One of the most exciting, epic encounters in the rich Richmond and Carlton rivalry took place at Princes Park on the Queen’s Birthday Monday of 1967.

Richmond was second on the ladder going into the Round 9 match, with a record of six wins, two losses for the season, while Carlton sat atop the table undefeated on seven wins and a draw.

The stage was set for a blockbuster clash – and it certainly lived up to all the hype.

For the first of what was to be many times in his magnificent league football playing career, Royce Hart was the Tigers’ hero.

With just seconds remaining in the gripping, see-sawing contest, and Richmond trailing by four points, the young star key forward swooped on the ball from a centre clearance and kicked a miraculous goal from about 70 yards (as was the imperial measurement in the day) out to clinch victory for the Tigers.

Here’s how ‘The Age’ chief football writer Percy Beames summed up the 1967 Queen’s Birthday thriller . . .

“Yesterday’s match between Richmond and Carlton at Princes Park produced something special for a home-and-home clash. Play was hard, keen and of a good standard, and it would have been almost impossible to have crammed more excitement into the finish.

Before the match no one would have dared predict that it would be won and lost twice in the last two minutes of play.

One minute Carlton was jubilant because it thought it had scraped through in another close finish, but no sooner had the scoreboard been adjusted than Richmond was back in front.

Carlton seemed home when Ian Robertson’s goal – a snap a few inches from the line – put it four points up.

But seconds later Richmond’s Royce Hart grabbed the ball near the centre and kicked it with all his might.

It sailed over the outstretched hands of the pack, bounced for about 20 yards and went through.

The ball travelled close to 70 yards and Hart’s goal had won the day for the Tigers.

It was a pity one team had to lose. Neither was entitled to pay the penalty of defeat.

If anything, Richmond came out of the game a little richer than Carlton.

Besides winning, the Tigers had the satisfaction of finding out that they can stand firm in a tight finish.

Until yesterday they had not proved they could do this, and in one or two matches their play had left some suspicion of brittleness.

Intensive planning aimed at countering Carlton’s big-name players and a revival, late in the game by players who earlier had been quiet, were big factors in Richmond’s success.

The Tigers went on to the field with Tony Jewell shadowing Barassi, Neville Crowe checking John Nicholls, Alan Richardson looking after Gordon Collis and captain Fred Swift coping with Alex Jesaulenko.

The tactics paid off so well that Richmond had four goals on the board before Carlton got into stride.

Richmond looked good again in the last quarter when Bill Barrot, in the centre, Dick Clay on a wing, and other players, who had been out of the game, suddenly found their feet and supplied great drive to the forwards.

From a premiership test of strength Richmond’s win was inconclusive.

The two sides are evenly matched, but whether they stay this way will be determined by the next nine games.

The Tigers are confident that they can, and will improve, once Pat Guinane, Graham Burgin and Geoff Strang return to the side.

Carlton eased the sting of defeat by saying that a two-point loss hardly measured up to the loss of Ron Barassi for almost the whole of the game.

But the of Barassi was only one of several problems the Blues had to face. Their attack failed for most of the game. Barassi’s loss, which left them a follower short, meant a ruckman had to rest at full-forward, and to cap everything off, centre half-back John Goold had to leave the ground half way through the last quarter.

When Goold went off with mild concussion, Gordon Collis, who had controlled the centre, had to be shifted to centre half-back.

Immediately Collis was moved Barrot became a force for Richmond.

It could also be said that an incident involving John Nicholls cost the Blues the game. Carlton was 10 points up and Nicholls was awarded a free kick on Carlton’s half-forward line.

But he tangled with Richmond’s 19^th man, Bill Brown, and Brown was awarded the free kick.

He flashed the ball to the other end of the ground and Richmond goaled. From then the Tigers did not look back.” 

Match details

Richmond         4.4       7.8       9.12     13.15 (93)
Carlton             2.1       5.5       10.6     14.7 (91)

Goals – Richmond: Hart 5, Northey 4, Patterson 2, A. Richardson, B. Richardson.
Leading possession-winners – Richmond: Barrot 23, Bartlett 23, Jewell 23, Bourke 20, Northey 20.

Goals – Carlton: Robertson 5, Jesaulenko 3, Silvagni 2, Board, Gallagher, B. Kekovich, Waite.
Leading possession-winners – Carlton: Silvagni 33, Jesaulenko 21, Lloyd 21, Board 20, Stewart 20.