirit of reconciliation in April. The pair had breakfast in South Yarra, at McGuire's behest, with another defector from Collingwood, North Melbourne CEO Eugene Arocca. Hitherto, McGuire and Swann had not really spoken since Swann joined Carlton.

McGuire does not wish to say much about Swann and Pratt, while Swann declined to comment last week. "I've got no comment about anybody from another club," said McGuire on Swann. "Our day is about celebration," he said, referring to the Buckley tribute, to Mick Malthouse becoming the third longest-serving coach, and Shane Wakelin's 150th game for Collingwood.

If rivalry was forged mainly on the field, with the occasional administrative haymaker, it matters less to the gladiators of today than to the fans who suffer barbs at work. Carlton coach Brett Ratten said while the starting point was that "four points is four points", his extensive experience of the Carlton-Collingwood contest meant that players were "really stimulated" by the occasion.

McGuire, while recognising that the importance of the game is about pushing for the top four, believes that some games are more equal than others. "There's always an extra edge when you play Carlton. I disagree. I think everybody knows the significance - I mean the Carlton players know, and the Collingwood players know. If you play well against Carlton, you're remembered."

And if you leave Collingwood and join the Blues? You're quickly forgotten.