Richmond and Melbourne are not total strangers with regards to playing against each other on a Tuesday, as they will do in next week’s blockbuster Round 5 Anzac Eve clash.

The two teams have met twice previously on a Tuesday, with the Tigers winning both games, although in vastly different circumstances.

Anzac Day in 1972, long before Collingwood and Essendon owned the occasion, was the first time that Richmond and Melbourne faced off on a Tuesday.

An MCG crowd of 38,154 that day saw the ninth-placed Demons (in the then 12-team VFL competition), under the coaching guidance of Ian Ridley, hold sway for three quarters and take a comfortable 28-point lead into the final break.

But Tommy Hafey’s fourth-placed Tigers responded superbly to the huge challenge confronting them at three quarter-time.

With future Club ‘Immortals’ Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke leading the way magnificently, Richmond stormed home, piling on 6.4 to Melbourne’s 1.1, and clinching a stirring five-point win.

The Tigers’ star back pocket Kevin Sheedy, in his column for ‘The Age’ newspaper the following day, wrote:

“We were lucky and Melbourne was unfortunate . . . We were lucky because any team which wins a game with only one good quarter of football has to be.

And Melbourne was unfortunate because it beat us to the ball for most of the day, was more determined for most of the day . . . and still lost.

We won the game in that last quarter because we have at least three champions, Kevin Bartlett, Royce Hart and Francis Bourke.

It was a great team effort for us to win, but without those three it would have been a waste of time.

Bartlett, in particular, started the last quarter as if he had been very late in arriving. After three hard quarters he suddenly got a new lease of life and must have had about 15 kicks.

Royce Hart, after being beaten for three quarters, proved that champions are never beaten. He got up, took marks – and look at those three goals he kicked – superb stuff!

Frank Bourke – well, he just battled and battled all day – so hard that he finally got on top and helped us to win the game.

We came back in that last quarter because of one thing – we knew that four premiership points were slipping away from us.

Full credit to Melbourne. We were outmarked for three quarters by blokes half our size. They seemed to be in front in the race to win the ball and they wanted to win.

But they folded under the intense pressure we put on them in the last quarter.

Most of their players missed easy marks, began to fumble and lost the pace they had had earlier.

Another difference was the kicking. Our long kicks always landed the ball in the forward zone, but Melbourne’s short-passing, which took two or three kicks to get to the goals, always gave our backmen a chance of intercepting.

But Melbourne was still unlucky. I can tell you it was a bloody hard game, and that side will trouble everyone it plays this season.

They’ve got some really good players – Greg Parke, Peter Keenan, Gary Hardeman and Ross Dillon.

Parke was the main reason Melbourne led us for most of the game.

He marked as well as any full-forward I have seen and I’ve seen a few – and his 5.5 at half-time was a pretty good indication of his play . . .

Hardeman beat Hart for three quarters, and what happened in the last quarter, when Royce went berserk, was not his fault.

But Tom Hafey’s changes in the second half – I went to the centre, Greg Hollick to a back pocket, Ray Boyanich into a roaming defensive role, Kevin Morris on to the ball – made all the difference.

When we started to lift our game in the third quarter, we knew we could win.”

Match details

Richmond        2.2       5.3       7.7       13.11 (89)

Melbourne       4.6       9.8       11.11   12.12 (84)

Goals – Richmond: Hart 4, B. Richardson 3, Dean 2, Balme, Bartlett, McMillan, B. Roberts.

Leading possession-winners – Richmond: Bartlett 32, Clay 28, Bourke 20, Moore 19, Sheedy 19.

Six years later, the Tigers and Demons did battle again on the Tuesday Anzac Day, before a crowd of 34,212 at the MCG.

Richmond, under coach Barry Richardson, went into the Round 5 match of the 1978 season in eighth place on the ladder, with just one win, one draw and two losses.

The Dennis Jones-coached Melbourne side was seventh, on two wins and two losses.

This was an event contest throughout an error-riddled, lacklustre first half, with the Tigers taking a narrow two-point lead into the main break.

But it was a different story altogether in the second half as Richmond ran riot, scoring 12.12 to Melbourne’s 2.3 to record a thumping 71-point victory.

The Tigers’ future 1980 premiership captain Bruce Monteath was the star up forward, booting six goals in a top-class display.

Dual Richmond premiership player Wayne Walsh was dominant right throughout the match, racking up 41 disposals.

And big Neil Balme had a major impact in the ruck for the Tigers.

Here’s what esteemed football writer Mike Sheahan had to say about the 1978 Richmond v Melbourne Tuesday Anzac Day clash in his match review for ‘Inside Football’ . . .

“It was the day of the years for veterans at more places than the Shrine of Remembrance and RSL clubs.

Richmond’s battalion of old soldiers celebrated Anzac Day at the MCG with a gallant performance which revived the Tigers’ flagging spirits.

Wayne Walsh, within two weeks of his 32^nd birthday, and fellow veterans Neil Balme, Kevin Sheedy, Francis Bourke and Kevin Bartlett, combined with a couple of young troopers to check Richmond’s alarming slide.

The Tigers, beaten twice and held to a draw in their previous three games, emerged from the slump at half-time to trounce Melbourne by 71 points.

They looked in total disarray at half-time, when they held a shaky two-point lead, which should have been a four-goal deficit.

The troops looked tired of the battlefield and coach Barry Richardson later described the first half as “so bad it was laughable”.

Yet, the following 30 minutes prompted Melbourne coach Dennis Jones to say after the game his men were pitiful.

Jones was bitterly disappointed. “Our third-quarter effort was nothing short of disgraceful.”

He took his team towards the centre of the ground at three quarter-time, away from even trainers and officials.

“I had things to say to them I didn’t want anyone else to hear.”

Richmond kicked 7.5 in the third quarter while holding Melbourne to two behinds and the Tigers suddenly looked a unit again.

Big Balme, only 26, but with nearly 150 games behind him, took the young Demons apart. His massive physical strength and enthusiasm forged embarrassing gaps in Melbourne’s defence; gaps exploited with devastating results by Walsh, Bruce Monteath and several others.

Walsh ran rampant all over the big ground to initiate countless attacking moves, and Monteath exploded with four goals for the quarter.”

Match details

Richmond        3.3       7.4       14.9     19.16 (130)

Melbourne       5.2       6.8       6.10     8.11 (59)

Goals – Richmond: Monteath 6, Raines 3, Feltham 2, Freame 2, Sheedy 2, Walsh 2, Bartlett, Laughlin.

Leading possession-winners – Richmond: Walsh 41, Monteath 27, Sheedy 21, Bartlett 20, Raines 20.