Visual Entertainment Group

When the last quarter of an Essendon versus Carlton game was broadcast on Easter Sunday in 1957, a new era in television and sport was born. A ride which for 45 years has seen magical moments, controversies, heroes and characters all pass by on our TV screen. Heart of the game is a fun and nostalgic look back at the 45 years of football seen through the camera lens...and from the armchair.

New decade - new heroes - new villains. It was a decade in which the Grand Final winners told the story. It was a decade of dominance in differing degrees.

In the history of Aussie Rules footy, the games Wild Men have become a legend through their on-field antics. From the greats of yesteryear to the champions of the modern era.

Two clubs that hated yet respected each other, the Hawthorn and Essendon rivalry of the 1980's is the stuff of footy legend. The last teams to clash in three consecutive Grand Finals ('83-'85), the Bombers were desperate to avenge a humiliating record loss in the 1983 flag decider when they came up against the Hawks a year later.

Footballs biggest names put together their own personal list of players who have had the greatest impact on the game and their careers.

For more than 100 years, Australian Rules Football has generated a passionate followinf amungst millions of supporters. Those of us wh have been fortunate enough to play the game at the highest level, contuniue to remain the focus of this obsession. For decades we have been loved, hated, worshiped, and abused. It's for this reason, that players past and present representing each of the 16 AFL Clubs, have probided a unique insight into the journey of playing senior football. From the exhilaration of playing that first game, to the heartache of being told your time is up. This is our story.

Farewell to Victoria Park.... After more than a century, the most feared home ground in football will be a place of memories. It is the heartland of Collingwood. The ground at which the Coventrys and Colliers, Richards and Roses, Twomeys and Shaws all made their first footballing steps. From President Eddie McGuire, coach Tony Shaw and special guests we look back on Victoria Park.

It is said that Robert Harvey is the hardest running man in AFL football. A ruck-rover with a work ethic that defies belief.

Facing off in their fifth season decider in five years this was supposed to be Collingwood's moment of redemption but a close-knit Carlton outfit had no plans to end the Grand Final losing streak of their oldest and most hated foe.

800 Career goals kicked, 282 games, all in the number 12 guernsey, 464 goals kicked at the MCG, the most of any player, ever. The career of Matthew Richardson is one of impressive numbers. Celebrate the footy career of one of Richmond's most respected players with this packed program full of interviews and highlights from one of the most remarkable players ever to wear a Tigers stripe.

Through ten years of stellar service to the game's most passionately supported club, Gavin Brown, Mick McGuane, Gavin Crosisca and Alan Richardson have won special places in the hearts and memories of all Magpies fans. The brilliant presentation features highlights of their careers and special moments from the testimonial dinner honoring their service to the Mighty Magpies.

Jesaulenko, Nicholls, Kernahan, Silvagni, Bradley and Doull...just some of the champions who have worn the Good Old Navy Blue of Carlton with pride and distinction. Men who have helped take this foundation member of the VFL to premiership glory and cemented the club's place at the very pinnacle of sporting greatness.

It was the decade to change the face of football as we knew it. There would be three new teams: Adelaide, Freemantle and Port Adelaide. We would farewell Fitzroy and watch others like Footscray, Richmond, Melbourne and Hawthorn battle for their existence. For the first time non-Victorian Clubs would take premiership honours. The West Coast winning twice and Malcolm Blight's Adelaide doing the seemingly impossible by winning back-to-back flags against the odds. It was a decade in which the feats of goalkicking maestros Jason Dunstall and Gary Ablett were overshadowed by the record breaker Tony Lockett. We marvelled at the great champions. Robert Harvey sealed his greatness with a pair of Brownlow medals. Wayne Carey was named All Australian captain three times and Carlton's veteran Craig Bradley just got better and better through the nineties.

Old timers at Collingwood marvel at his skills. Commentators rave about his footballing prowess. In his distinguished football career Nathan Buckley just seems to get better with every season. A Grand Final hero with Port Adelaide, a Magarey Medal as South Australia's finest and the Norwich Rising Star as an outstanding rookie in the AFL and all before the age of 22.

The greats of Australian Football have shared their secrets.

In the middle of the so-called Colliwobbles this was the clash supercoach Tommy Hafey - against his former student Tony Jewell - hoped would end the Magpies streak of seven losing Grand Finals.

This is the story of the last fifty years from the Premiership of Lou Richards in 1953 through to the days of Nathan Buckley and his men. We relive the triumphs of the fifties through Richards, Rose and Weideman. The Grand Final nightmares of the sixties and early seventies through Tuddenham, Thompson, Gabelich, Waters, and McKenna. We follow the epic struggles of Tom Hafey and his men as they took the Magpies to the top of the ladder only to have that ultimate prize cruelly snatched from their grasp. This is the story of a proud Football Club - there is none prouder.

Regarded as the most physical Grand Final ever played. 40 Years On: The Final Story provides a unique insight into the feelings and experiences of those who've played at the highest level.

It had been 32 years of pain for Collingwood trying once again to overcome their Grand Final hoodoo and finally bury the Collywobbles tag. In their way though was the might of Essendon who's momentum had been stalled when the Magpies drew with the West Coast Eagles in the Qualifying Final. With larger than life characters in both sides, this was a game that became etched in football folklore. You will hear and see the most emotional, inspiring and tragic accounts of this memorable day direct from the inner sanctum.

"Kick it to the boundary line". These are the famous words of Ted Whitten in the commentary box late in the last quarter of the 1966 Grand Final between St Kilda and Collingwood, This was the classic battle between the powerhouse of Collingwood and its rich successful history against a club riddled with failure who had never tasted Premiership success. With only one point separating the teams at the final siren - it is still to this day one of the all-time great football stories,