Round one matches, by their very nature, are a cocktail of hope, expectation and a hint of change.

But what happened to a new-look Collingwood ahead of its opening round clash with an equally new-look Melbourne in 1983 - 30 years ago - was something entirely different. You could almost call it a seismic shift in every sense of the word.

It was a time when the past collided with the brave new world of football. That's not just to do with what happened at the time to the Magpies - or the "New Magpies" as the club's new board at the time aggressively marketed themselves.

Most of the VFL clubs - some of them existing metaphorically on the smell of an oily rag - gambled their future on the present, by embarking on an unprecedented recruiting war that was waged across a competition - without fear or favour or even about financial prudence.

The seeds of the "New Magpies" - spearheaded by media proprietor Ranald Macdonald - had been sown through the club's depressing 1982 season, when injuries, inconsistent form and in-fighting brought the club heavily back to earth.

Coming off five seasons under coach Tom Hafey, which saw the Magpies as extremely competitive and play off in five Grand Finals (for four losses and a draw), it seemed as if everything was fated to go wrong for the club and its coach in 1982.

For a start, Hafey was controversially sacked in the lead-up to Round 11 that season with the club sitting at 1-9. Internal divisions wracked the club and the team, and outsiders began to agitate for change to the John Hickey-led committee.

Macdonald and his "magnificent seven" of candidates platformed on a policy of dragging Collingwood into the modern era.

They promised to cast off some of the long-held traditions that had formed part of the club's DNA for generations, with Macdonald's team suggesting those traditions made the Magpies look staid and conservative.

They didn't quite promise a premiership - an end to the club's embarrassing flag drought since 1958 - but the "New Magpies" made a commitment to start the biggest and most expensive recruiting campaign the club had ever embarked upon.

It might have been enough to have the late, great Jock McHale turning in his grave.

The New Magpies swept the election and began to chase what it considered was the best football talent in the country.

It wasn't just Collingwood doing the chasing. Melbourne, with coach Ron Barassi at the helm, chased hard and offered massive contracts to 1980 Brownlow medallist Kelvin Templeton and the Magpies' 1979 Brownlow winner Peter Moore.

Collingwood fans were shattered to lose Moore, but the club was to secure potential stars, including Richmond's David Cloke, high-priced WA players Mike Richardson and Gary Shaw (who was originally a Queenslander), as well as cheaper recruits such as Phillip Walsh from Hamilton.
Shaw's transfer fee alone was more than $300,000 - the price of a half-dozen houses in some suburbs back then.

The change sweeping Collingwood wasn't solely reserved to the playing list. Highly-rated South Australian coach John Cahill, was named as Magpies coach, and he promised to bring a new style - and hopefully success - to the club.

The New Magpies even changed one of the most famous lines in Collingwood's theme song - "All the premiership's a cakewalk" - and replaced it with "There is just one team we favour."

As fate would have it - or as the VFL would orchestrate it - Collingwood was scheduled to come up against Peter Moore's Melbourne for the opening game of 1983.

With six games on the opening Saturday, only the Grand Final re-match between Carlton and Richmond could have matched it for interest levels.

And as far as attendances went, the Magpies-Demons' match attracted 72,274 fans, while the collective crowds for the other five games that day totalled 92,913.

Money was clearly on the agenda, as Lou Richards joked about in his Kiss of Death column in the Sun News-Pictorial in the lead-up to the Collingwood-Melbourne match played at the MCG.

With his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Richards wrote: "Both teams are packed with high-priced recruits so valuable that they will have bodyguards, not to mention legal and investment advisors, with them at all times.

"I suppose you heard the new Magpie motto: 'Dough or die.' In fact they will be selling Financial Reviews outside the MCG instead of Footy Records.

"On the ground all eyes will be on Peter 'Midas' Moore and Kelvin 'Tycoon' Templeton, of Melbourne, and David 'Cash' Cloke, of Collingwood."

Moore wasn't worried about bodyguards. But the man who had given great service in the black and white over 194 games wanted Collingwood fans to be at least respectful of his decision.

Before the game, he said: "I think the Southern Stand will be doing a bit of hooting but it won't bother me.

"I would like to think I contributed while I was at Collingwood. They were good to me and understand why I left."

Sadly, that understanding was not forthcoming. When the Collingwood cheer-squad raised their banner that afternoon, there was a pointed reference to the former Magpie. It read: "No Moore trouble at Collingwood."

The inference was that Moore had been the cause of trouble at Victoria Park the previous year - something he has long denied - in that he was alleged to have agitated behind the scenes in 1982, including having a hand in Hafey's replacement.

There was worse, however. One supporter held a crude banner aloft that was pointedly unfair and unreasonable: 'Moore Filth'.

Moore was, himself, filthy about that, saying after the game: "Gee, they changed pretty quickly, it's a pity some people have to be like that."

Fortunately, 30 years on from the off-field angst, Moore's relationship with the Magpies has well and truly been patched up, and he was a worthy addition to the club's Hall of Fame in 2007.

But on that March afternoon, he was Collingwood's prime target of attention on and off the field.

Mind you, the Magpies had several of their best ruck options out injured that day, including Graham Teasdale and Wes Fellowes, and it had to bring in Derek Shaw.

Shaw had not played at the MCG since the 1979 Grand Final when he had failed to gain a possession in the Magpies' five-point loss to Carlton. And he faced the tough task of taking on a former teammate who was still one of the best ruckmen of the time.

Lou Richards was harsh on Shaw in his preview when he said: "Collingwood has won more premierships in recent seasons than poor Derek has had kicks."

But Shaw would play the game of his football life that day, outpointing Moore, and helping himself to 23 hit-outs and 19 possessions, while working in tandem with Cloke, who was playing at centre half-forward.

Incredibly, there were three Shaws playing for Collingwood that day - Derek, from Bundoora, Tony, from Reservoir-Lakeside, and Gary, originally from Western Districts in Queensland, and then from Claremont in Western Australia.

There was plenty of pressure on Gary Shaw, with Mike Sheahan, then of the Herald, saying: "I hope young (Gary) Shaw settles quickly. He has had a tough initiation to Melbourne. not only did he score headlines when the Magpies shelled out $300,000 to get him, but he has struggled for form and fitness (in the pre-season).

"Despite the 'slows' on him from many quarters ... there aren't too many Sandgropers who come east and fail."

Sheahan described Derek Shaw as the "unlikely Collingwood hero", while he acknowledged that "his namesakes Tony Shaw and high-priced West Australian Gary Shaw took full advantage of his dominance."

As good a players as David Cloke would be for the Magpies in the coming years, the first of his 114 games in black and white would not be one of his best.

His previous game on the MCG had been in the losing 1982 Grand Final, where he had been beaten, and it was the same case against Melbourne when he would be outpointed by Steven Icke.

And yet, while his colours were lowered, Cloke would still kick three goals.

Mike Richardson was a solid performer and at times showed his considerable skills.

But it was the son of one of Collingwood's greatest centre half-forwards Murray Weideman who would be the Magpies' leading goalkicker in that round one game against Melbourne.

Mark Weideman, 21, and in his 23rd game, booted the first goal of the game within the first 30 seconds to set the scene for a classic match. He would end up with a game-high five goals from his six kicks - all before three quarter-time.

It would be the highest tally in a game the son of the "Weed" would kick for the club in his 28 games.

At the other end, reliable Collingwood full-back Peter McCormack shut out Templeton, keeping him to only one goal.

It was a high-scoring start to the game, with 11 goals kicked in the opening term. Melbourne had the early edge - but only marginally - as it took a one-point lead into the main break.

The Demons followed it up with six more goals in the second term, edging out to an 11-point half-time lead.

The Magpies kicked six of their own in the third term, cutting the difference back to seven points at the last change.

It set up what would be an absorbing final term as the two teams fought out a classic last term.

In the opening minutes of the last quarter, Noel Lovell kicked the first goal, but Melbourne fought back with goals to Robert Flower and Gerard Healy, to go 13-points in front early in the last term.

But the Demons would not kick another goal for the game, and the Magpies would go on to kick another four goals to win the match by 10 points - with a total of 39 goals kicked in the match.

The lead had changed 19 times and the game had been tied on seven occasions.

As the Sun's Michael Horan recorded: "From the time that Mark Weideman goaled with the first kick of the game until ruck rover John Annear sealed it 27 minutes into the final term, it was a fierce, even battle for supremacy."

Among Collingwood's best players were Derek and Tony Shaw, Annear, Mark Hannebery, Bill Picken, Ray Byrne, Peter McCormack and, at least in the second half, captain Mark Williams.

Cahill was delighted with his first-up win as coach, saying: "It will be a little while before we become consistent. (But) it was a tremendous introduction for me, and a great start for the players.

"But one game doesn't win premierships."

Cahill was right. Collingwood would lose its next four games against Geelong, Carlton, Essendon and Hawthorn. By season's end, the Magpies would finish strongly to finish only one game out of the finals after winning 12 of their 22 matches.

Their sixth placing in 1983 was solid, but the club would finish third in Cahill's second season (1984) - albeit with a massive loss to eventual premier Essendon in the preliminary final.

It would prove to be Cahill’s last season before he returned to South Australia, and the “New Magpies” experiment would be an unsuccessful one that would drive the club to the point of near bankruptcy by 1986.

It would take a new mind-set and a reliance on bringing through a new wave of young players, mixed with some of the older ones, that would ultimately bring about the end of Collingwood’s drought in 1990.