IT'S DIFFICULT to imagine a rivalry stronger than that between the Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar football sides.

Their contests extend back to the game's beginnings, 150 years ago, to what is officially regarded as the first game of Australian Football.

The annual clash, played in the modern era for the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, is a hard-fought battle, regardless of where the sides sit on Melbourne's Associated Public Schools ladder.

The passion of this meeting was epitomised in 1988 by former Collingwood player Barry Price, a Scotch teacher, then in his first year as football coach. With his Scotch charges struggling woefully at the half-time break, Price put his fist through a change room wall to fire them up.

In 2001, Melbourne Grammar's Xavier Ellis observed the prowess of his future Hawthorn Hawks teammate, Campbell Brown, in action for Scotch. Seeing Brown – a player renowned for his resilience – carted off the field after a nasty collision illustrated to Ellis how fierce the rivalry was.

Melbourne Grammar Headmaster Paul Sheahan knows the thrill of competitive sports from his days as an Australian Test cricketer during the 1960s and '70s. He has also witnessed the Scotch-Grammar rivalry for more than a decade at Grammar's helm.

"I think everyone likes to have a traditional rival and obviously amongst the two oldest schools in Melbourne they are going to develop a bit of ginger in contest between each other," Sheahan says.

"The game itself goes back in its very origins of Australian football in 1858, so that adds extra spice."

Melbourne's 1946 Brownlow medallist Don Cordner played for Grammar twice against Scotch College. In 1989, the Cordner-Eggleston Cup was instituted to honour Cordner and the revered Scotch athlete and master, Mick Eggleston.

"My father and uncle came to the school in the middle of the 1890s and there has been one member of our family at the school more than half the time since then," Cordner says. "I think it was a wonderful tribute to our family, I've been very proud of it."

The match has built into an honoured tradition that attracts several thousand vocal spectators every year. The game in 2008, its 150th anniversary, holds greater significance than ever before.

"Well, it means everything!" Melbourne Grammar football captain Jack Macciolli says.

"I've dreamed about it since year seven. I've seen the year 12s playing the Cordner-Eggleston, it's just been my goal to play out there but now we are playing at the MCG with a great bunch of blokes – it's going to be awesome!"

Macciolli's Scotch counterpart, Jack Bull, says the players try to treat the match like any other during the year. But it's more than just another game.

"[I'm feeling] pretty anxious to be honest," he says. "Throughout the start of the season we try to play it down a bit – try and focus on the other matches but it's always been there in the back of your mind, you're always thinking it's the biggest match.

"I've got quite a few mates at Grammar as well so it's been built up quite a lot."

For many players who don't go on to the limelight of the AFL, the Cordner-Eggleston Cup is regarded as the biggest sporting experience they will have.

Melbourne Grammar football coach Ben Hanisch says the match gets into your blood.

"If you're around a school or a club then obviously certain traditions and rivalries and values start to get ingrained. It's a big game and every year we look forward to it, and it is special," he says.

Scotch coach Steve Holding describes it as the pinnacle for most of the players: "That's not to say that the other games aren't important, and they don't love playing Xavier, and St Kevins.

"But this is the one game, if they can play this game, for a lot of the kids it's the highlight of their school career to be honest."

Click here to see why the Cordner-Eggleston Cup means so much to the schools' combatants