Richmond's AFL premiership defence has opened with a major scare before powering away from Carlton for a 26-point win at the MCG.
Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin and Blues young guns Patrick Cripps and Charlie Curnow starred as the Tigers won 17.19 (121) to 15.5 (95) on Thursday night in a pulsating start to the season.
The blockbuster crowd of 90,151 is a record for round one and the 11th best for a home-and-away match.
Injuries cruelled the Blues' chances of a massive upset, with Matthew Kennedy forced out of the game before halftime and star ruckman Matthew Kreuzer hobbled by a groin injury in the third term.
Blues coach Brendon Bolton said Kreuzer will have tests, but doubts he will be a long-term injury.
Bolton added Kennedy's loss was significant, given his role as an inside midfielders, but said the injuries were no excuse.
While Martin starred, he was not at his best and coach Damien Hardwick said the midfielder's game summed up the night for Richmond.
Hardwick added they would need to played much better in next Thursday's grand final rematch at Adelaide Oval.
"He was probably reflective of us as a side - he was okay in stages, but he certainly has some work to do in stages as well," Hardwick said of Martin.
"The pleasing for us, we played well enough to win.
"But we certainly have to get better for Adelaide."
Carlton showed plenty of signs that this might be a breakout season when they kicked the first five goals of the match.
Richmond closed out the match with six goals to three in the last term.
Four of Carlton's goals resulted from 50m penalties, the product of an AFL crackdown on the protected zone.
"As long as it's consistently paid for the remainder of the weekend, I'm happy," Hardwick said.
"We gave away too many cheap free kicks."
The evening started with Richmond's pre-game ceremony to unfurl their historic premiership flag.
But Carlton immediately busted the party wide open with five goals in 11 minutes.
Richmond just as quickly stopped the rot, rallying with the next four goals.
Bolton said they were disappointed to lead by just nine points at quarter time.
"Our group is pretty edgy - they're holding themselves to high account," he said.
"There were some opportunities for us in that game and we let them slip."
The Tigers took the lead for the first time at the start of the third term and there were another eight lead changes until early in the last quarter.
Then Martin's brilliance was the tipping point.
He kicked an inside-out goal on the run to put the Tigers seven points ahead and they rammed through another three in five minutes to kill off Carlton's impressive challenge.
Cripps was best afield with 36 disposals, including 25 contested possessions, and Martin led the way for Richmond with 32.
Curnow and Matthew Wright kicked five goals apiece, while Jack Riewoldt and Jacob Townsend had four each for Richmond.