Tough Tiger played hurt to help snare flagPeter Hanlon
August 17, 2011
Inspirational: Bruce Monteath with the 1980 premiership cup.Captains offer a team much more than many realise.NICK Maxwell's race against time and touch has invariably led comparison-makers to one name - Bruce Monteath. Yet it is for inspiration, rather than as a cautionary tale, that Maxwell should ponder Richmond's 1980 premiership captain.
Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse mentioned his Tiger teammate of that last, long-gone glory year yesterday, warning of the folly of sending unfit men into games with no second prize. Yet for Maxwell, the man who spent all but the last 17 minutes of a grand final on the bench and still lifted the cup, is the ultimate exemplar.
''It was never going to happen, and in the end I got there,'' Monteath said yesterday. ''That's why the Nick Maxwells of the world should just stay positive, because at the end of the day you never know.''
There has been a hint of sneering celebration from afar that the reigning premier could face a tough call on Maxwell, a valued rather than star player whose steady hand on the tiller has been tested this season. The unschooled have similarly scoffed at Monteath's place in history, but these stories run deeper.
''I'm a great fan of Bruce Monteath,'' says Kevin Bartlett, who captained the Tigers in 1979 but relinquished the post to his deputy after a dispute with the club. ''He was a wonderful player who had a debilitating injury but was able to get to the line.''
Monteath led the Tigers' goalkicking in 1978 with 55, and was an All-Australian ruck-rover averaging 24 possessions a game (when such numbers meant something) the following season. ''He was a ball magnet, he was tough, he could take a strong mark, and he could kick a goal,'' Bartlett says. ''He had some of those old-fashioned attributes, he could actually play the game.''
Far more than those who have stamped him ''lucky to captain a premiership'' have recognised.
Monteath carried an ankle injury through the 1980 season, having torn ligaments early on. Then he hurt his back, and had blood drained from a haematoma twice a week to get up for games. He laughs to think how fast such ailments would ''get out'' today; then, only his coach, the club doctor and teammates knew.
''It was frustrating, I was limited to playing in a forward pocket,'' he said of a year that still reaped 43 goals. ''People were wondering why you were restricted, but you just had to keep quiet.''
By round 22 he thought he was cooked, so stood out of the game against lowly South Melbourne, which came out and thrashed the premiership favourites. ''I was resigned to the fact that as captain I had to do the right thing and withdraw, which was the hardest thing I'd done in my life.''
When injury struck the Tigers in September, and Barry Rowlings, David Cloke and Bryan Wood all missed the second semi-final against Geelong, coach Tony Jewell picked his captain on an interchange bench that had evolved from 19th and 20th man two years earlier, but was still largely a tool for substitutes. Paul Sarah suffered an early broken jaw at Waverley, and Monteath's test came.
''He came on against Geelong and played so darn well for a bloke who was crook, I think they said, 'Well, if we can hit the same spot [with painkilling injections] and get his ankle up as good as we did last week, if we need him he's going to be important','' Bartlett recalls.
''They went with it and I'm glad they did. He deserved to be captain of that premiership side.''
Robert Wiley, his fellow West Australian and Punt Road teammate, says there was never any question from within that Monteath deserved his spot, even under duress. ''Your captain offers you other things, more than just playing.''
Wiley's years of experience on the West Coast match committee taught him that football departments generally make the right call, like the Eagles did with vice-captain Michael Brennan, who was hurting but came in for the 1992 decider ''because he was a leader of the club''.
Monteath realised he'd achieved his goals and headed home. The last thing he did in a Richmond jumper was lift the cup and he is rightly proud.
''That year just got harder and harder, and by the end it was touch and go. But I got there, it was terrific, and it made a dream come true.''
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