The Australian Football League was delighted to recently receive never-before-seen colour vision of the 1963 preliminary final between Hawthorn and Melbourne at the MCG.

The vision, which will be added to the game's archive, was shot by the late Michael Tricarico and found by his son, also Michael Tricarico, when the family was going through their father’s effects after his passing two years ago at the age of 92.

Son Michael said his father was a keen user of early hand-held video cameras and they had found the match-day vision among multiple reels of family events and gatherings from the early 1960s.

“The film had never been digitised before and has sat in a box for the best part of 50 years, when we found there was film of the teams coming out and bits of action from the game,” Michael said.

The AFL showed the vision to Hall of Fame member David Parkin, who was a member of the Hawthorn side that won the game against Melbourne by nine points. Hawthorn won 11.11 (77) to 10.8 (68), before falling to Geelong a week later in the 1963 Grand Final. The Demons were missing the suspended Ron Barassi and the vision shows the aftermath of an early shoulder injury to Melbourne ruckman John Lord, which was pivotal in the final result.

"It’s just fantastic to see some colour film from that game from so long ago," Parkin told the AFL website.

"I could pick out Gary Young and John Peck immediately but it was also a wonderful reminder to see the bits of pre-match vision and how the ground looked back in 1963."

The AFL is extremely grateful to the Tricarico family for sending through this new vision and is always happy to receive any past vision of games to add to the library of our history.