If Richmond-Carlton Stops Opening the Season, Is It Only a Fixture Change?
The 2027 season is already being squeezed by another MCG tradition: the 150th anniversary Test between Australia and England. That has left Richmond’s familiar Carlton opener unconfirmed.
On paper, this is a logistics problem. If the Test runs five days, the MCG has only a narrow window to turn from a cricket ground into an AFL venue.
But Richmond-Carlton has become more than a date on the fixture. Repetition built a ritual, a major crowd and a familiar starting point for supporters. During a rebuild, those fixed points can matter precisely because so much else is changing.
The interesting issue is not whether Richmond owns an opening-night entitlement. It does not. It is whether one exceptional scheduling problem simply bends a tradition for a year, or quietly changes something the two clubs spent years making valuable.
Is 2027 a one-off interruption — or the moment Richmond learns how permanent a “traditional” fixture really is?
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