Throughout 2026, we are cranking up the Tigerland time machine and transporting yellow and black barrackers back to 1966 to relive a pivotal year in Richmond’s history.

Our focus today is on the Tigers’ Round 9 match of the ’66 season against eventual premiers that year, St Kilda. Here is The Age newspaper’s review of the contest.

St Kilda must have used up all its fighting spirit in beating Essendon on Queen’s Birthday, for there was very little of it left when it met Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.

Instead of carrying on where they left off in their triumph over last year’s premiers, the Saints submitted rather meekly to a thrashing...and what a thrashing!

They were a perfect example of a group of players who had geared themselves mentally for a clash they wanted very much to win, and then had suffered a let-down after they had succeeded.

Listless and jaded, they let themselves be out-paced, out-thought, out-marked, out-bumped and out-rucked, and no matter how they tried or what they did, they had no answer to it.

But few teams could have beaten Richmond on Saturday’s form.

This time it was the Tigers who had geared themselves to win, and they went about it in a cohesive team effort that made it almost impossible for St Kilda to get into the play.

The Tigers wanted the ball with a determination that made St Kilda’s approach to the game look pallid, and for about 70 of the 100 minutes they hardly gave the Saints a touch.

They spent the first 10 minutes of the game wasting time with a bit of over-anxious fumbling, then settled into a pacy display that dazed and disorganised the Saints.

All over the field the Tigers took control – in the ruck, the air, around the packs, in defence, and in most fixed positions.

They went in for the ball with enthusiasm, won it – or recovered in a flash if they didn’t – kept it moving with a speed that left the Saints floundering and backed up all the time.

Their handball, particularly when under pressure, was a treat to watch, and because it was their day it rarely failed to work.

While the Saints struggled to develop a couple of winning players there were Richmond winners everywhere – Roger Dean, Mike Patterson, Mike Perry, Frank Dimattina, Ross Warner and almost anyone else you would care to name.

In desperation St Kilda swung players all over the field, but it was useless. The only effect the moves had was to leave the crowd wondering who was what.

At half-time the Tigers raced off the field, six goals clear and seemingly anxious to get the interval over so that they could get going again. The Saints trailed sadly off, giving a clear picture of a beaten side.

But strangely enough it was after half-time that the first doubts about Richmond arose. They were a winning side but they did not play like a team that knew how to win.

It was not so much a case of St Kilda lifting its form as Richmond’s form falling away, and as the Saints slowly reduced their deficit the Tigers showed the first signs of panic as they began to play the man.

But they got over it. They had to, because they had so many individual winners and so many winning lines, while the Saints only had triers and nothing else.

Stand-in ruckman John Ronaldson steadied them down with four successive defensive marks right in the teeth of goal, and as the Saints’ hopes of a revival faded Richmond came back.

By the last quarter the Tigers were just as much on top again as they had been in the second, and St Kilda was merely going through the motions as it waited for the siren.

Match details
Richmond   4.5   11.8   12.11   16.13 (109)                        
St Kilda   3.2   6.2   9.6   11.8 (74)

Goals – Richmond: Guinane 5, Dimattina 2, Hogan 2, Northey 2, Clay, Moore, Patterson, A. Richardson, Warner. 
Leading possession-winners – Richmond: A. Richardson 23, Brown 20, Dean 19, Hogan 18, Patterson 18, Warner 18.
Best – Richmond: M. Perry (best on ground), Dean, Guinane, Patterson, Strang, A. Richardson, Northey, Brown.

Goals – St Kilda: Morrow 3, Mynott 3, Rowland 2, Howell, Moran, Neale.
Leading possession-winners – St Kilda: Read 28, Head 20, Dowling 18, Morrow 17, Kennedy 16.
Best – St Kilda: Head, Mynott, Baker, Morrow, Read, Neale.

Attendance: 55,426