With Richmond fielding an AFLW team for the first time in 2020, Friday night was the inaugural women's edition of the traditional rivals, a new twist in front of a new audience.
A crowd of 15,337 filled Ikon Park, validating the fixturing of a Richmond home game at Carlton's base (the Swinburne Centre only holds 5,000).
The Tigers brought their drummers, who set the scene for their AFL team at home matches, and a junior Tiger Army formed a guard of honour, threatening to take out several eyes with their enthusiastic flag waving.
A healthy mix of young fans and Tiger veterans filled the stands, and the crowd roared as Richmond entered the playing field for the first time and the famous "Yellow and Black" rang out.
It took until the fourth quarter for Richmond to convert on the scoreboard, with former Brisbane key forward Sabrina Frederick taking a strong contested mark and saluting with obvious delight.
For the first time, the "Richmond" chant was heard, as the crowd was brought to life with a cheer louder than any of the six Carlton goals of the night. The margin may have been 31 points at that stage, but the Tiger Army didn't care.
"It would have been nice to have a real positive result on the scoreboard. We spoke about it after the game, but it was one of those nights when it was just a little bit bigger than footy," Richmond coach Tom Hunter said.
"So, it's one of those ones where the result didn't go our way, but we were just really excited to be a part of it, get that first game under our belt and look forward to next week."
We'll take plenty of growth from our first AFLW outing.
— RichmondW (@RichmondWomens) February 7, 2020
Despite the result, a proud night for the Richmond Football Club.#AFLWTigersBlues #gotiges pic.twitter.com/nAANOFgQ3W
These aren't the Tigers of old. But with Phoebe Monahan and Akec Makur Chuot holding down the fort in defence, they're strong and they're bold.
And they're playing for the generations of women and girls who have supported Richmond over the years; who would run around the backyard pretending to be Matthew Richardson because there was no one else.
So regardless of Friday night's result, or even the results of the season to come, there'll be plenty of Monique Contis, Katie Brennans and Makur Chuots populating kick to kicks this summer.
