Former Richmond figures reveal how 'obsession' with John Pitura in 1970s sent Tigers broke By Al Paton
Herald Sun
July 26, 2013 A 1975 transfer fee of almost $300,000 in today's money cost Richmond 30 years in the footy wilderness.
The fee, paid by the Tigers for South Melbourne defender John Pitura, sparked player disharmony and a destructive trade war that almost sent the club to extinction.
The revelations are made in the Fox Footy documentary Richmond: The Lost Years.
Former president Ian Wilson said the Pitura trade was "the biggest mistake in my time at Richmond" and admitted the Tigers powerbrokers, including board heavyweight Graham Richmond, became "obsessed" with getting Pitura to Punt Rd.
After threatening to take the league to court, Pitura was eventually cleared in 1975.
Wilson revealed the transfer fee was $40,000 - the equivalent of $292,000 today. The deal also cost the Tigers three players - popular clubman Brian Roberts, Graham Teasdale and Francis Jackson.
Pitura played 40 games for Richmond while Teasdale went on to win a Brownlow Medal for the Swans.
"It was a big mistake and I could see that a week after we let them go," former coach Tom Hafey said.
Wilson shook his head when revealing the transfer fee.
"Don't even talk to me about it, not many people know that. It was $40,000 and the three players... don't even go any further."
It was the first bad deal of many that would rip the heart out of the club for the next three decades.
Although the Tigers won their 10th premiership in 1980, the seeds of discontent had been sewn and disaster struck when star centreman Geoff Raines left at the end of 1982 - also over money.
Raines tells Mike Sheahan in the documentary that he was upset he was being offered less than half the pay of star Western Australian recruit Maurice Rioli, who also took Raines' position.
"Centre was my position, I had won three B&Fs and a runner-up. (Rioli) was a fantastic player and a really nice guy so I've got nothing against Maurice, but it was the way the club handled it ... I felt I wasn't getting as rewarded as Maurice was at the time so I thought that was pretty unjust."
Raines quit and joined Collingwood along with teammate David Cloke, who had pleaded to the board on behalf of premiership players who felt they were being taken for granted, training in sub-standard facilities as the club splashed out on high-profile recruits.
At the same time, Richmond cleared former captain Bryan Wood to Essendon.
The Tigers, who sacked premiership coach Tony Jewell at the end of 1981 and appointed favourite son Francis Bourke, then went on a self-destructive spending spree trying to get even.
"You could go back to when we lost Cloke, Raines and Wood," Jewell said.
"That was the demise of the playing side. Then we went broke because we attacked Collingwood to try to get even.
"When I came back (in 1986), we just had nothing, the list was terrible and we had no money."
Former coach and president Barry Richardson said Graham Richmond had a personal vendetta against Collingwood.
"We speak with Graham Richmond with great love and respect but there was also a period when it all became out of control."
The Tigers sacked six coaches in the next nine years and by the time club great Kevin Bartlett was in charge in the late 1980s, the club was so poor it couldn't afford a single dedicated recruiter.
In the first national draft in 1986, four of Richmond's five picks never played a senior game. The Tigers used the No.1 pick in 1987 on South Australian ruckman Richard Lounder, who returned home after four senior appearances.
"Looking back I'd say I had no chance whatsoever," Bartlett said.
"Richmond really in that period got left a long, long way behind."
Robert Walls, appointed coach in 1996 and sacked the next year, said he walked into a club stuck in the past - with a mentality and facilities to match.
"I think Leon (Daphne, Tigers president) was pressured by sponsors to sack me.
"There was five games to go in the season, what was the point of doing it? But people thought that we've got to be seen to be doing things, seen to be ruthless, because that was the Richmond tradition."
Walls said a stable administration, improved facilities and strong recruiting gave coach Damien Hardwick a chance to rewrite Richmond's modern history.
"They can play finals and, if things fall their way over the next few years, they could play in a Grand Final, that's not beyond them," Walls said.
Bartlett agreed: "Richmond Football Club at this time has the best chance to have success, and continued success, since 1980."
Richmond: The Lost Years screens on Fox Footy at 8.30pm Sunday
Read more:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/former-richmond-figures-reveal-how-obsession-with-john-pitura-in-1970s-sent-tigers-broke/story-e6frf3e3-1226686182797#ixzz2a7fhfvwa
