Thursday night’s match between Carlton and Richmond at the MCG serves as the sixth consecutive occasion that the two teams meet in the opening round and the 208th time all up since Richmond was admitted to the VFL in 1908.

It’s one of a myriad of stats forensically compiled by Carlton statistician Stephen Williamson.

Williamson notes that in 115 seasons of League competition (1897-2011) Carlton has played off in Round 1 no fewer than 113 times, winning 63 and drawing six with a winning ratio of 58.41 per cent. Four of these draws occurred between 1911 and 1917, involving Essendon, Collingwood and Fitzroy twice. The club also took advantage of opening round byes in 1942 and 1991, while its round 3 match with Essendon in 1979 was actually staged prior to the opening round.

As for Carlton’s opening round debutants, Williamson has unearthed the following stats in respect of today’s senior group in terms of when, where and whom they played, and the respective matchday results;

Jarrad Waite - (2003 versus Sydney, Stadium Australia -74 points)
Heath Scotland* - (2004 versus Fremantle, Subiaco -47 points)
Eddie Betts - (2005 versus North Melbourne, Dome -20 points)
Marc Murphy - (2006 versus Melbourne, Dome +21 points)
Bryce Gibbs - (2007 versus Richmond, MCG +17 points)
Chris Judd* - (2008 versus Richmond, MCG -30 points)
Jeffery Garlett, Aaron Joseph, Mitch Robinson - (2009 versus Richmond, MCG +83 points)
Lachie Henderson*, Brock McLean*, Robert Warnock* - (2010 versus Richmond, MCG +56 points)
Ed Curnow, Nick Duigan, Jeremy Laidler* - (2011 versus Richmond, MCG +20 points)
* denotes Carlton debut

And finally for good measure, Williamson has named a team of those players to have represented both Carlton and Richmond.

Backs: Percy Sheehan, Les Abbott, Charlie Street
Half-backs: Colin Holt, Graeme Robertson, Ray Stewart
Centres: Peter Francis, Bill Barrot, Denis Collins
Half-forwards: Simon Fletcher, Ben Harrison, Ian Herman
Forwards: Albert Boromeo, Ricky McLean, Tim Powell
Followers: David Honybun, Justin Murphy
Rover: Chris Bond
Interchange from: Jack Bristow, Frank Munro, Andy Pattison, Ern Carter, Keith Rae, Charlie Anderson, Alex Johnston, Frank Rigaldi, Shaun Grigg, Andrew Collins

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