In season 2015, Collingwood diehard Steve Fahey will be taking fellow supporters on a trip down memory lane as he revisits some of the match ups that define our recent history with our opponents.

This week, Fahey takes fellow supporters on a trip down the highway to Kardinia Park to recall three of the Magpies' most memorable meetings with the Cats.

Modern day footy is played in comfortable stadiums with excellent amenities. We are very fortunate as spectators, but I reckon our children miss something that my generation had, in that they will never have the unique experiences offered by watching your team play at other clubs' suburban home grounds.

Each venue offered something different in terms of logistics to get there, ground size, preferred viewing spot, level of amenities and the hostility of the local supporters.

The only Victorian ground that retains any of the feel of these venues is Geelong’s stadium of many names.

While it has also been named Shell Stadium, Skilled Stadium and Simonds Stadium (and was indeed known as Baytec Stadium for a couple of months, but no AFL games were played there during this period), it will always be Kardinia Park to me, or its modern colloquialism, the Cattery.

Like most supporters of other clubs, my memories of ‘away’ grounds are predominantly those of my own club playing there.

While this week’s game against the Cats is a home game, the 2014 NAB Challenge game and 2013 practice match against the Cats at Kardinia Park had memories flooding back to me regarding the good old days at the Cattery.

As a kid it was always both an adventure and a curiosity to be heading down the highway to what was affectionately known as Sleepy Hollow.

An early memory was Dad arranging return transport from Geelong for we three boys because he had to attend a wedding and needed to leave at half time. The wedding must have been for someone very close to him, because he usually only put in an appearance at the receptions for people who were impertinent enough to schedule their weddings during the footy season.

Driving to Geelong to see half a game made me realise, at a single figure age, that footy really was more than a game in my family, and that the Pies were a core part of who we were.

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Brisbane.

Many games at Geelong stand strong in my memory, but I will focus on three of them, in 1976, 1991 and 1967.  Sadly these were all losses for the Pies, although there were plenty of wins there, the Pies winning 22 from 41 outings there.

When we travelled to the Cattery in our wooden spoon year of 1976, we took a team containing all-time Pies luminaries such as Colin Kimmorley and Jimmy Board as the Cats enjoyed a narrow win largely due to our horrendous inaccuracy, 11.27 to 15.9.

The main highlight came at half time.

As the siren blew, Ronnie Wearmouth decided it was time to seek retribution for an earlier misdeed by Cat Mick Turner and then immediately set sail for the sanctuary of the change rooms.

Unfortunately for Ronnie, the races to the respective change rooms were adjacent to each other and when he entered the rooms he realised he'd gone down the wrong race.

Retreating with a string of Cats chasing him was not an easy task and a vigorous scuffle involving players and officials from both clubs took place at the entrance to the two change rooms.

While it wasn't easy to see from my vantage point, Dad, who was on his way into the rooms in one of the various roles he held with the club, later filled me in, including that he had tried to block a path for Ronnie.

The last big game between the two clubs at the Cattery was round 24, 1991.

The Pies had made a very sluggish start to their premiership defence before a strong second half of the season left us needing to win this last game of the year to sneak into the five.

The Cats were one of the form teams of the competition, featuring names such as Couch, Bairstow, Hocking and of course G Ablett senior, and were a formidable opponent on their own patch.

With the game certain to attract more demand than there was supply, and reserved seating for visiting members not existing at this stage, we took no chances and left early enough to be there before the reserves started.

My trusty companions were Stork, his brother Mark and The Artist Formerly Known As The Big Man (TAFKATBM), who was severely hampered by a recent back injury. He struggled to endure the walk to the ground from our nearby parking spot, and it looked like being a very long day for him.

Much to our amusement he brought a small folding stool to sit on during the quarter breaks, as we watched from the terraces on the outer wing.

The 1991 game was marked by tragedy for the Pies. It was the last for Darren "Pants" Millane, who rolled the dice of life one too many times in early October.

DOWN MEMORY LANE: Adelaide.

The day belonged to the Cats. After a bright start the wheels fell off for the Pies, with the Cats dominant, led by Bill Brownless, and injuries adding to insult with Daicos rolling his ankle and Millane hobbling on a poison leg he carried into the game.

As TAFKATBM struggled to the car we decided that we would find somewhere (safely back in Melbourne) to have a few drinks and reflect on a year in which the Pies had struggled to back up, perhaps having celebrated a bit too hard and too long.

We weren’t the only ones to let our hair down after that game - it later came to light that Millane and Denis Banks had also enjoyed a night out, including briefly taking control of a bus outside the infamous Tunnel nightclub.

Strange days indeed.

Interestingly my biggest ‘memory’ of the Cattery is the 1967 game for which I was not present. I was only four years old and my parents would only let me go to home games at that age in the safe environs of Vic Park!

The game is famous in our family folklore because of an incident involving Dad and a close workmate, Les Merry.

The game was round one, with the Pies coming off the heart-breaking one-point Grand Final loss to the Saints, and the Cats tipped to be big improvers.

Dad's mate Les was a Cats fan but he had been to no more than a handful of games. When the fixture was released Les asked Dad whether he could come along to a game during the season and Dad said he would take him to the season opener at Kardinia Park.

Big mistake Les and big mistake Dad. Dad wasn't great with opposition supporters during a game, it rarely worked out well.

Les was incredibly short-sighted. He wore big black-rimmed glasses with a strong resemblance to Coke bottles. He once famously swam the wrong way at the beach when the shark alert siren sounded, heading out when everyone else headed in.

Les was a gentle soul and spent much of the day asking Dad to explain umpiring decisions “What was that for, Kev?”

Big mistake Les.

Despite having umpired as well as played in the VFA, Dad was not that objective in his views of umpiring decisions involving the Pies.

On top of that, Dad wasn't one who liked to engage in small talk, even footy small talk, during a game. He was intense and not hard to upset during play. Dad reasonably patiently explained decisions to Les for the first half, but as the game got more intense, so did he.

Many of you will know the famous denouement to this game. With the Pies leading by five points with seconds remaining, the ball was kicked deep into the Cats' forward line. The Cats' Billy Ryan marked close to goal straight in front and the siren sounded as he ran into kick, although the field umpire didn’t appear to hear it.

Ryan kicked into the man on the mark but was awarded a 15 metre penalty amid mass confusion and chaotic scenes with spectators and the then obligatory mounted police joining the players and umpires on the ground before Ryan kicked the goal to win the game.

Unfortunately Les didn’t see the final moments of the game.

A few minutes earlier, with the game in the balance, a Pie had taken a mark but a free kick had been awarded against him for a push.

Les had turned to Dad and said “What was that for, Kev?”

Massive mistake Les.

Dad was turning somewhere between crimson and purple and could take it no longer.

He exclaimed with exasperation “It was for a push in the back…like this” and shoved an unsuspecting Les firmly in the back, sending him tumbling down the terraces.

DOWN MEMORY LANE: St Kilda at Moorabbin.

I’m not sure how things were straight after the game, but somehow Dad and Les' friendship survived this indiscretion.

As previously noted, Les was a gentle soul. He was also no fool, never asking to go to the footy with Dad again, and equally never receiving another offer. These days one would half expect a lawsuit, or at least a Facebook unfriend for such behaviour.

There were some great days at the Cattery involving the Pies, and these reflections do leave me wondering what stories our kids will tell of coming to the footy with us.

Will they have the same sense of nostalgia and character from having been to the ‘G and the Dome?

I’m not sure, but I hope I'm around to hear and maybe even read my daughter and nephews' reminiscences.

I don't think I have any skeletons in the closet like Les, but perhaps I have consigned them to a place as distant as many of my memories of the great suburban grounds.