Ruck craft looked a lot different in the 1970’s compared to what it does in 2023.

With only a small centre circle where the umpire would thud the ball into the ground, ruckmen would come charging at each other with knees and arms flying everywhere.

It was combative and erratic, but that’s how the game was played.

But the 1979 Preliminary Final between Collingwood and North Melbourne instigated a drastic change in the ruck set up.

Peter Moore, who would win that year’s Brownlow Medal just a few days after the Prelim, was struggling to contend with Kangaroos ruckman Gary Dempsey.

Moore was carrying a niggle, but wasn’t going to miss out on a place in the Grand Final, so he made the decision to improvise.

“I had a bit of an injury and I couldn’t jump too well so I couldn’t get over him at the centre bounce,” Moore recalls as his mind drifts back 44 years.

“He was sort of beating us so I had to change tactics and I ran in from the same side as him and wrestled him.

“I used to try and jump over guys but I think I must’ve had something wrong that I couldn’t get off the ground as well as I normally would and he was winning so I had to change tactics and it worked pretty well.”

Indeed, it did work well, helping spark a six-goal third quarter that set up victory for the Pies.

But Moore’s tactics weren’t received well by all, resulting in the league introducing the line across the centre circle in the following season to avoid physical interference at centre bounces.

“They didn’t like the look of it, so they changed the rule and put the line across the circle to try and keep everyone separate just based on one game,” Moore says.

“It actually worked pretty well because we nullified him and we went on to win the game so it was a moment in history.

“They thought wrestling was unsightly, so they changed the rules, and now all they do is wrestle and try a throw each other all over the place.

“It just shows you times have changed.”

Whether you agreed with the tactics or not, you can’t deny their success.

That Moore was prepared to switch his usual style in one of the biggest games of the year only enhances his reputation as one of the seminal figures in modern football.

That was one of his 20 career finals - so the father of the Club’s current captain knows better than most about the importance of moments in finals.

“Prelims are always big games because they’re always crucial and they’re often the best game and a better game than the Grand Final,” Moore says.

“It’s really a question in finals of trying to keep it all the same and one of the dangers in finals and big games like prelims is if you try too hard, you’ve really got to keep yourself as calm as you can.

“You’ve just got to stick to the process and really do your job and you don’t have to hype it up because there’s enough hype around it anyway.”