It is one of league football's most enduring rivalries . . .

It stretches back more than 80 years and, in that time, it has fuelled some mighty tough, fierce, absorbing battles.

It is Richmond v Carlton - and it'll be on again for young and old at the MCG this Saturday afternoon when the arch rivals go toe to toe in a big Round 15 match, which the Tigers have dedicated to their Fighting Tiger Fund.

Hardly surprising Richmond selected Carlton as its opponent for this special occasion, just as it did in 2008 when the Club celebrated its AFL/VFL centenary, because these two clubs love to hate each other and, traditionally, draw a large crowd to their meetings.

The strong Richmond-Carlton rivalry surfaced around the time the Tigers started to put their initial stamp on the competition, which was about a decade after leaving the VFA and entering the then VFL in 1908.

A struggling Richmond lost its first 24 matches of league football against Carlton (1908-17), however, by 1920, the Tigers, to coin a Jack Dyer phrase, had “arrived a little bit”. The Yellow and Blacks took out their first VFL premiership when they knocked over another famous foe, Collingwood, in that season's Grand Final.

The following year Richmond made it back-to-back premierships by downing Carlton in a dour, low-scoring Grand Final by just four points.

An intense rivalry was born . . .

In 1932, Richmond captured its third league premiership when it beat the Blues by nine points in a tough, thrilling Grand Final.

Three years later, the Tigers defeated Carlton by 21 points in the first semi-final of ’35, but that was to be the last finals encounter between the two clubs for more than 30 years.

Richmond broke a 20-year finals drought when it made the September play-offs in 1967, and no prizes for guessing who the Tigers met first-up!  Yes, a Tiger team with no previous finals experience lined up against Carlton in the ’67 second semi-final, and whipped the Blues by 40 points on the way to the premiership that year.

The Richmond-Carlton rivalry, which had bubbled beneath the surface during the Tigers’ lengthy spell in the football wilderness during the 1950s and up until the late 1960s, was about to reach boiling point again . . .

Tiger big guns Bill Barrot, Kevin Sheedy, Francis Bourke, Dick Clay, Kevin Bartlett, Michael Green and Royce Hart seemed to save their best for the Navy Blues - and their best sure was something to behold!

'Bustling' Billy Barrot's eight-goal effort, after being shifted to full-forward in a crucial late-season clash with Carlton in 1969, springs immediately to mind.  A month or so later, Barrot strutted his stuff on football’s biggest stage, booting three goals in the Grand Final against the Blues, after another mid-match move to full-forward, and helping lift the Tigers to their seventh premiership.  Mike Green dominated in the ruck that day against Carlton colossus John Nicholls, and Kevin Bartlett was his customary ball-magnet self, providing the team with a heap of drive.

Four years later, K. Sheedy's three-goal first quarter blitz against Carlton in the 1973 Grand Final provided the impetus for Richmond’s ‘Day of Atonement’.  The Tigers were never going to lose that ’73 premiership decider after their shock defeat at the hands of their traditional rivals the previous year.  Sheedy kick-started the Yellow and Black engine that day, Neil Balme provided the physicality in no uncertain manner, and Royce was Royce - bloody brilliant, despite a nagging knee injury.

Fast-forward to 1980 and KB, in the twilight of his wonderful league career, bamboozled the Blues with a brilliant six-goal performance, which inspired the Tigers to an upset win in the qualifying final encounter out at Waverley.

From 1969-1982, the two teams met in four Grand Finals (’69, ’72, ’73 and ’82) for two premierships apiece, and a stack of other epic finals clashes.
 
Since then, overall, the Blues have had the wood on us, although our last finals success, in 2001, came at their expense, which certainly added to the Yellow and Black delight on the day.

With the two clubs now headed in the right direction following dark periods in their respective proud histories, this great rivalry has been reinvigorated. And, that’s why victory on Saturday would be even more special . . .

Click play on the video box above for Tiger ‘Immortal’ Francis Bourke’s views on the great Richmond-Carlton rivalry.