Richmond star of '80 vintage finds old Tigers a tonic
Jake Niall
The Age
August 24, 2006
MICHAEL Roach called the response "awesome". Dale Weightman, who has been involved at Tigerland for most of his life, had never seen teammates rally behind one of their own as the Tigers of old have for Terry Smith.
"Brutus" Smith, the former long-haired defender and teammate of Weightman and Roach in Richmond's last premiership team of 1980, has inoperable cancer, and in the past two months as Smith fought the disease, Richmond's past players have become his second family.
They have organised for his medical treatment, with the aid of their old club doctor. They refurbished and tidied up his home and have arranged for him to have a carer and a will.
Since that now-distant 1980 premiership, the Richmond past players have on occasion been a destructive and divisive force at Punt Road Oval. Many fought Greg Miller in an election and lost. Terry Wallace, mindful of the havoc former Tigers could wreak, invited them into his tent by setting up a mentoring program with present players.
But, in this instance, that famous Richmond passion has evoked the better angels of the Tigers' nature. "I can't believe how the Richmond people responded." said Roach, who described Smith's prognosis as "not all that flash".
When Smith's Carlton home needed some work, Roach, Weightman and Smith's closest Tiger friend, Jimmy Jess, actually broke into the house while "Brutus" was in hospital receiving treatment. Weightman prised his diminutive frame through a window to ensure the place was more comfortable for his return.
"In a week, while he was in hospital, we carpeted it, we painted it … we put new furniture in," Weightman said. "We gave him TVs, DVDs."
Weightman said Smith, 47, had been diagnosed and given his grim prognosis a couple of months ago. Knowing that Smith was a stoic soul who tended to fend for himself, Weightman, Jess, Roach and another former Tiger, Stephen Pirrie, decided that whatever resources "Brutus" needed — financial or emotional — the club's 400-strong past-players group would do its utmost to provide it.
"He's not a loner as such, but he used to do everything himself," said Weightman, who works at Punt Road in welfare and development. "He just looked after his old man, who passed away in February, of cancer. Then he got it."
Weightman said that Smith's parents were now both dead, and his immediate family consisted only of a sister, who lived in Melton.
Smith did not have any private health cover, either, and so Jess and Co contacted the club's former '80s doctor, David Marsh, now better known for his emergency work following the Asian tsunami. Some strings were pulled, and Smith is now receiving an experimental treatment at Box Hill Hospital.
It takes something special to get both Kevin Bartlett and Mick Malthouse to a Richmond function, although KB attends reunions, but both the club's games record-holder and the Collingwood coach were among the 200-plus people who honoured Smith at the Emerald Hotel in South Melbourne last week.
Weightman said the turnout was astonishing, with only three members of the 1980 premiership — Daryl Freame and Robert Wiley, who are both in Perth, and Mark Lee, a Mildura policeman on duty that evening — unable to make the event. Peter Welsh, '80 premiership player and board member who himself has cancer, arranged to stay in town just to attend the night.
The crowd consisted not simply of former Tigers, but St Kilda players such as Jeff Sarau, who knew Smith from his brief stint at Moorabbin. The throng included former teammates from Avoca and Oakleigh, plus '80s opponents David Rhys-Jones and Denis Banks, the latter pair, like all who played alongside Smith, respecting both Smith's granite hardness on the field and his knockabout fondness for a beer.
Smith, who had not expected such a turnout, was overwhelmed. Weightman had told him: "We've got a couple of mates together, we'd like you to come along." "We had a DVD done for him, just had a few of his highlights, then also we people from all the clubs he played with said something about him," "the Flea" said. "He was just so rapt."
Smith later spoke, thanking all those present. "He didn't know how long he'd stay for — he stayed for the whole night," said Weightman.
Roach called Smith "a normal knockabout fella who needs some help". Weightman said this was what the past players were all about. "That's what we do, we look after our own."
A HELPING HANDTERRY SMITH
Born February 6, 1959
RICHMOND, 1980-82 & 86, 56 games, 15 goals
ST KILDA, 1983-85, 44 games, 25 goals
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/08/23/1156012609290.html
