Old rivals' cold war
Jake Niall | April 13, 2007
The Age
RICHMOND has not played in a grand final since Geoff Raines and David Cloke crossed to Collingwood after the 1982 season.
The Tigers played finals only twice in the intervening 24 years, and a number of club insiders from that period believe they are yet to recover from defections of Raines, Cloke and Bryan Wood — the latter becoming an Essendon premiership player.
The departures of Cloke and Raines were part of the recriminations that followed the 1982 grand final defeat by Carlton, and the tragic upshot was that the Tigers pursued what Cloke termed a "vendetta against the Collingwood Football Club".
It was a vicious conflict between these ferocious tribes that brings to mind a Chinese proverb: "If you really want vengeance, be prepared to dig two graves."
In its desire to strike back at the Magpies, who would later plunder another prize recruit, Brian Taylor, the Tigers only dug themselves into a fiscal hole.
In the ensuing two years, they pinched journeymen Collingwood players Phillip Walsh, John Annear and Craig Stewart, along with Neil Peart, Wally Lovett and Peter McCormack; none were within a cooee of Raines, a triple best and fairest at Punt Road, or Cloke, who had captained the club in 1982.
"They were in a situation where they nearly went broke because of the money they owed," Cloke said.
"Eat em alive" degenerated into "eat your own" as coach sacking became an art form. Richmond went from powerhouse to the poorhouse and while it is now stable and profitable, the club is yet to fully regain its brand strength or stature as market leader.
"We lost our core that were taking over the leadership of the club," Raines observed yesterday. "It was unfortunate for Richmond and I think if we all had probably cooler heads, with more maturity … it should have probably been sorted out, but it wasn't. You can't turn the clock back."
The combined effect of the defections was almost tantamount to Ron Barassi leaving Melbourne for Carlton.
Raines noted that the Tigers had lost their current and former captains in Wood and Cloke, and he had three best-and-fairests; all were still in their prime. Others, like Taylor, would later join the exodus. "You're ripping out 400-500 games out of the club."
They are asked often, and Raines and Cloke are now more willing to elaborate on the basic facts behind their "treasonous" exits.
Money clearly played a part. Collingwood offered both more than Richmond, but Raines and Cloke have a similar story in that neither really wanted out, and each was upset that less seasoned teammates, including prized interstate recruit Maurice Rioli, were getting significantly more dollars than they were.
They are reluctant to discuss the role in their exits of Richmond legend Francis Bourke, the coach of the day, with whom they had issues. Raines is attending a function for Bourke's 60th birthday at Punt Road on Sunday, while Cloke has patched up his relationship with Bourke only in the past few years and did not wish to comment.
Raines said of his decision: "I believe at the time, basically, there were some issues with the coaching staff, among the players. I don't believe I was properly rewarded by the club at that stage, compared to where other people coming into the club.
"I've got nothing against Maurice (Rioli). Maurice was a great player … I think after winning three B and Fs, my stature at the club probably should have been higher. They didn't see it that way, and we had a difference of opinion.
"They had many opportunities to rectify it, and they didn't."
Raines and Cloke were dealing mainly with the club's redoubtable Godfather, Graeme Richmond. Some club stalwarts say the hierarchy — especially 'GR' — was unimpressed by Cloke's performance on battling Mario Bortolotto in the '82 grand final and that this coloured negotiations; Cloke says he never got that impression.
"I went and spoke to them about a new contract, knowing what was getting paid to players coming from interstate," Cloke recalled yesterday. "At that stage, I asked for a 10 per cent increase in what I was getting. They said 'no'… Graeme Richmond said 'no.'
"I said 'I believe I've done the hard yards here'… I stood by my guns. Then, I got approached by some other clubs, to see if I'd be interested.
"Probably the first club that approached me was Melbourne. I was going to be the third party in to the Peter Moore-Kelvin Templeton deal, that went across to Melbourne at that stage."
St Kilda, North Melbourne and Sydney would join the queue, but Cloke finally settled on the last entrant, Collingwood. "Going there, maybe helping them be successful was probably the driving point."
Cloke would spend seven years at Collingwood and two decades later three of his sons would play for the Magpies. Only one son remains — Travis, who will play against Geoff Raines' boy Andrew tonight, completing the circle of nearly 25 years.
Raines would go to court at Collingwood's instigation, taking restraint of trade action, before winning a clearance; it should not be forgotten that the Magpies, too, were to generate a Banana-Republic-sized debt partly due to the War of the Recruits; the difference was that the stronger Collingwood extricated itself from debt in the late '80s.
Raines, later to join Essendon and the Brisbane Bears, said relations between the clubs became "pretty bitter." "It was very personal."
The man with the impeccable hair quickly learnt that one did not leave Richmond for Collingwood without repercussions.
"One of the first games we played at Victoria Park, I'd had a broken nose the week before and played and obviously they found out, Richmond, and a guy called David Palm came out centre bounce and tried to, you know, re-arrange my nose again. He missed. He got reported for striking or whatever.
"As the game developed, I ran into Graeme Landy, we had a clash in mid-air and Graeme came off the worst … I got reported and knocked Graeme out.
"I went to the tribunal on the Monday night, and as you do, you talk to their advocates … I said 'yeah I'll stick up for Palmy and whatever version he wants, I'll endorse it, providing you do the same thing for me.' … So he goes on first, he gets off and they wheel Graeme Landy in in a wheelchair and they reckon he's just got out of hospital. I got four weeks."
That's a rivalry.
THE TIGERS SINCE 1983PLAYED 525
WON 208
LOST 317
DRAWN 1
WIN RATIO 40%
FINALS SERIES 2 (1995: 4th. 2001: 3rd)
WOODEN SPOONS 3 (1987, 1989, 2004)
COACHES 11
Francis Bourke
Mike Patterson
Paul Sproule
Tony Jewell
Kevin Bartlett
Allan Jeans
John Northey
Robert Walls
Jeff Gieschen
Danny Frawley
Terry Wallace
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