Just 12 players on the Carlton and Collingwood lists were born the last time the AFL's fiercest rivals last played in a final.
As Magpies coach Nathan Buckley notes, that lack of top-end matches has taken some of the venom out of the game's fiercest rivalry.
But it's still there and still fierce.
Carlton would love nothing more than to ruin Collingwood's party this Saturday at the MCG.
It will mark the Magpies' 125th anniversary and they requested Carlton as their opponents.
Buckley was still six years away from joining Collingwood when Carlton convincingly beat them in the 1988 qualifying final - their most recent clash at the business end of the season.
"I don't reckon in my time at the club that it's ever been where people have told me it was through the '70s, in particular," Buckley said of the rivalry.
"There's a reason for that and that's neither side has been up at the same time.
"I know in '94 we lost narrowly to West Coast in the first final over there and would have come back and played Carlton at the MCG - the would-have, could-have.
"That was probably the closest that it got go in my time and I've been at Collingwood for a fair while now."
While the focus for Buckley and his Carlton counterpart Brendon Bolton this Saturday will be the four points on offer, the players will be fully aware of the game's broader significance.
Last month, for example, Carlton upset Essendon at the MCG.
Afterwards, it emerged that club great and former president Stephen Kernahan had spoken to the team pre-match.
It is safe to assume that Kernahan did not speak glowingly of the Bombers, another club that Carlton love to beat.
No doubt similar points will be made by club greats at Collingwood and Carlton ahead of Saturday.
"It would be great to see both clubs up and about at some point and it will happen," Buckley said.
"Having said that, when the two club get together, there's a fair bit going on and it carries a fair bit among the respective armies.
"We're very aware of that."
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