When I was a kid, Scanlens had a mortgage on the trading card market in Australia Each pack came with six cards and a stick of gum. In 1977 I carried around a handful of cards - Bob McMillan, Col Parkes, Kevin Wilson, and the prized Wests cards of John Donnelly, Jim Murphy and Tom Raudonikis.

In early 1978, my Mum had cottoned on to cards being the new big thing for primary school kids, and surprised me with a couple of packs after school.

Except, they weren’t rugby league cards. A distribution mix up at the transport company in early 1978 saw the rugby league cards go to Melbourne, while we in Sydney had the VFL cards.

I opened the first pack, and the card that greeted me was a guy called Michael Malthouse who played for something called Richmond. My Mum wasn’t too happy with the mix up, but I decided to give the (then) VFL a chance with the match of the day on Channel 7. It was a long way from rugby league, but Richmond became my team, although I didn’t follow them closely until they won the premiership a couple of years later.

The Scanlens distribution centre eventually sorted out the mix up, and Mum again surprised me with a few packets of cards. This time, the first face I saw was Graeme O’Grady from the Wests Magpies. That made more sense. And the gum somehow tasted better too.