Richmond defender Alex Rance is helped from the ground after injuring his knee against Carlton. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

There’s no way around it. The biggest moment of another Carlton-Richmond season opener wasn’t a mark, goal, or tackle, but an injury.

Not that the Tigers’ eventual 33-point win over Carlton was a slog. There was plenty of decent football played, some great signs from new recruits and a few of the Blues’ kids.

But the moment late in the third term when champion defender Alex Rance twisted awkwardly on his right knee and was assisted from the ground by medical staff is one which could reverberate throughout not only the next couple of weeks, but an entire season for a flag favourite if the scans he will have on Friday confirm the worst.

Rance’s post-game observation that the “signs don’t look too good” and the generally subdued air of the Tigers after the win seemed to suggest a club bracing itself for the worst. Football manager Neil Balme suggested post-game doctors believed Rance had done his ACL.

His potential loss for a season would be a devastating blow, particularly with the new centre bounce rules seemingly restoring the importance of marking contests between the best forwards and defenders.

But if nothing else, Richmond proved again against the Blues that it knows how to ride through a storm. And for the loss of a champion defender, the Tigers have obviously got another huge forward presence in Tom Lynch.

It didn’t take long to get an idea how much more potent Richmond’s forward set-up could be with a second dangerous key forward.

The game was just three minutes old when Lynch allowed new teammate Jack Riewoldt to launch an early fly whilst he propped at the back of a pack and gratefully reeled in the mark.

He had his first goal in his new colours and season 2019 its first of any description. And there would be plenty more of a yellow-and-black hue to follow.

Carlton’s first couple of minutes hadn’t been too bad, but you could feel the Blues wilting by the minute under the Richmond assault, much of it launched by the young guns in the line-up.

Jack Higgins was next cab off the rank, marking and converting a quick kick into the 50 from Bachar Houli.

And first-gamer Noah Balta was responsible for the next two after that. The first came from his own considerable boot after a questionable 50-metre penalty conceded by Dale Thomas. At the very next bounce, Balta received another free, pumped the ball long, and Toby Nankervis, having a brief spell from ruck duties, played the unlikely crumbing role out the back.

Richmond wasn’t only upping the ante on the scoreboard, either. The Tigers started to dominate the contested ball, and their tackling was fierce indeed, directly responsible for their fifth goal, when new Blue Nic Newman was barrelled by a twin assault from Kane Lambert and Dan Butler and Lynch bagged his second on the turnover, strolling in unattended from 30 metres out.

It was a disaster for Carlton, and it would get even worse before it got better, Richmond winning the first centre clearance of the second term and Kamdyn McIntosh making it six goals to zip in less than a minute.

The seemingly annual debate about this particular match-up as a season-opener was in full swing already. But just as that was warming up, so, finally, did the Blues.

It was two former Magpies who combined for their belated first goal of the evening, Thomas centring to Alex Fasolo just 20 metres out. Thomas himself soon had Carlton’s second, a nice snap after the Blues had rattled off a chain of handballs for a change not under pressure. Another “newbie” Mitch McGovern made it three on end.

It was four of the last five of the half when the exciting Zac Fisher brought the margin back to 22 points right on half-time.

And there really was some genuine excitement among the Carlton hordes as the second half continued in similar vein. The spark was being delivered by the sorts of players upon whom the Blues have staked their future.

First-gamer Sam Walsh looked in his first game as he had during the JLT Series, completely at ease. His nine-possession third term had him second only to skipper Patrick Cripps on the ball-winning front with 22 disposals at the final break.

David Cunningham had been solid even as Carlton was struggling, now he had teammates jumping on board. Paddy Dow was in the thick of things. Ditto Will Setterfield. And up forward twin towers in Harry McKay and Charlie Curnow looked genuinely dangerous.

McKay brought the Blues back to within four goals with a lovely set shot from near the boundary line. From the subsequent centre bounce, the Blues, thanks in no small part to the new 6-6-6 rule, got another through Curnow.

Suddenly, Carlton was within 15 points. It had the odd further chance, too, McKay hitting the post and Setterfield missing another opportunity.

Riewoldt and Higgins steadied the ship briefly, but Carlton kept coming. A cool handball from Walsh saw veteran Marc Murphy snap a beauty. Some fierce defensive heat in the forward 50 caused a hurried Richmond clearing kick to land with import Nic Newman, who sent it straight back through the goals. Just 13 points now.

Perhaps it was going to be one of those nights. Or not. That was the Richmond of old. This version, as it proved definitively in 2017, is able to soak up the punches and deliver even heftier blows of its own in return. Which it duly did.

As soon as the final term began, the Tigers, without making a song and dance about it, simply took control of the game again. Only in terms of territory at first, mind you, but decisively enough, and for long enough, to take the wind out of Carlton’s sails.

At the five-minute mark, Higgins marked near goal, played on when he shouldn’t have, but somehow Lynch still managed a third goal out of the mess. The Tigers had already racked up seven inside 50s to just one for the term.

The killer blow wouldn’t come for another 10 minutes, but Carlton was spent anyway by the time it was delivered, Butler hammering the nail in the coffin after another crunching tackle from Jack Graham on Sam Petrevski-Seton.

Mav Weller marked his Richmond debut with one off the deck, and Nankervis made it an equal career-best three goals. The rebellion had been very efficiently quashed. And if you needed any convincing that a team which finished last home and away season two games clear on top was going to be right among it again, this should have been enough.

Carlton? Well, the Blues at least came away from this loss with a few plusses. But not for the first time after a promising pre-season, when the real stuff had rolled around, they had again been reminded that there’s still a lot of work to be done.

CARLTON 0.1 4.4 8.8 9.10 (64)
RICHMOND 5.4 7.8 10.9 14.13 (97)
GOALS – Carlton: McKay 2, Fasolo, C.Curnow, McGovern, Murphy, Fisher, Thomas, Newman. Richmond: Higgins 3, Lynch 3, Nankervis 3, Balta, Riewoldt, McIntosh, Butler, Weller.
BEST – Carlton: Cripps, Newman, Fisher, Murphy, Thomas, Setterfield, McKay. Richmond: Cotchin, Higgins, Houli, Nankervis, Lambert, Graham, Martin
INJURIES – Richmond: Rance (knee)
Umpires: Meredith, Findlay, Fleer
Crowd: 85,016 at the MCG