In the lead-up to Sunday’s Richmond v Collingwood clash at the MCG, Tony Greenberg takes a look at the long-standing rivalry between the two clubs.
The Richmond and Collingwood rivalry stretches back more than a century.
It can be traced back to when Collingwood captain Dan Minogue walked out on the Magpies in 1919 after returning from the First World War, where he had served Australia with great distinction.
Minogue apparently was unhappy with Collingwood’s treatment of Jim Sadler, who was a former teammate of his, and requested a trade to Richmond.
The Magpies were furious with Minogue and refused to grant him a clearance or pay the money he was owed from his retirement fund.
Minogue responded by standing out of league football for a year in order to secure his transfer to the Tigers, where he took over as captain-coach.
He subsequently rubbed salt into Collingwood’s wound by leading Richmond to its inaugural VFL premiership in 1920 with victory over the Magpies in the Grand Final.
It was war between the neighbouring league clubs from then on.
Collingwood took immense delight in inflicting three consecutive Grand Final defeats on the Tigers from 1927-29.
Legendary Tiger Jack Dyer then arrived on the league football scene in the early 1930s, and he very quickly learned to despise the Magpies.
In Dyer’s 1965 book ‘Captain Blood’, here is some of what he had to say about Collingwood.
“Whenever I have a nightmare it isn’t in colour. It’s always black and white, the colours of the meanest, toughest club ever to run on to a football field. Collingwood," Dyer wrote.
"I’ve laboured the point of my hatred of Collingwood and it isn’t a friendly dislike – as a club they rankle me. You couldn’t like them, they think they are God’s gift to football, they shun all outsiders and the only time I like to think of Collingwood is when they lose, because it hurts them so much.
"I’ve always been a bad loser, but I’m a good sport compared to Collingwood. If they win they gloat, if they lose they hide themselves away and sulk. When they lose they never visit your rooms or congratulate you and they’ll send you round hot beer to have a drink. I wouldn’t drink anything they offered, you wouldn’t know what they had done to it.
"You do meet good blokes from Collingwood. But they have to be away from the club or finished with football. They have built a tradition on their bad graces.”
Long-time, leading Richmond administrator, Graeme Richmond, did his best to fuel the rivalry flames under his powerful watch at Tigerland from the mid-1960s onwards.
Before each clash with the Magpies, ‘GR’ would ram home to the Tigers’ playing group, in no uncertain manner, why beating them was imperative.
According to three-time Richmond premiership hero Kevin Sheedy, GR would say, ‘those herds of mongrels marching down Hoddle Street are coming to take our land, cockos’.
Four-time Tiger premiership coach Tommy Hafey grew up barracking for Collingwood.
He led Richmond to finals wins against the Magpies in 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1975, before sensationally departing Punt Road in late 1976 and taking the coaching reins at Victoria Park, much to GR’s chagrin.
Collingwood had finished last in the ’76 season but flourished under Hafey’s coaching guidance.
The Magpies rocketed up the ladder the following year and won their way into the Grand Final, where they played a draw with North Melbourne, but lost the replay.
They had a further three unsuccessful Grand Final attempts with ‘T-Shirt Tommy’ at the helm, including the 1980 smashing at the hands of the Tigers, before sacking him midway through the 1982 season, when they plummeted down the ladder.
Richmond was going in the opposite direction that year under new coach, five-time Club premiership champion Francis Bourke.
The Tigers finished on top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season, convincingly accounted for Carlton in the second semi-final, but then went down to the Blues in the Grand Final.
That defeat was the catalyst for the next, and arguably biggest, chapter in the Richmond-Collingwood rivalry story.
Two Tiger premiership stars, Geoff Raines (a triple Jack Dyer Medallist) and David Cloke (1982 Club captain) were enticed to join the Magpies in a massive recruiting coup.
Graeme Richmond was never going to take that well, and over the course of the next few years the Tigers plundered Collingwood, securing the services of Phillip Walsh, John Annear, Craig Stewart, Neil Peart, Wally Lovett and Peter McCormack.
The Magpies, not to be outdone, fired back by enticing gun Tiger full-forward Brian Taylor to Victoria Park.
Throughout that time, Richmond even made a play for Collingwood superstar Peter Daicos.
It was an extremely lucrative offer, and Daicos gave it plenty of consideration, before eventually opting to stick with the Magpies.
When the expensive poaching war was finally over, both clubs found themselves in dire financial straits.
In Richmond’s case, it ended up on the verge of extinction, ultimately rescued by the Save Our Skins campaign in 1990, which was the same year the Magpies broke their 32-year premiership drought.
Over the course of the 35 years since then, Richmond and Collingwood have experienced the highs and lows of AFL football. More recently, they have won their fair share of flags – the Tigers in 2017, 2019, 2020 and the Magpies in 2010, 2023.
Right now, the two teams are at opposite ends of the League ladder. But given the age-old rivalry that exits, nothing should be taken for granted in a Richmond v Collingwood clash.
