From 40 metres out on a sharp angle, Arceri slotted the set shot to ensure Carlton finished the day 1.10 (16) – 41 points in arrears of the Bulldogs. It would become the most memorable of his 133 career goals. Tony Liberatore, the previous year’s Brownlow medallist, was playing that day and recalled how Arceri enjoyed an added bonus for his unique place in footy folklore. “I think Mark used to get paid $100 a goal by his old man, something like that,” Liberatore told The Age. “Could’ve been more, could’ve been a couple hundred dollars, who knows.” While Liberatore wasn’t too fussed about coming so close to keeping Carlton goalless, only to fail right at the death, he remembers Macpherson was seething.

“I played with Mark at North under-19s ... Mark was a good mate of mine and still is, and it didn’t really bother me,” Liberatore said. “But Steve Macpherson was filthy ... ‘Super’ [Macpherson] was really upset, he wasn’t a happy man after the game but anytime we can keep Carlton to one goal or no goals, it’s a great feeling.” Steady rain in the lead-up to the game ensured wet and muddy conditions at the Western Oval, giving the Bulldogs a “four or five goal advantage”. Like many strong teams before them, Carlton failed to adapt. “Top sides would get beaten at the Whitten Oval all the time because they used to dread playing at the Whitten Oval but we loved it because we trained on it,” Liberatore said. “I remember it was a really good feeling after the game, not only because of keeping Carlton to one goal, but Carlton back then were such a powerful club and to beat Carlton, Collingwood or Richmond and those type of clubs back then was really, really good.

“They were great days because sides used to just run out from the visitors and you’d look at their faces and they’d be like, ‘oh my God, we’re in for a tough day today’. “The ball was always on the ground.” Liberatore said the supporters were the real heroes given they had to routinely brave those wintry conditions. “Terry [Wheeler] was an amazing coach ... he used to let the supporters come into the rooms after the game and sing the song with us arm in arm,” he said. “That was fantastic because, in all honesty, [in] 1991 and 1990, the club belonged to the supporters and the members not us [after they helped stop the merger with Fitzroy in 1989].”