The Cats were at their peak when Mackie called out to a teammate and asked if they got four points for beating North or just two because they were such a poor team.

It was a funny line, but if I was at North I would remember that every time I played the Cats.

The Scott brothers are coaching against each other this weekend and they were part of the Brisbane team that was brutal at giving it to blokes verbally and physically.

I was only twice  threatened that I was going to be killed on the football field - and both times it was against Brisbane.

In my first game for the Saints at the Gabba back in 2003, Michael Voss threatened to kill me. They had won two premierships and were on their way to a third. At the start of the game we ran out and I was standing on the wing. Martin Pike was next to me. He turned around and looked me up and down and said, 'What are you doing out here? You should be in the classroom'.

Vossy was in the centre square and he looked up and yelled out, "Hey Goddard!"

I didn't say anything. I just looked at him, but in my head I was thinking, 'Oh no, it's Michael Voss, don't talk to me'. So he calls out again, "If you come in here and touch the ball I will f---ing kill you."

I was 18 and I thought, "What's going on? That's Michael Voss and he is threatening to kill me."

Pike is standing there and he said, "He's not kidding."

For the rest of the day I was hit by every player. Pike was wearing the long stops and he was stomping on my toes and whacking me in the ribs from behind the whole day.

Even the runner, Craig Starcevich - who later turned up at St Kilda – was giving it to me.

Of course, it was all part of the plan for them at the time – who will we target this week? Playing against them early on was horrific because you had Voss and Nigel Lappin in the midfield just belting you and if it went into the forward line there were the Scotts and Justin Leppitsch and in the backline you had Jonathan Brown.

Browny was the other one who threatened to kill me. He called out to me in a game, "You come back and sit in the hole and I will jump into you and put my knee in the back of your head and kill you."

I turned around and laughed and said, "No you're not, Browny". I knew he couldn't jump that high, or I hoped he couldn't jump that high.

There was another  funny one  in 2011 when the Saints were playing Richmond at Etihad Stadium. There was a stoppage and I was the winger who had to sweep around the back of the stoppage.

Jack Riewoldt called out to me, "BJ, why don't you run back here and stop in front of me so I can take mark of the year on your head?"

About 40 seconds later, I took a mark on the top of Jack's head. It came second in mark of the year behind Liam Jurrah. It was pretty funny. I got to look at Jack after it and ask, "Who will be sitting on whose head Jack?"

A lot of what is said out on the field is pretty moronic and obvious. I like it when it is witty and smart.

Bob Murphy told us a story on the International Rules trip about how he was getting into Justin Koschitzke one day telling him he was no good. And Kozzy turned and said, "Mate. you've got a head like a Mintie.''

Murph said he didn't know what to say and went red, but inside he was laughing. Everyone called him Mintie for the rest of the trip.

Saying the smart comment doesn't always work out. In my first year I played a couple of VFL games and we were playing against Tasmania in Tassie and Jason Cripps had left the Saints the year before and was captain-coach of Tassie.

Joey Montagna was playing that game as well and at half-time I was playing really well and had had 25 touches. So at the start of the third quarter, Cripps comes out to tag me and he just belted me for a quarter. I was only 86 kilos and he was big.

We came in at three-quarter time and I said to Joey, "I can't move, he's belting the crap out of me, what do I do?'

Joey said, "Thank him for your number."

So we went out for the last quarter and he started belting me again and out of nowhere I said, "Thanks for your number, mate."

He saw red. I ran away from him and he just chased me; he was furious. It was the worst thing I could have said. I had 28 touches for the day after having 25 at half-time. He literally chased me for the rest of the quarter to belt me.

It might have been a year later Cripper came back to the Saints as backline coach and we got on really well. He was a ripping bloke

The typical thing with older blokes is to look at younger players on the opposition and say "Who are you? What's your name?" They want to make the player feel they are so insignificant you've never heard of them.

For an old teammate, Steven Baker, it was probably true. He actually didn't know who players were early on. One day we were playing the Bulldogs and he was told at half time to go tag Matty Boyd. All he knew was Matty Boyd played on the ball so he ran out to the centre for the start of the quarter.

We all knew he was tagging Boyd and had to follow him wherever he went. So when we were at the bounce everyone is looking at Bakes wondering what he is doing. Joey eventually said "Bakes, Bakes, what are you doing?"

He said "I'm playing on Boydy."

Joey said "That's not Boydy, mate, that's Daniel Cross. Boydy's over there."

Bakes played in the backline then and he would just get the best small forward so he didn't really know who was who - he just played on ht best small forward. Then he moved up later into the midfield as a tagger.

When Ross Lyon got there he made him study the opposition and know every player in the opposition midfield each week.

In the past it was common for teams to nominate one or two players from the opposition  to target verbally and physically, but the changes in the game mean it doesn't happen as much any more. The game is so fast and players are so worried about team defence and their game that there is less time for that, but sledging - to get a mental edge and put a player off his game - will always be a tactic.