RFC Memorable Moments #2: Jack Dyer's Final Game

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RFC Memorable Moment #2: Jack Dyer's Final Game - Round 19, 1949[/color]



Extract From: Tigerland - the history of the Richmond FC:

1949: Football's "No. One personality" entered his final year as a player with the VFL playing record in his grasp.

There were suggestions that Jack Dyer would perhaps serve his club better in the role of non-playing coach. In the early games, he suffered a torn thigh muscle which was to hound him all season and he dislocated a bone in his hand which was to cause great aggravation in many games.

Dyer however effectively silenced his critics kicking bags of goals each week. Unfortunately, after a good start to the season, injuries and inconsistency marred the Tiges' year and we finished up sixth. 

During the year, Dyer achieved his 300 game milestone and followed it up by reaching then passing Gordon Coventry's 306 games record against Melbourne. The Richmond Trainers Club presented him with a canteen of cutlery which moved him to comment it was nice to have the knives up front where he could see them.

Then came the saddest moment in two decades of football - Jack Dyer advised the club the final round game against Geelong at Punt Road would be his last and there would be no comeback.

He was to be a little annoyed later when Dick Reynolds made a comeback to beat his 310 game VFL record.

Dyer was emotional as he addressed his team for the last time as a playing-coach. There was no place in the finals at stake, but he asked that they give him a win as a memento. They played a brand of football that had they produced during the season would undoubtedly have carried them to the finals.

Bill Morris dominated the ruck and kicked four goals for good measure. Fraser, Stokes and Albiston were outstanding and a mesmerised Geelong saw the scoreboard ticking over until the siren ended it all 22.12 to 10.15. Dyer's last kick in VFL football came from a great mark and a marvellous drop punt recorded his sixth goal.

Richmond and Geelong players started to chair the champion from the field and emotional Richmond and Geelong supporters joined in, singing and cheering in a unique gesture that showed the high regard that all lovers of the game had for this remarkable man.

A further lump came to the Dyer throat when his much hated foe Collingwood sent him an inscribed ashtray commemorating his record-breaking career. A remarkable number of sporting bodies, social clubs, junior bodies and individual celebrities sent Richmond a great array of trophies and presentations to honor Dyer in his retirement.

In the dressing room, there was scarcely a dry eye in a list that boasted some of the wildest and toughest men in football and an equally emotional Jack Dyer declared to his men: "It isn't considered manly for one man to kiss another, but I love you guys so much I could kiss you all."

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Hec de Lacy's tribute to Jack Dyer
Sporting Globe

"It has taken a ton of bismuth powder and bullocks in beef steaks to get old Captain Blood safely through his 310 League games. The great adventure ended today when Jack Dyer, Richmond captain-coach, played his last game.

"If you listen closely readers you can hear Mrs Dyer's sigh of relief.

"The public has hooted and cheered the Skipper but few have spared a thought for Mrs Dyer, the Aorence Nightingale of the Dyer home. She has had to heal Jack's hurts and provide relief from chronic attacks of indigestion.

"Jack, iron man of football, has been physically crippled since he was 16 years old with gastric ulcers. In recent years both before and during the interval of a big game, the public idol, Captain Blood, has vomited his heart out

"Mrs Dyer confessed the last three years have been something of a trial for her. She wanted Jack to retire three years ago."   .

Maurie Aeming comments, "I can safely say that never a week has passed without my being worried stiff whether we could get Jack to play or not yet out there he always gave us everything. We were never the same team when he missed the side."

"I'll tell you a story," de Lacy continued, "Mrs Dyer, when she took over cooking for Jack, had to find food to agree with him on Saturdays in particular. She went all over the carcass of a bullock experimenting until she found what suited his digestion.

"Every day since she concluded the experiment, the same butcher has supplied that particular cut - of course he is a Richmond supporter."

Jack had always concealed his illness but a few years later the stomach finally caught up with him and he was hospitalised and near death. A brilliant old surgeon and a young surgeon who was to become a close friend of Dyer's performed a life-saving operation on the day death seemed inevitable. Since then a remarkable transformation has been brought about in his health and as he entered his seventies there would be few fitter men.

In this year, which was so much Jack Dyer's year, it is fitting to recall other tributes paid to him. One by de Lacy and the other by the doyen of football writers, the Melbourne Herald's Alf Brown.

De Lacy wrote, "Jack Dyer, Richmond's giant, was the greatest big man in Australian football. He stands supreme, he is the greatest of the great.
   
"This is my conviction after seeing the best Australia has to offer.

"Dyer stands out because he had the fire in his make-up to a greater degree than any other player I have ever seen. He had the fire of destruction and the fire that makes and welds a side.

"He tore an attack to pieces, then in a trice belted the ball down the field for a fresh irresistible attack with his own team in full cry. There are some who quaked at this destructive force in Dyer. They saw in his lion-hearted resistance, physical force that made them quail.

"Football is not a game for the faint-hearted. I have watched him in action in many games and have never seen him do one thing outside the privilege of a big strong player. He might maul his way through a pack. He might fend off his attackers with his foreanns and not be gentle about it.

"I have seen him punched but never seen him punch. Make no mistake, opposing teams did not spare Dyer.

"In one game Carlton set a player to take care of Dyer. They told me they had just the man who was good enough to put it over Richmond's champion. He would have been better occupied concentrating on the ball.

"He made two attempts to crush Dyer and failed. Dyer knew. Finally he gathered the ball and ran through his assailant, as he was entitled to do, and that ended the day for the Carlton man. Afterwards they were wailing and gnashing teeth about Dyer. Well, I ask you?

"It is from incidents such as this that a false impression was created about Dyer.

"He is the greatest big-man footballer I have ever seen."

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Alf Brown wrote:

"Jack Dyer - Captain Blood - is a man who became a legend in his own lifetime. Wherever football is argued, Dyer's name will soon enter discussions.

"Dyer rode to fame on his great ability and cold-blooded, ruthless vigor in a football era of rough, tough strongmen.

"In his 19 years of playing football Dyer was involved in more incidents - a euphemism employed by libel-conscious sports writers to cover a multitude of football sins - than any two dozen other players.

"Dyer entered football in the depression years, he had to stay in the side to eat. That made competition very tough. Those were the days before speed won premierships. Every side carried a "confidence sapper" - a burly player who often lacked football skill but was adept at flattening or slowing up a more talented opponent.

"Dyer was not just a rugged he-man. He was amazingly fast for a six-footer - he roved for Richmond in his first year - he was a fine mark, a good kick and he had the football brain of a champion that made him instinctively do the correct thing.

"He could play in any position and could lift his side and win matches with sheer brilliance. In addition to his great football attributes he had what some champions have lacked - a single-minded determination to do what was best for his side.

"He was a wonderful team man. He began with Richmond and 19 years later played his last game with them. Then he coached them. He never played with another team, he never coached another side and that was. not through lack of opportunity.

"Dyer had two distinct personalities. On the field he was a calculating, ruthless machine. His creed: 'Anything goes as long as you can get away with it.' Off the field he is a quietly spoken, hkeable personality.

"Captain Blood - a title conferred on him after one particularly hectic game - never won a Brownlow Medal. Lesser players have won the coveted award but Dyer was never an umpire pleaser. His style of play unsettled tempers, made games hard to umpire, and while umpires admitted Dyer was best on the ground they could rarely be persuaded he was fairest.

"But in 19 years he was reported only five times and suspended once.

"It was breath-taking to see Dyer measure up an opponent, crash into him with his iron shoulder. Few could withstand this powerful broadside from Captain Blood. His timing was perfect and remained so to the last. The results devastating.

"Strangely I have never met an opponent who resented Dyer's vigor.

"Dyer always preached the football gospel of vigor. As a playing coach he was a success because his full-blooded, wind-destroying bumps could infuse new life and purpose into his side and knock some of the enthusiasm and appetite for football out of the opposition.

"There will never be but one Captain Blood. There was no greater player or man and no greater contribution made to the game by any man."

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Tribute from a man rated by many as the greatest VFL coach, Norm Smith, sums up how the opposition saw Jack Dyer:

"Jack Dyer was probably the greatest player the game has produced. He would have stamped himself as the most brilliant player in the history of the game beyond question had he played as an individual rather than for his team.

"It was always Richmond first, Dyer last, with Captain Blood. "He was a breath-taking footballer, a strong attacking player with amazing pace and stamina. His dedication made him one of the most accurate kicks in the game. His marking was as brilliant and consistent as any I have seen.

"As a ruckman he was without peer. He put the ball to his rover with uncanny accuracy. For a big man his handling of the ball was a treat. If I were picking a side from the greatest players I have seen, Jack Dyer would be the first picked."

And that from a man who was carried from the field in a football final after encountering a full-blooded Jack Dyer shirtfront which Smith recalled as the hardest collision he encountered on a football field.

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JACK DYER SAYS FAREWELL
The Argus' match report
Monday, August 29, 1949.

JACK DYER'S colourful career as a Richmond player and leader came to a triumphant climax on Saturday, when his players showed their best form  to help in the convincing win over Geelong.

Dyer led his team on to the ground through a barricade of streamers, and was "chaired" and carried off amid rousing cheers and congratulations.

His six goals for the match came from great judgement in leading out and perfectly timed marking.

Dyer played his 310th game - a new League record - and kicked his 443rd goal. He will be the guest of the club at a testimonial social toward the end of September.

WEIGHT WON FOR RICHMOND

RICHMOND: 4.4  12.8  14.9     22.12 (144)
GEELONG:    3.4   3.5    7.12   12.13(75)

Best: Poulter, Fra­ser, Dyer, Albiston, Spring, Merrett, Sier.
 
Goals: Dyer 6, Morris 4, Albiston 3, Poulter 3, Stokes 2, W.Wiison 2, H.Rowe, Merrett.
 
Attendance: 11,000
Gate: 365 pounds

Ability to use its heavier men to better advantage gave Richmond a convincing win over Geelong.

From the outset the game was fast and furious, with the superb high-marking and driving power of­ Dyer, Poulter, and Fraser giving Richmond the edge over the lighter Geelong men.

Geelong kept hitting back spasmodically, but found no coun­ter to the vigour of Richmond's big men.

Richmond's only lean time was in the third quarter, when it appeared to be taking a breather, but its eight goals in each of the second and last quarters against one point and three goals respectively by Geelong­ proved too formidable.

­Geelong found it difficult to get into its stride, and frequent drives were smothered by Fraser and Sier before they could reach scoring range.

Richmond was always on top in the ruck, but any loose passes were smartly snapped up by Davis and Fulton, of Geelong.

With Richmond leading by 39 points at the last change, both sides clapped on the pace, and ruggedness rather than system became the general order.

Geelong kept nibbling away, but its fighting spirit brought few results and Richmond quickly put the issue beyond doubt.

Tigers Slow-Up Geelong!
The Sun's match report
Monday, August 29, 1949.

RICHMOND'S all-round strength overwhelmed Geelong.

With star centre half-forward Fred Flanagan outplayed by Don Fraser and badly beaten in the centre, Geelong was never able to develop its speed or short passing.

Ray Poulter and Bill Morris were unbeatable in the air and Richmond's forwards made full use of the opportunities presented by the speed and cleverness of its small men. Only interest in the last quarter was whether Jack Dyer could score the last goal.

After hitting the post, Dyer marked again but was too far out to shoot and passed to Bill Wilson. The ball was immediately shot back to Dyer who ended his League career with his 443rd goal.

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Presentations To Jack Dyer
The Sun
Monday, August 29, 1949.

MORE than 2000 buttons were sold at Richmond on saturday for the Jack Dyer testimonial fund, which now stands at £300.

Today 800 letters will go out inviting football clubs and or­ganisations all over Australia to contribute.   

On Saturday Dyer was pre­sented with a canteen cutlery from a member of the Richmond Cricket Club committee, who wants to remain anonymous. He also received two fountain pens. One was from a group of women admirers led by Mrs. Gregory and the other from Mr. Carl Bamford.


£1000 FOR JACK DYER
The Sun
September 28, 1949.
By Kevin Hogan   

JACK DYER, captain and coach of Richmond for the last nine years, was presented with a cheque for 
£1000 as a testimonial at a smoke night attended by 300 people in the Lower Melbourne Town Hall last night. 

Other presentations made to him last night included a crystal service from Richmond committee and an occasional table from the players at Richmond.      

Leo Merrett, vice-captain, who made the presentation on behalf of the players, said that they hoped that Dyer would be appointed non-playing coach next year.

Mr. Harry Dyke, president, was presented with a travelling case by the committee to mark his record term of 10 years as president.  Mr. Dyke has been an official of the club for 26 years.

Responding, Jack Dyer said that he had loved every minute of his football career and re­gretted that the time had come for him to retire as a player. "I have made thousands of friends in football and I can only say now that I love them all," he said.   ­

Dick Reynolds, captain of Essendon, paid a tribute to Dyer's prowess as a player and a leader. Among  many other champion players present were Phonse Kyne (captain of Col­llngwood), Arthur Olliver ­ (captain and coach of Foots­cray). Ron Clegg, 1949 Brown­low Medal winner, John Cole­man and Ron Todd.

Mr. L. McBrien, secretary, conveyed the League's con­gratulations to Dyer.

The testimonial fund for Dyer will be open until the end of the week.   

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Extract from "Tigerland - the history of the Richmond FC:

So the great playing era of Jack "Captain Blood" Dyer was at an end.

Now he was to take up the reins as a coach and it was to be all that much harder for he had lost one vital player ­himself.

His total contribution to blood, sweat and tears can never be measured. The fame he has brought to the club is equally impossible to measure.

His statistics of 310 312 VFL games [Ed. later revised] and 443 goals are the lesser parts of the Living Legend.

[WilliamPowell]

"It was always Richmond first, Dyer last, with Captain Blood. "He was a breath-taking footballer, a strong attacking player with amazing pace and stamina. His dedication made him one of the most accurate kicks in the game. His marking was as brilliant and consistent as any I have seen.

And that's why we all love and revere him.

There's not a doubt in my mind that Jack Dyer would be a champion playing today 

I've heard stories about how skillful the man was and that it (his skills) get forgotten when people talk about the way he played

Although he might get rubbed out a few more times these days