For me, it's Essendon and Carlton.

These two clubs have been at a disproportionate share of our important moments in the last 20 years, right from the 2000 finals to the 2016 shock losses.

I'll come back and edit this post later with a listing of the significant moments.

 

It's hard. My initial thoughts:

 

Essendon - drug fiends and I've never forgiven Michael Long re Troy Simmonds.

West Coast - see Essendon, plus they stole a Premiership

Geelong - smug bastards and supporters with dubious backgrounds in Western District animal husbandry

Hawthorn - see Geelong with the added bonus of supporters who can't lose gracefully, don't know the game and probably beat their dogs

GWS - artificial construct that's been given the world

Gold Coast - see GWS plus Gary Junior's a [censored]

St Kilda - hated Ross Lyon and Riewoldt's an albino

Freo - continue to hate Ross Lyon and Ballintyne is an aggressive midget

 

Upon reflection, this is a list that is reflective of my own hatreds rather than actual rivalries.

Edited March 22, 20178 yr by Return to Glory

I still have a deep, cold, inner hatred for all things Collingwood that will not fade or die. It's in the blood. My great-grandfather was a passionate Dees man who despised Collingwood during the 1920's, my Nan followd on, my Mum remembers the great Melbourne-Collingwood rivalry of the 50's and 60's, and I simply hate them.

For modern rivals we probably don't have one due to our lack of success, but I hate Essendon. The 2000 season with their Sheedy-instilled thuggery, hubris and arrogance ended on GF day when a brilliant young Dees team was beaten into the turf. I just want to annihilate them. Even more since their doping scandal. I was at the MCG the day Whelan hit Hird hard and although I don't like footy thugs I do remember standing and celebrating. I wish they had folded to be honest.

GWS is an interesting one. My daughter and I go the Dees-GWS match each year calling it our "annual booing of Tom Scully game", and enjoy giving it to him (along with about 20,000 other Dees supporters) every time he does near the ball. But as a team they remain irrelevant to me. 

Collingwood for me. We have 5 of our 12 flags against that mob. Not only that, but that rivalry was once the white v blue collar clubs back in the day. Amazing to think we are the battlers these days!

I reckon over the last couple years we’ve formed quite a rivalry with the cats given we’ve played a few big games over those years and all very entertaining despite losing the majority but just a thought and I personally hate Geelong but can’t think why it just feels right 

Geelong fits as a rival, 2 oldest clubs and some bang up games in the last 5 years.

I'd still give the filth the chocolates. 

Brisbane has become one I reckon. Clashes in recent years have been pretty spiteful, thanks largely to the likes of Zorko. But maybe it's just me living here in Qld.

On 3/22/2017 at 11:28 AM, chook fowler said:

Our own internal demons

This comment still holds up well 

The hatred of the Black and White is inbuilt within us, even though I like a lot of their players I can’t stand anything about them on game day, same with the Bombers and Cats but for different reasons Dons always had class and mongrel in equal amounts will never forgive or forget 2000 Dean Wallis still rankles as a cowardly thug. Cats privileged smug B’s that get every thing served up on Silver platters, hate Methcoast for what the AFL let them get away with. The rest are ok unless we are playing them then it’s white line fever hate them all.!!!

Surely we can only call an opponent a rival in the sense that we're using here if said opponent feels the same way about our club. It takes two to tango yeah? I doubt the first thing supporters of any other club look for when the fixture drops each year is when they play Melbourne. Nobody at Rangers or Celtic are eagerly waiting to find out when they next play Partick Thistle. 

 

Filth and Geelong.

3 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Surely we can only call an opponent a rival in the sense that we're using here if said opponent feels the same way about our club. It takes two to tango yeah? I doubt the first thing supporters of any other club look for when the fixture drops each year is when they play Melbourne. Nobody at Rangers or Celtic are eagerly waiting to find out when they next play Partick Thistle. 

 

I disagree.

Since winning the flag, opposition supporters love to beat us.

I'd like to throw an obvious rivalry in there, and that's the Bulldogs.

At that Marvel game last year, I sat on the wing with @billy_blog and the Bulldog supporters around us were hugely spiteful towards us, I thought.

When you lose a GF in the way they did to us, on top of the rivalry that was building in 2021, it has to stick a bit.

On 3/22/2017 at 7:43 AM, Bobby Clark said:

who is our biggest rival? do we even have one? I know Collingwood is an old arch rival but to them (today's pie fans) they don't give a toss about us nor think we have a rivalry.. 

I reckon they don't like us much atm.

23 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Surely we can only call an opponent a rival in the sense that we're using here if said opponent feels the same way about our club. It takes two to tango yeah? I doubt the first thing supporters of any other club look for when the fixture drops each year is when they play Melbourne. Nobody at Rangers or Celtic are eagerly waiting to find out when they next play Partick Thistle. 

 

I think in the last 2 years everyone has circled Melbourne on the fixture list especially Filth, Ferals, Dogs and Lions.

Edited June 26, 20231 yr by YesitwasaWin4theAges

On 3/22/2017 at 5:51 PM, Maldonboy38 said:

I still have a deep, cold, inner hatred for all things Collingwood that will not fade or die. It's in the blood. My great-grandfather was a passionate Dees man who despised Collingwood during the 1920's, my Nan followd on, my Mum remembers the great Melbourne-Collingwood rivalry of the 50's and 60's, and I simply hate them.

For modern rivals we probably don't have one due to our lack of success, but I hate Essendon. The 2000 season with their Sheedy-instilled thuggery, hubris and arrogance ended on GF day when a brilliant young Dees team was beaten into the turf. I just want to annihilate them. Even more since their doping scandal. I was at the MCG the day Whelan hit Hird hard and although I don't like footy thugs I do remember standing and celebrating. I wish they had folded to be honest.

GWS is an interesting one. My daughter and I go the Dees-GWS match each year calling it our "annual booing of Tom Scully game", and enjoy giving it to him (along with about 20,000 other Dees supporters) every time he does near the ball. But as a team they remain irrelevant to me. 

That wasn't thuggery by Wheels that was as pure footballing hit that you will ever likely see, would stand up in today's AFL judicial system.

2 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

That wasn't thuggery by Wheels that was as pure footballing hit that you will ever likely see, would stand up in today's AFL judicial system.

Maybe not would have got weeks.😂

27 minutes ago, A F said:

I disagree.

Since winning the flag, opposition supporters love to beat us.

I'd like to throw an obvious rivalry in there, and that's the Bulldogs.

At that Marvel game last year, I sat on the wing with @billy_blog and the Bulldog supporters around us were hugely spiteful towards us, I thought.

When you lose a GF in the way they did to us, on top of the rivalry that was building in 2021, it has to stick a bit.

Hi AF. Yeah, I'd agree that the Bulldogs are probably the closest thing to having a genuine rivalry but it probably needs to play out over a longer period of time before we'll know for sure. Add a couple of onfield incidents to the mix and we'll be well on the way to an annual grudge game. 

26 minutes ago, YesitwasaWin4theAges said:

I think in the last 2 years everyone has circled Melbourne on the fixture list especially Filth, Ferals, Dogs and Lions.

I'd wager that Collingwood still look to see when they are playing Carlton first and vice versa. Essendon are more interested in trying to play and win a final than anything else but would also consider those two clubs as being their biggest rivals and the teams they want to beat above anyone else. I agree that the others you mention will certainly be circling us on the fixture as we arguably stand in their way of any immediate success, much like we do with them but that would have to play out over a longer period of time I think for it to manifest into much more than that. 

For what it's worth I'm not really bothered about whether we have a rival or not, real or manufactured. We're a boutique middle of the road sized team in the biggest footballing city of the country and I'm quite happy with that as I don't think it affects our chances of being successful and I don't particularly want to be a club that everyone hates. 

You know your club is screwed if its rivals are the Saints.

Hawthorn doesnt like us and hates losing. (a friend of mine played for hawks for years). Hawthorn will still blame Bourke for ruining Hudsons career as he was peaking. Bulldogs is an interesting one growing out of 2021 Grand Final and they too are premiers.

Collingwood and Eddie couldnt give AF about us. That will only change if we beat them in finals.  Our H&A record is appalling against them.

Richmond and Anzac Eve could become huge if both our teams keep winning .

Port v Crows, Eagles v Freo are probably the most ferocious of all rivalries as theyre both 2 team towns.

Edited June 26, 20231 yr by Deebauched

Our greatest rival....

Surely it's the AFL itself. 

Think about it 

Tasmania

Build a rivalry with them and claim it. It can be a Demons v Devils thing. I don't think we will be in the sights of the bigger (but not better) Victorian clubs, except when both teams are doing well. So lets start a new one.

13 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Our greatest rival....

Surely it's the AFL itself. 

Think about it 

The mob that installed Peter Jackson to steer us from rock bottom to premiers?

”Apart from that, what else has the AFL done for us…?”

20 hours ago, A F said:

I disagree.

Since winning the flag, opposition supporters love to beat us.

I'd like to throw an obvious rivalry in there, and that's the Bulldogs.

At that Marvel game last year, I sat on the wing with @billy_blog and the Bulldog supporters around us were hugely spiteful towards us, I thought.

When you lose a GF in the way they did to us, on top of the rivalry that was building in 2021, it has to stick a bit.

Definitely, there was a feeling different to previous Dogs encounters that night.

I'd say hatred from the Cats towards us has definitely built up in the last 2 years too.

Definite antipathy towards us (and the dogs) from St. Kilda after we both broke our Premiership droughts, leaving them .......well... ....nowhere.

traditional rivals - filth and geelong

modern rivals - footscray and the bears