In the lead-up to the State-of-Origin Bushfire Relief match between Victoria and the All Stars at Marvel Stadium this Friday night (February 28), Richmond Media is running a series of historical articles about some top Tiger performers on the interstate football stage. Today we focus on the day Richmond great Matthew Richardson took on the might of the Big V, and triumphed in superb style.
One of the major highlights of Richmond champion key forward Matthew Richardson’s return to the playing field in 1996, following a serious knee injury that he suffered the previous year, was his performance for the Allies against a star-studded Victorian team.
Richardson tore the ACL in his left knee when he crashed into the SCG fence during the Tigers’ Round 9, 1995 clash with Sydney and subsequently underwent a total knee reconstruction that sidelined him for the rest of that season.
But any doubts there may have been about Richardson recapturing his brilliant-best form, post-injury, were quickly dispelled, when he kicked six goals in the opening round of the ’96 season against Essendon at the MCG.
By the time the Allies v Victoria match came around on June 2, ‘Richo’ had 34 goals on the board from nine games.
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The Allies concept was created in 1995. It was an interstate representative team consisting of players from Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
On debut against WA at Subiaco Oval, in June of the ’95 season, the Allies scored a meritorious five-goal win.
Playing Victoria at the MCG a year later, however, was to prove a completely different proposition.
The Victorian side contained players of the calibre of Greg Williams, Stephen Silvagni, Brett Ratten, Chris Grant, Glenn Archer, Anthony Stevens, Robert Harvey, Nathan Burke, Stewart Loewe, Mark Mercuri, and Nigel Lappin.
Although the Allies had the likes of Nathan Buckley, Michael Voss, Jason Dunstall, Jason Akermanis and Shane Crawford, along with Richo, they were no match for the Vics, who ran out 53-point winners – 20.17 (137) to 11.18 (84) in front of 35,612 spectators.
It was Richo, though, who stole the show . . .
He had 15 kicks, eight shots at goal, for a return of 3.5, and took 12 marks in a dynamic display for the losing team that earned him the Alex Jesaulenko Medal for being the Allies best player.
One of his marks was a huge ‘speccy’ on the outer wing over Victorian opponent and Brisbane star Nigel Lappin.
Although the Vics had the contest under control pretty much throughout, they struggled to curb Richo’s dominance up forward for the Allies.
A series of opponents, including Carlton’s Michael Sexton, North Melbourne’s Glenn Archer and Tiger teammate Duncan Kellaway, were run ragged by the then long-haired, 21-year-old aerobic beast.
Richo would go on to kick an AFL career-high 91 goals in season 1996, and be a dominance force at the game’s highest level for a further 12 years.
