Tigers v Pies in 100-year-old passion play
There’s magic on a night like this, when nearly 100,000 Melburnians gather around the MCG’s towering floodlights.
There’s magic on a night like this, a night when nearly 100,000 Melburnians gather around the MCG’s towering floodlights like moths to a giant sporting flame for the next instalment of the seething century-old AFL rivalry between the Collingwood Magpies and Richmond Tigers. It’s as good and big as it gets in Australian sport.
The atmosphere when the House Full sign goes up outside this colossal venue, when the decibels go through the roof and these two warhorse clubs fight for a place in the grand final, to be gleefully secured at the expense of the other mob, will be as electrifying and tense as the first strides of a Melbourne Cup or the opening delivery of a Boxing Day Test.
Two neighbouring inner-city foes clash in the finals for the first time in 38 years and while they hail from the same area in working-class Melbourne, if we can use the vernacular to describe the mutual feelings, one club wouldn’t piss on the other if it was on fire.
The support bases for Collingwood and Richmond are huge. Unparalleled. There’s a combined 180,000 members, which literally means that not even the sprawling 97,000-seat MCG can fit them all in. By comparison, the clubs involved in tomorrow night’s blockbuster NRL derby between two other 100-year clubs, the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters, have a combined membership of 45,000.
The AFL is the land of giants in Australian sport and within the nationwide premiership itself, these two clubs have the biggest footprints. Their history is a bitter one, filled with anger, fighting, controversy, heart, emotion. When Mick Molloy, the Melbourne comedian, radio host and Richmond tragic, called for today to be a public holiday in Victoria, he was only half joking.
Every ticket for tonight’s match was snapped up in the 30-minute window for members on Monday morning. Which means every supporter has an emotional investment in the result. Emotions are amplified. If you win, there’s the added glee of the losers being the team you hate the most. If you lose, seeing the enemy celebrate can be unbearable.
The Tigers and Pies met for a pre-game clash at the borderline of Collingwood and Richmond yesterday where the corners of the two suburbs meet at the intersection of Hoddle and Victoria streets.
Or at least a few of their cheerleaders did. Jess and Anthony Aloi, who live in Richmond, had their children — Arabella, Alfie, and Charlie — decked out in yellow and black with tiger hats.
“I painted the fence yellow and black last year when we won,” Anthony said. “I think I might paint the roof this time ... it’s going to be such a good game against Collingwood. We’ll win by 45 points.”
Alfie Aloi had a bit more faith than his father, saying: “We’re going to win by 105 points.”
On the Collingwood side, Ebony Smith, 9, from Reservoir, was on the Pies bandwagon, despite an old family rivalry. “My nan and I are Collingwood, my dad is a Richmond supporter ... I’ve bet $50 with dad that the Pies will win,” she told The Australian. “I think I’ll win the $50.”
Kerri Watts was there with her son Mason, aged three. A Collingwood supporter, she said: “I’m so excited that we made it this far, I didn’t expect it ... we need to knock the Tigers off their perch.”
Richmond won last year’s premiership off the back of fanatical support and the magic boot of Dustin Martin. Yet if there’s one club that can match the defending champs for numbers and deafening voices, it’s Collingwood.
There are three forces at play at the MCG when it’s a full house. Two teams. And the crowd. It feels like a living, breathing entity of its own.
“It’s going to be a tough challenge,” Tigers player Shane Edwards said. “We haven’t faced a 50-50 crowd in finals. The crowd factor is huge. They keep the momentum going and they give you that little bit of adrenaline you might not have had.
“It’s an even home ground kind of game. It’s all external noise. We’re going to have to embrace everything that comes from outside the white lines.”
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