What’s the old saying? Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer? It’s something like that.
The Bulldogs and the Tigers have what I would describe as an almost forgotten rivalry. In Round 2, 2001, Richmond hosted the Western Bulldogs at the MCG in front of a healthy crowd.
The game is remembered because of an altercation between Tony Liberatore and Matthew Knights in the centre square. A wild melee ensued, and Matthew Knights left the ground with blood pouring out of his face. I was playing my fifth league game.
A lot of things collided in my little world that day. I’d grown up barracking for the Tigers, but trying to emulate Leon Cameron’s style of play.
My opponent on this day? Leon Cameron.
My instruction from Terry Wallace was to play on the half forward flank and nullify the graceful Leon at half back.
I was all at sea against one of my heroes and my old team. I think Leon may have even featured in the Brownlow voting for this game.
Despite growing up as an avid Tigers supporter, I dropped them like a hot potato when I was drafted by the Bulldogs in 1999. It was easier than you might think.
Having said that though, it was quite a jump to witness the moment the Tigers went from our opponent to our arch nemesis.
Which is exactly what happened after Libba and Knighter’s ‘little run in’. It was a two-way street. The Tigers hated us.
Over the next few years those games were played with a heightened intensity. They weren’t finals, but the atmosphere felt like a final each time.
Added to the mix was an unusual level of cross pollination in the form of trades and moves. A quick run through of players to cross clubs are Ben Harrison, Nathan Brown, Leon Cameron, Patrick Bowden and later, Jordan McMahon.
In isolation, this might not mean that much, I mean, players are traded from club to club every year, but the on-field rivalry was magnified by off-field friendships that ran deep.
The Dogs and the Tigers of that era often drank together and socialised. It was a friendship that contained shards of competitiveness and spite. Like the ripples of mould in a wedge of blue vein cheese.
The Dogs and the Tigers of this modern era are not a classic rivalry as such, but these things can spark up just when you least expect it.
The Bulldogs will be hoping to upset the ladder-leaders to exit the season on a high of four wins in a row, but we’ll have to be at our best as the Tigers have shown their will and class all year.
There’s a sense of melancholy this week for the Bulldogs, as there always is at this time of year, this being our last game of the season.
The Tigers are about to launch an assault on their flag defence, and we are not. Still, when there’s four points up for grabs and you’re representing the clan, the blood runs hot.
In a rare show of peace and goodwill this week, the Tigers and the Dogs traded soldiers, but only for the purposes of podcasting gold.
Matthew ‘Richo’ Richardson made his way out to the kennel for a sit-down chat on our club’s podcast ‘Freedom in a Cage’, and we took a walk down memory lane.
There was no spite to be seen or heard, there was no blue veins. For Richo and I, the war is over.
It only seemed right that I should also cross to Punt Road for the Tigers podcast and partake in some football nostalgia.
This is the indulgence for old footballers, laughing and smiling at the stories and the drama. For the boys of today, the veins of passion rage and everyone wants to win.
