SOME games have extra spice because of a club v club rivalry that goes back decades. Others, like Thursday night's game between Geelong and the Western Bulldogs, are far more personal.

All eyes will be on Bailey Smith at GMHBA Stadium when he takes on his old Western Bulldogs teammates, with some pre-match verbal sparring setting the stage for an intriguing battle between these friends turned foes.

For whatever reason, some rivalries - between one player and another, or one player and an entire club - just feel different and ensure any on-field match-up is much watch TV.

Ahead of Smith's reunion with the Bulldogs, take a look back at some games from history where the build-up was often as exciting and fiery as the match itself.

Wayne Carey v North Melbourne

Of the 311 games Glenn Archer played in his career, he says he was never as nervous as he was before North Melbourne's game against Adelaide in 2003. After Roos legend Wayne Carey had blown up the club a year earlier after it emerged he had had an affair with the wife of teammate Anthony Stevens, he returned to face his old club wearing an Adelaide jumper. The build-up - unsurprisingly given the circumstances - was massive, with Archer later recalling he asked Stevens just moments before the game, 'what are we doing - playing or fighting?' After some initial flashpoints, things went up a gear in the second quarter when first Stevens and then Archer targeted Carey in front of a pro-Roos crowd that booed their former champion whenever he got near the ball. While most rivalries stay on the field, this one lasted decades. - Martin Smith

Hayden Ballantyne v Geelong

Ballantyne frustrated rivals throughout his 171-game AFL career, but the Dockers forward perhaps got under the skin of Geelong players more than any others. That frustration boiled over for Cats great Matthew Scarlett in round one, 2012, when the defender floored Ballantyne with a punch that resulted in a three-match ban. Ballantyne was suspended for two games in the same match after an off-the-ball hit on Paul Chapman. The following year, Cats star Steve Johnson was banned for striking Ballantyne during a pre-season game. A fast and skilful small forward, Ballantyne's niggling tactics were a feature throughout his career, and with Ryan Crowley also deployed as a tagger in that time (see below), the Dockers frustrated multiple opponents. Ballantyne was fined for pinching Gary Ablett jnr in 2010 and for pulling Collingwood defender Heritier Lumumba's hair in the same year. – Dejan Kalinic

Ed Langdon v Collingwood

Demons winger Ed Langdon went rogue on a Melbourne radio station ahead of his side's clash with Collingwood in round 21, 2022, declaring the Magpies "all duck, no dinner" and a "one-trick pony". The fuse was lit, and it didn't take long before Collingwood players let him know all about it. Within the first minute of the game, the ball flicked out to Langdon's wing, where he gathered it and was met in a crunching tackle from Brayden Maynard. Another three Magpies jumped in before a mini scuffle broke out. Pies fans also let the premiership Demon know how they felt, fervently booing him throughout the game. While the quietly spoken Langdon later clarified that he was merely trying to highlight the strengths of the Pies but got his wording wrong, he's rarely been sighted in front of a microphone since uttering those now-infamous words. – Alison O'Connor

Toby Greene v the Bulldogs

Where do we begin with this one? The Dogs v Giants rivalry is spicy enough, but Toby Greene is the primary antagonist in what has become one of the game's fiercest feuds. The animosity between Greene and the Dogs stretches back to 2017, when he raised his boot in a marking contest, kicking Luke Dahlhaus in the face and drawing blood. Greene was hit with a fine, but the incident sparked widespread criticism and later led to a rule change. Another layer was added when a Bulldogs fan poured beer over Greene post-match. Later that year, Greene was suspended for striking Caleb Daniel, but tensions reached boiling point in a fiery elimination final in 2019. Greene clashed repeatedly with Marcus Bontempelli, pulling his hair, digging his forearm into his head, and - most notoriously - appearing to make contact with his fingers to Bont's eye region, leading to yet another fine for serious misconduct. Toby certainly doesn't play a lone hand in the animosity and dislike, with the Dogs and Giants continuing to be one of best current on-field rivalries in the game. – Alison O'Connor

Tony Liberatore v Matthew Knights

Of the many grudges held against champion Bulldog Tony Liberatore, probably the most famous was that with Matthew Knights. It started behind play in round two, 2001, with Knights getting to his feet, blood pouring from his forehead after a hit that landed Liberatore a five-week ban. Anticipation for the rematch started immediately, with Tigers coach Danny Frawley saying post-game "We're a proud club, and every Dog has its day". When the teams lined up 12 rounds later, Knights went straight to 'Libba' in the middle but, a bit of push and shove aside, fighting was avoided. With a rare finals chance in the offing, Richmond let its football do the talking, winning a cliffhanger by two points. After the game Knights said: "It's been a big week. We had to wait 15 rounds to have another crack at them. We said at the start of the game, 'Focus on the footy, do the team things and it eventually paid off'." Liberatore also had a long-running feud with Sydney star Paul Kelly after the Swan received unexplained scratches to his face in a 1997 game. The relationship never truly healed, despite the pair filming a Bushells commercial that implied all differences can be settled over a cup of tea. – Howard Kimber 

Steven Baker v Steve Johnson

The lead up for this grudge match in 2010 was quieter than its sequel, but was on the game's biggest stage in the Grand Final as Baker used every tactic at his disposal to keep Johnson to nine disposals and scoreless. When the pair met again the next year, Johnson, despite having secured a premiership medal, wanted to even the score. The pair fought throughout, and by the end of the match Johnson faced two reports and Baker four, three for striking and one for repeatedly hitting the Cat's broken right hand, an injury Baker said was sustained when Johnson punched him in the head. Baker was eventually rubbed out for nine games and Johnson for three, a period he later said he expected to miss due to the hand injury anyway, so he took the opportunity for a literal 'free hit' on the tagging Saint. – Howard Kimber

Jack Ginnivan v Ken Hinkley and the Power

It was a feud sparked by an Instagram post and Jack Ginnivan and Hawthorn's trip to face the Power in last year's semi-final lived up to the hype. Commenting on a post by Sydney star Brodie Grundy, Ginnivan wrote "see u in 14 days", suggesting the Hawks would beat the Power and face the Swans in a preliminary final. In a semi-final thriller, the Power came out on top by three points, and coach Ken Hinkley celebrated by mimicking an aeroplane celebration in Ginnivan's direction, angering Hawks captain James Sicily. The Power were fined $20,000 for Hinkley's actions. The build-up to the next meeting between the two teams was immense but the game itself was all but over at half-time, with the Power making a stunning start on their way to an upset 30-point win. – Dejan Kalinic

Matthew Lloyd v Hawthorn

It was the one day Matthew Lloyd wondered if he should finish the game on the bench as he feared for his safety. The animosity between old rivals Essendon and Hawthorn had grown to such a point after Lloyd's bump knocked out Brad Sewell in the round 22 clash in 2009. With a finals spot on the line and the Bombers trailing by 22 points at half-time, Lloyd came off the edge of the square and concussed Sewell with a bump that created mayhem in what proved to be the Essendon champion's last game. Campbell Brown labelled Lloyd a "sniper" and coach Alastair Clarkson was sanctioned for his behaviour after the match. The game came five years after the 'line in the sand' match that included multiple fights and melees. In 2005, Brown was suspended for four matches for striking Lloyd multiple times in a match in which the Bombers forward escaped a ban for contact on the Hawk. – Dejan Kalinic

Ryan Crowley v Steve Johnson

Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley claimed plenty of big scalps in his career - just ask Gary Ablett and Brent Harvey - but his rivalry with Steve Johnson topped the lot. With the two clubs near the top of the ladder during the early part of the 2010s, Crowley being sent straight to Johnson was a guarantee whenever they played each other. It reached a tipping point in 2014, when Johnson copped a one-match ban for headbutting his Dockers opponent. But the Cats star insisted the bad blood did not extend off the field. "It's like most football relationships - out on the field you're massive enemies and then when you actually catch up and get to meet these guys, you find out that they’re very similar to what you are," he said in 2017. – Martin Smith

Jason Akermanis v Jared Crouch

Sydney's Jared Crouch was one of the most in-your-face taggers of the 2000s and, boy, didn't he love a stoush with Brisbane great Jason Akermanis. The three-time premiership star hated - and we mean hated - his on-field rival, at one stage calling him a "hack", a "serial pest" and a "cheat". Akermanis even once joked that Crouch held him more than his wife did on their honeymoon. Perhaps their most famous run-in came in Akermanis' last season at the Lions in 2006 when he smacked Crouch on the backside in frustration at the close checking. Their heated rivalry even continued when Akermanis moved to the Western Bulldogs, with Swans coach Paul Roos notably recalling Crouch from the reserves specifically to face the Brownlow medallist in 2007. - Brandon Cohen

Josh Carr v Mark Ricciuto

Technically this wasn’t Carr v Ricciuto as the champion Crow missed the grudge match with a hamstring, but it was an altercation between the pair after Showdown 11 three months earlier that made the 12th edition the hottest one yet. Inexplicably, both clubs met at the Ramsgate Hotel after the first clash - like rival gangs in West Side Story - but there was no singing and dancing in this version. Amongst various spot fires, the highlight of the night was 'Roo' throwing Carr over the bonnet of a vehicle outside the pub after the Power tagger "went to knee me in the bits", as Ricciuto recalled years later. The fight only broke up when players heard police sirens coming. Ahead of the next meeting, Adelaide's Nigel Smart went on the radio and poetically said, "We just want to get into them and bash them". A record crowd turned out to see a spiteful clash that Port won by eight points, with Carr kicking the sealer late in the fourth quarter and Mark Bickley copping a five-match suspension after shattering Darryl Wakelin's cheekbone. – Howard Kimber

Greg Williams v Sean Denham

A rivalry that lasted most of the 1990s started during the 1993 Grand Final, when Carlton star Williams threw a punch that broke the nose of Essendon tagger Denham in the Bombers' premiership triumph. Four years later, Williams controversially received a nine-game ban for touching an umpire, who had intervened in a verbal dispute with - you guessed it - Denham. Two huge clubs, two huge rivals and a personal conflict that matches any of the era. - Martin Smith