Richmond champion Royce Hart named a Legend in Australian Football Hall of Fame Glenn McFarlane
From: Herald Sun
June 05, 2013 12:00AMROYCE Hart is still paying a price for his football career, but he wouldn't swap his past for a different future.
What he is keen for people to understand is that there is a difference between someone who is reclusive - which he insists he isn't - and someone doing their best to recover from health concerns - which he is.
"I'm not a recluse," Hart says, correcting a misconception that has gained traction in AFL circles in recent years.
"It's just that I have had a few health battles over the past few years."
One of the most graceful and courageous footballers of his generation - of any generation - Hart is now 65 and not as mobile as he used to be. But the AFL's, and Richmond's, Team of the Century centre half-forward doesn't complain about it.
These days a shuffle from his Hobart home a few hundred metres across to Bellerive Oval requires a fair bit of work.
He has sciatica and at some stage will need a knee replacement. But he hasn't lost his sense of humour. He jokes he will start to worry when doctors tell him it is time for a replacement knee because they only last for 10 years.
"That might mean I have only 10 years left," Hart says as a broad smile breaks across his face.
Hart was only allowed to travel to Canberra for last night's Australian Football Hall of Fame - where he became the game's 25th legend - after gaining a medical clearance.
For the sake of his four children - three sons and a daughter - and step daughter, and for the footy club he still follows from afar, Hart desperately wanted to make the trip.
"I was fortunate to have played at Richmond when it had the best period in its history," he said. "We kept a group of players for more than 10 years. We played in five Grand Finals, and we won four of them."
Hart redefined the centre half-forward role over 187 games and 11 seasons.
He was a superb mark, invariably beating taller opponents. He stood at 187cm and weighed 86kg in his prime, making him 8cm shorter and 9kg lighter than today's midfield prototype, Essendon's Jobe Watson.
As a goalkicker, he abandoned the torpedo after kicking 3.7 in his first VFL game in 1967, becoming one of the best exponents of the drop punt. He would end up kicking 369 VFL goals.
"The thing about Richmond is that we knew once we made it to the finals we stood a very good chance of winning," he says.
"As a team, we would meet at Punt Rd on the morning of every final and we'd all have steak and eggs.
"That was our special diet. Then we would all walk the 800m or so to the MCG and play a game of footy."
There must have been a lot of steak and eggs served through the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the Tigers and coach Tom Hafey gorged on finals victories with a confidence that bordered on arrogance.
Two aspects of Hart's junior sporting life - he was born in Hobart, but spent time growing up in Whitefoord ("it wasn't even a town") and Orielton, near Sorell - would later serve him well in his VFL career.
The first was the fact that he was a rover - not a centre half-forward - when he represented Tasmania in schoolboy football.
"When I played league football, I was able to retain some of those ground skills from when I was a kid," he says.
The second was the fact that he held a state junior high jump record for a few decades.
"I could always jump my own height," he said. "I used that principle to take marks against taller opponents, I had to make a run at the footy and come in from the side."
Hart's graceful glide over Geelong's Peter Walker in the 1967 Grand Final remains the signature mark of his career.
"It was the 20-minute-mark of the last quarter and the game was in the balance," he says.
"I wasn't in a good position to get it. But Peter Walker was there and I just tried to jump on his shoulder."
Hart famously signed on with Richmond for the promise of "six shirts and a suit" that his mother insisted upon after he came to the Tigers' attention after starring for Clarence under-19s.
"Graeme Richmond (Tigers' powerbroker) came down, but he missed out on seeing me play," Hart says.
"Mum said I didn't have enough clothes to transfer work to Melbourne. They agreed and I posted the form four back."
Melbourne and St Kilda made approaches to him, but both were too late. Hart was already a Tiger.
He was wearing one of those shirts when he was a bank teller on the first day of decimal currency in February 1966 at the William St branch of the Commonwealth Bank in Melbourne.
Later that year he kicked the winning goal for Richmond in the 1966 reserves grand final, with only 20 seconds to spare.
Hart had a stunning first VFL season a year later. His whirlwind 1967 debut year included: kicking 55 goals from 19 games; booting seven goals for Victoria in a state game; winning the recruit of the year; playing a key role in Richmond's 1967 premiership - the club's first in 24 years - and representing Australia in a Galahs tour to Ireland, England and the US.
"I hadn't even been out of Tassie before going to Richmond. Within 12 months I had travelled the world," he says.
The celebrations after the 1967 flag meant Hart failed to front to work - at the Premier's department - on the Monday.
"When I got into work on the Tuesday, this snotty-nosed accountant said that the Premier wanted to see me. He was thinking I was going to get the flick for missing work," he says.
"I went into the office. There was this little bald-headed bloke sitting behind a desk. I said: 'I'm sorry I took yesterday off because we had a celebration'. Henry Bolte said: 'Listen, son, if I'd won the Grand Final, I wouldn't have been here for a month.'"
Hart's effort to win Richmond's best-and-fairest and play in a second premiership in 1969 was remarkable, given he didn't train with the Tigers that season. He was on National Service and only flew in to Melbourne on Fridays to play.
Incredibly, the week after Richmond's 1969 flag, he played for Glenelg in the SANFL Grand Final, earning $2000 for the match. He was knocked out early, but played on as one of the best players in the loss to Sturt.
Hart's biggest controversy was not even of his own making. He agreed to write a book in 1970 at the age of 22.
Asked to nominate the team of players he would most like to play with, Hart did. As a result, he named himself at centre half-forward, but the Herald's Alf Brown labelled him as a big-head for daring to select himself in a "best-ever" side.
"I was asked to name the players I wanted to play with, not a greatest ever side," Hart clarifies. "I think some of the press got upset because I had said that I didn't agree with their votes because some of them gave them from the bar."
Hart is not a man easily given to regret, but the 1972 Grand Final still brings a sour taste,
It was the year he was appointed Richmond captain, and after a draw with the Blues in the second semi-final, the Tigers had accounted for them easily in the replay.
Yet in a surprise result, Carlton overpowered Richmond in the highest scoring Grand Final in history.
"We kicked what would have been the record score in a Grand Final; the only problem is Carlton kicked more," Hart says.
Hart had his first serious knee troubles the following year and was lucky to even play in the 1973 Grand Final.
He was named on the bench - when they were reserves, not interchange - in the preliminary final against Collingwood because it was thought that if he played in that game, he wouldn't play in the Grand Final.
Even when the Magpies led by 36 points at halftime, the doctor didn't want him to come on, saying he would miss the Grand Final the following week if he did.
Hart recalls Graeme Richmond saying: "There won't be a f------ Grand Final next week if he doesn't come on now."
He came on in the third quarter, kicked a goal in the first 20 seconds and the Tigers ended up winning by seven points.
He not only played in the 1973 Grand Final, after having his knee drained through the week, he ended up kicking three goals and held the premiership cup aloft as captain after a bruising encounter with Carlton.
"I remember 'Balmey' (Neil Balme) giving out one of the biggest hooks I've ever seen to Geoff Southby, who was a mate of mine," he said. "I actually went over to the bench to see if Geoff was all right."
The Tigers made it back-to-back flags the following year, easily accounting for North Melbourne.
"I reckon (in 1974) we were (always) going to win it ... we were the best side for the whole year," Hart says.
But if Hart had the football world at his feet, as a four-time premiership player at 26, the next three seasons he would endure constant battles with his knees.
He lost the captaincy after the Tigers finished third in 1975, something he believes came from a lack of faith that some people at the club had in his knees.
He could only manage 12 games in each of his final two seasons. He had only one touch in his last game in Round 16, 1977, ending his career in a dressing gown on the bench.
"When (Melbourne's) Ray Biffen ran past me, I knew my time was up," he said.
"They (doctors) said if you have another major operation, we can't guarantee what the results might be in terms of your life after football. I had already played in five Grand Finals, for four premierships. I didn't have anything left to prove."
It was hardly a fitting end for one of the game's most courageous and graceful footballers. Neither was his short-lived stint as Footscray coach.
But, like in his battle with his body now, Hart has no complaints. He swears he wouldn't change a thing.
Best player seen: Ian Stewart (StK/Rich)"He used to say, 'I'm not big enough, I'm not strong enough, so every time I get near the ball, I can't make a mistake'. And he almost never did.''
Best played against: Bruce Doull (Carl)"He was clearly the best player I played on. The thing about him is that he became even more attacking as he went on in his career.''
Best played with: Ian Stewart http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-champion-royce-hart-named-a-legend-in-australian-football-hall-of-fame/story-fndv8t7m-1226657166355
