It's a big game for your Bluebaggers, the first real test of the season after the fairly cruisy win over Richmond and then the quasi-bye against Gold Coast last week.
Of course, when I say 'your Bluebaggers', I'm not suggesting for a moment that navy blue blood courses through your veins like, say, Stephen Kernahan or Percy Jones. Not yet, anyway.
But when you upped and left Collingwood after a 25-year association as player, captain and assistant coach, and crossed to Carlton as an assistant to Brett Ratten, you did, in the eyes of many, cross to the dark side. 'Anakin' Brown they were calling you on some of the online forums.
You're not the first famous Collingwood identity to swap the black for the navy blue. Peter McKenna and Mick McGuane ended their careers with Carlton. Heath Scotland made the move, as did your chief executive, Greg Swann. A trawl through the AFL database finds a few other names as well, such as Paul Tuddenham, son of the great Des, who played a few reserves games for the Blues at the end of his career after several seasons with the Pies.
As Carlton's backline coach, you've got enough on your plate this week in devising plans to stop the three-headed monster you helped create that is Travis Cloke, Chris Dawes and Leigh Brown. You'll be happy, no doubt, that you'll have Michael Jamison at your disposal following the end of his suspension.
But adding to the occasion on Friday is that the Pies will be unveiling their 2010 premiership flag, a win you played an important role in given the number of young players in that side that you coached in the VFL.
You'll have mixed feelings as you stand there and watch the proceedings, no doubt full of self-serving pomp and pageantry. Eddie McGuire hand-picked the Blues as Collingwood's opponent for the flag unfurling and even waited until round three for it to happen, so you can bet it will be nauseating for anyone of the Carlton persuasion.
Part of you will want to take it all in, perhaps even allow a few happy memories from that one day in October last year to seep into your consciousness. You might even exchange a wry grin with Matty Lappin, a long-time Carlton man who now is one of the Collingwood assistants. He probably even sits at your old desk.
But the other part of you will be plotting and scheming, still looking for any chinks in the Magpie armour.
Once it's down to work, good luck trying not to get excited when Alan Didak kicks a goal out of his proverbial backside, or for feeling all warm and fuzzy when Dane Swan racks up his 40th touch.
How will you feel when you see Joffa don the gold jacket, or Eddie, with his first-pumping and regal smile as the Pies draw further ahead?
That will be the time to close your eyes, take a deep breath and remember that you are now part of Carlton.
And to think of the famous quote from former Blues president George Harris after the 1979 Grand Final, a mantra by which the rest of us like to go by.
"What's better than beating Collingwood by 10 goals? Beating them by five points."
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
