Decades of Richmond premiership players hoping for a Tigers winMelissa Cunningham
The Age
28 September 2017For decades, it's been a tradition that on the Wednesday night before each AFL grand final all the living Richmond premiership players come together for a reunion dinner at the Melbourne Cricket Club.
Next year, however, they're hoping there will be another 22 star footballers joining them.
Former club captain Roger Dean is still pinching himself.
As the final siren sounded at the preliminary final against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG last weekend, the former Tigers champion was watching on with his arm wrapped around his 11-year-old grandson.
"Like every other Richmond supporter in the MCG, we just went absolutely berserk," Mr Dean, 77 said.
"The smile hasn't come off my face since. It was the fact we'd finally got the monkey off our back... We hadn't just won one game, we'd won two and then we were in the grand final. I felt so proud of all the boys who were out there."
The victory took the grandfather of nine on a nostalgic trip back to playing in the premiership side in 1967 when the Tigers beat the Geelong Cats by nine points in a nail-biting match.
Two years later, he went on to to captain the Tigers when they won the flag again in 1969 against Carlton.
"It's been 50 years and history always repeats itself," Mr Dean said.
"I think we've got a very good chance [to win]. They've got confidence in their own ability and they are a very good team."
Champion AFL forward and Tigers stalwart Michael Roach also joined players including Kevin Sheedy and Rex Hunt at the reunion in the MCG's Keith Miller room. The attendees played in premiership winning teams from 1967 to 1980.
"If the boys can win on Saturday we're going to have 22 new faces here next year and that would be just lovely," Mr Roach said.
Mr Roach was among a sea of fans in black and yellow watching on from the sidelines at the MCG last weekend as the Tigers claimed victory.
And boy did they roar.
"If they had kept playing the Tigers theme song at the end of the game we'd still be here because nobody wanted to go home," he said.
"It was terrific."
Mr Roach said while Richmond weren't the favourite to win in the clash against the Adelaide Crows, he had faith the players had what it took.
"They're a great team and they'll have a red-hot go and that's how they've played this entire year," he said. "Obviously we're hoping the results will be a Tigers premiership."
Mr Roach said the win would be the icing on the cake for a stellar season for the Tigers, in which Richmond champion Dustin Martin claimed the 2017 Brownlow Medal.
Martin polled a record-breaking 36 votes to finish clear of Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield who scored 33 votes, but was ineligible for the award after a controversial suspension in round 19.
"To have a Brownlow win and a grand final win in one week would be fantastic," he said.
"But either way, we're just so proud of the club."
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