What were you doing on Saturday 9 May 2009?

A two-year-old Levi Ashcroft was still trying to master walking and talking, a 12-year-old Harris Andrews was in Year 7 at Aspley State School, a 16-year Lachie Neale had not long left the family home in Kybybolite in country South Australia to finish school at St.Peter’s College in Adelaide, and a 20-year-old Dayne Zorko was on his way to being overlooked for the third time in the AFL Draft.

Kevin Rudd had succeeded John Howard as Australian Prime Minister in a lineage that would later include Julia Gillard, Rudd (again), Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and now Anthony Albanese. And Anna Bligh had taken over from Peter Beattie as Queensland Premier before later making way for Campbell Newman, Annastacia Palaszczuk, Steven Miles and now David Crisafulli.

A litre of petrol cost 98.9 cents, a loaf of bread was $2.96 and two litres of milk was $2.27 as Collingwood 335-gamer Steele Sidebottom made his AFL debut and Sydney 300-gamer Michael O’Loughlin became the 47^th player to kick 500 AFL goals. All on the 60^th birthday of singer/songwriter Billy Joel.

The AFL coaching panel in 2009 comprised Neil Craig (Adelaide), Michael Voss (Brisbane), Brett Ratten (Carlton), Mick Malthouse (Collingwood), Matthew Knights (Essendon), Mark Harvey (Fremantle), Mark Thompson (Geelong), Alastair Clarkson (Hawthorn), Dean Bailey (Melbourne), Dani Laidley (North Melbourne), Mark Williams (Port Adelaide), Terry Wallace (Richmond), Ross Lyon (St.Kilda), Paul Roos (Sydney), Rodney Eade (W/Bulldogs) and John Worsfold (W/Coast) as the football world awaited the ‘birth’ of the Gold Coast Suns in 2011 and the GWS Giants in 2012.

And… the Brisbane Lions last beat Richmond at the MCG.

It was Round 7 in Voss’ first season as coach of the club he’d skippered to premierships in 2001-02-03. Coming off a 43-point win over Essendon in Dustin Fletcher’s 300^th AFL game, the ninth-placed Lions beat the 15^th-placed Tigers by 26 points.

The visitors trailed by 19 points at quarter-time but, led by four goals from captain and best afield Jonathan Brown, they kicked 6-0 to 2-1 in the final term to win 15-7 (97) to 10-11 (71).

Only five premiership players from the golden era - Brown, Simon Black, Luke Power, Daniel Bradshaw and Ash McGrath – were still playing as an 18-year-old Daniel Rich played his seventh game.

It will 5444 days ago on Saturday when the Lions return to the MCG for the first time since grand final day 2024 looking to tame the Tigers again. At last.

It’s the empty box on the checklist that coach Chris Fagan has carried through 192 games at the helm. They’ve beaten every other side home and away after posting ‘away’ wins against West Coast, Western Bullldogs and Geelong late last year, although it will irk the veteran coach that his only ‘away’ wins against Hawthorn have been in Launceston. He’s yet to beat his former club in three meetings in Melbourne.

After the 2009 win Brisbane lost 15 in a row to Richmond before breaking through in the 2020 quarter-final at the Gabba. They split two games against Richmond in each of 2021 and 2022, beat them by 81 points at the Gabba in 2023 and by 119 points at the Gabba last year, when Charlie Cameron and Kai Lohmann kicked five apiece as Neale, Zorko and Lohmann took the Brownlow votes in the biggest win of Fagan’s coaching career.

Neale polled three votes in each game against Richmond in 2023-24 to join foundation Brisbane Bears player Geoff Raines as the club’s equal leading vote-getter in games against the Tigers with 10.

It won’t disappoint coach Fagan that Dustin Martin is no longer playing for the Tigers – he polled a staggering 21 medal votes against the Lions in 19 home-and-away games – more votes than he polled against any other club.

Neale also holds the single-game possession record between the clubs – a career-best and club record 51 at the MCG in Round 23 2019, when he picked up three votes in a losing side.

The record for most goals by a Brisbane player against Richmond goes all the way back to 1988, when Warwick Capper booted eight as third-game Queenslander Tony Lynn kicked four in an 48-point Carrara win.

The Richmond possession record against Brisbane is 40 shared by Nathan Foley in 2011 and Martin in 2017, both at the MCG, while Jeff Hogg and Matthew Richardson share the Richmond goal-kicking mark with seven at the MCG in 1993 and ’94 respectively.

Hugh McCluggage, best afield for the Lions against Geelong last weekend, will go into Saturday’s game needing 12 possessions to take his career tally to 4026 and displace Tom Rockliff (4025) from 10^th spot on the all-time tally.

Neale needs 18 possessions on Saturday to become the 12^th Brisbane player to 4000 possessions after Ryan Lester last weekend was the 18^th to 3000.

The Lions, 3-0 this year after going 0-3 to start 2024, will be looking to post their first 4-0 start since 2010. They also began 4-0 in 2002 before their best beginning in 2003, when they had five wins and a draw in the first six games.

Levi Ashcroft will play his first AFL game at the MCG, where his father Marcus played a club record 38 times, finishing his 318-game career at ‘headquarters’ with the 2003 grand final win.

Harris Andrews will play his 20^th MCG game, becoming the 20^th member of the 20-Plus club with Ashcroft (38), Simon Black (34), Shaun Hart (34), Darryl White (32), Justin Leppitsch (29), Luke Power (28), Michael Voss (27), Nigel Lappin (27), Jason Akermanis (26), Alastair Lynch (24, Craig McRae (24), Tim Notting (24), Jonathan Brown (23), Chris Scott (23), Chris Johnson (23, Daniel Rich (23), Daniel Bradshaw (22), Dayne Zorko (21) and Ash McGrath (21).

Lachie Neale will play his 29^th overall and his 15^th in Brisbane colours as Bruce Reville, too, will play his first MCG game if selected.

Overall, Brisbane have a 22-1-68 record from 91 visits to the MCG – and that’s after they won three of four last year, beating Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney while losing by a point to Collingwood in Round 23. They endured a 1-15 record at the ‘G’ from 2016-23, with their only win coming against Melbourne in the 2022 semi-final by 13 points.

The club kicked its highest MCG score against Richmond on their third visit in Round 22 1987, when they kicked 26-13 (169) to 17-10 (113) to avoid the wooden-spoon in their first season. Brad Hardie kicked seven goals.

Brisbane’s biggest win at the MCG has been 93 points against Collingwood in Round 17 2017. It was 22-17 (149) to 7-14 (56) as Jared Brennan kicked seven goals.