Like the rivals of old
Martin Boulton | June 24, 2008 - 9:24PM
IT'S one of the great football rivalries - the greatest of all time if you believe Kevin Bartlett, the former Richmond rover and VFL/AFL games record holder.
Bartlett has several theories about when Richmond and Carlton games took on such epic proportions and little doubt Saturday's clash at the MCG will write a new chapter in their famous history.
Promoted by the Tigers as "100G at the G", the match has developed into much more than simply the main drawcard in the club's celebration of 100 years of league football.
It gives both clubs an opportunity to edge closer to the top eight and the chance of playing finals football.
Bartlett - who rates games against Carlton rover Adrian Gallagher in the 1960s among the toughest of his career - told The Age both clubs would be desperate to resume hostilities.
"It's been a great rivalry, particularly in the era I played," Bartlett said."Carlton and Richmond games were the biggest game in town."
The five-time best-and-fairest winner believes hostilities between the two clubs stretch back as far as the 1940s when the Blues tried to poach Tigers' premiership captain Perce Bentley.
A fearsome ruckman, Bentley eventually went to Carlton in 1941 and coached the club to premierships in 1945 and '47 before serving as a committee member.
"He was a Richmond icon, a captain-coach of the club," said Barlett, who said the rivalry gained strength as the clubs grew into powerhouses of the competition.
"It probably goes back to when Bentley left Richmond, but we had some big games through the '60s, '70s and '80s and, of course, 1972 and '73 when we won a premiership each.
Former Carlton defender David McKay's memories of 1972-73 are of "particularly interesting games" when the Tigers "got fairly physical with us" each time they met.
"I think that's when the rivalry started, from '72 onwards when some of the things that happened on the field (caused) a fair amount of animosity between the two clubs," he said.
McKay, like Bartlett, suggests there's more than one trigger point for the fascination with Richmond-Carlton clashes and another could stem from around the time of the Tigers' 1973 grand final win.
"After Richmond beat Carlton in cricket and football a Richmond official supposedly rang up and said 'Look, we've beaten you at cricket and footy, how about we challenge you at a game of marbles?' "
"Of course, Richmond had a working-class ethic and Carlton had the blue-blood image and the thought (at Richmond) was if you dish it up to Carlton, they'll turn it up."
McKay said the "win-at-all-costs" mentality was fuelled by former Richmond club secretary Graeme Richmond, who he described as "a strong instigator" behind the scenes.
Barlett said the club's former powerbroker loomed just as large as figures at Carlton, including former president George Harris and his Tiger counterpart, Ian Wilson.
"It was fantastic," he said.
"Collingwood was always a great rival, but in my era the greatest challenge was Carlton because Carlton was winning premierships, so you look forward to those games.
"I had enormous respect for Carlton and those magnificent players, like 'Big Nick' (John Nicholls), Adrian Gallagher, Peter Jones was a terrific player and Geoff Southby was a mighty player."
Former Tigers ruckman Neville Crowe added his voice to the origins of the rivalry, referring to Nicholls' "poor memory" after the 1967 second semi-final.
In a memorable tribunal case Crowe was rubbed out for four weeks and missed the grand final against Geelong after Nicholls hit the deck in a bid to win a free kick.
"It was my first finals game and we had the big incident with big Nick feigning he was hit,", Crowe recalled yesterday. "Only time I was reported in 11 years."
Crowe, who as Tigers' president helped raise $1 million in 10 weeks as the public face of the 'Save Our Skins' campaign, said the legacy of those heady days against the Blues is the excitement it builds for today's players and supporters.
"You have the people and clubs you really want to do well on . . . it's always a challenge, you always want to play your best against the best guys.
"There's a lot of grudging respect, I guess, between the two clubs and it will be good fun to go out there and have a crack at them."
McKay acknowledges the Crowe-Nicholls incident looms large in the rivalry, but believes the calibre of players to represent both clubs over the years is the greatest factor.
"To play on a player like Royce Hart was a joy (and) if you could beat him in a contest that was a great achievement, just one contest, let alone the whole game," he said.
"He was just a wonderful player, his ability to take a mark from the back, from the front, the side, and he was just as good on the ground as he was in the air."
Tiger veteran Matthew Richardson, whose father Alan "Bull" Richardson played alongside Crowe, said "100G at the G" was "a big event for our club" and there was "no better way to celebrate" than playing Carlton at the MCG.
"It's going to be huge (and) we really want a massive crowd there," he said.
"Carlton are playing great footy and they want to play in the finals, so they're going to be pretty hungry, so it's a good test for our young side."
"We need to win to stay in touch and so do Carlton . . . I'm looking forward to it."
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