Richmond’s road to becoming a powerhouse AFL clubJamie Duncan,
Herald Sun
January 17, 2019 Richmond’s recent flush of success has given the Tigers the largest membership in the league and a new era of financial sustainability.
But two successful eras — the 1920s and ‘30s and the 1960s and ‘70s — are the bedrock on which the team from Punt Road is built.
ORIGINSFootball clubs associated with Richmond can be traced to the Richmond Cricketers, which formed in 1860 but soon folded.
The club we now know as Richmond emerged from a plethora of local teams following a meeting at the Royal Hotel on February 20, 1885.
The new club applied successfully to join the Victorian Football Association soon after.
Left: Stan Judkins was Richmond’s first Brownlow medallist in 1930.
Right: Doug Strang in action in front of the stand at Punt Road Oval in 1934. The stand is now known as the Jack Dyer stand.Yellow and black featured on the team’s guernsey in the form of a yellow and black sash on navy blue jumpers, switching between yellow and black vertical stripes and hoops from the 1890s to 1905.
The club didn’t make a huge impression on the VFA in its first few years and lost players to more successful clubs. Then, the 1890s depression struck hard in working class Richmond, hurting gate takings.
Richmond was left to one side as VFA power sides pushed for reform and formed the breakaway Victorian Football League in 1896. Richmond won the VFA wooden spoon that year.
Despite the sudden loss of eight clubs, it took another five years, and the arrival of ruckman George “Mallee” Johnson, to change Richmond’s VFA fortunes.
Jack Titus flies for a mark against Carlton in 1934.The team won the 1902 VFA premiership, which at that stage did not have a finals series. It was runner-up in 1903, and forfeited the 1904 grand final to North Melbourne by refusing to take the field because of a long-running dispute with the appointed umpire, Mr Allen.
But it won its second VFA flag in 1905 and, by 1908, joined the VFL.
GOLDEN YEARSRichmond adopted the black guernsey with a yellow sash in 1914. Its first finals appearance was in 1916. It lost its first VFL grand final in 1919 against Collingwood but recruited one of the Magpies’ stars, Dan Minogue, as captain-coach and almost immediately found success, defeating Collingwood for the 1920 premiership and going back-to-back against Carlton in 1921.
The side performed well through the 1920s and ‘30s, but it was short on silverware.
Between 1922 and 1942, Richmond won two flags but lost nine grand finals. Bill Titus played in six losing finals — an unenviable record he still holds today.
Richmond won the 1932 and ’34 premierships led by club legend Percy Bentley against Carlton and South Melbourne respectively.
But it lost the 1924 grand final to Essendon, and became the first VFL side to lose three grand finals in a row between 1927 and 1929, all against Collingwood.
Richmond also lost the 1931, 1933, 1940 and 1942 grand finals to Geelong, South Melbourne, Melbourne and Essendon respectively.
Jack Dyer kicking a football at Punt Road Oval.Trouble was brewing at Punt Road by the late 1930s, with Richmond lacking consistency on the field and with personality clashes off it.
In 1940, after the loss to Melbourne, forces tried to topple Bentley as coach including Dyer’s father, a committee man who was against Bentley’s retention. Dyer Sr lost his seat in the manoeuvring, causing his son to threaten to walk out on the Tigers and go to the VFA.
The following year, he took over as captain-coach after Bentley quit.
Richmond won the 1943 premiership against Essendon, getting home by five points.
The win was dedicated to the memory of Bill Cosgrove, who played three matches for the Tigers in 1940 and 34 seconds matches up to 1942. The RAAF Flight Sergeant’s Beaufort bomber was shot down in New Guinea weeks before the big game. He was the uncle of Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, former defence force chief.
Dyer coached Richmond to another losing grand final appearance against Fitzroy in 1944. It was Fitzroy’s last flag and Richmond’s last grand final showing until 1967.
Richmond figured in the final four in 1947 before it entered a long, dark period caused by lacklustre recruiting and a succession of coaches through the 1950s.
Former player Graeme Richmond became club secretary in 1960 and began a slow rebuild that saw the team leave Punt Road for the MCG in 1964, and the appointment as coach of another former Tiger, Tom Hafey.
Richmond coach Tom Hafey is chaired off after winning the 1969 Grand Final.Hafey had no contract. He was appointed year by year.
The Tigers failed to make the four in 1966 but began recruiting young guns such as Royce Hart, Francis Bourke and Kevin Bartlett.
Hafey introduced a third training night for the week, extended pre-season and urged his players to go long and fast to the forward line.
For the first time in 24 years, the Tigers brought home the premiership cup in 1967, defeating Geelong by nine points with Bartlett, Hart, Bill Brown, Alan Richardson booting three goals each and captain and full back Fred Swift taking a towering mark on the goal line to deny Geelong a critical major late in the final quarter.
It was the start of a new era of success for Richmond, which won the 1969, 1973 and 1974 premierships, was runner-up in 1972 and featured each year in the finals from 1971 to 1975 with a team including, at various times, Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett, Dick Clay, Kevin Sheedy, John Northey, Francis Bourke, triple Brownlow Medallist Ian Stewart, Bill Barott, Neil Balme, Merv Keane and Bryan Wood.
David Cloke became a premiership player in 1974 in his debut season — the year the Tigers and the Bombers tangled in the famous Windy Hill brawl, an all-in that’s steeped in VFL folklore.
Kevin Bartlett celebrating a goal in 1981.After a dismal 1976, and with internal ructions opening up again, Hafey was reappointed for 1977 by a majority of the club committee but when Hafey learned that Graeme Richmond voted against him, he resigned and went to the Magpies.
Under another former star, Tony Jewell, Richmond defeated Hafey’s Magpies by a then-record 81 points in 1980.
Bartlett was Norm Smith Medallist with seven goals to his name in a team that included David Cloke, Geoff Raines, Mick Malthouse, captain Bruce Monteith, Francis Bourke, Emmett Dunne, Dale Weightman, Jim Jess and Mark Lee.
Jewell was sacked in favour of Francis Bourke after 1981. Richmond lost the 1981 and ’82 grand finals to Carlton.
Richmond’s fortunes crumbled with the retirement of Bartlett in 1983 after 403 games. Coaches Bourke, Barry Richardson, Jewell (who returned in 1986) and Bartlett (hired in 1988) couldn’t arrest the slide.
The recruitment with big contracts of players that failed to deliver put the club in dire financial straits by the late 1980s.
THE AFL ERAThe start of the ‘90s was still rocky for Richmond. Bartlett began a long estrangement from the club after he was sacked in 1991, replaced by Allan Jeans, then in 1993 by Northey, who returned the club to finals contention in the mid-‘90s as the club stabilised off-field.
Previous president Neville Crowe and Leon Daphne helped steady the ship.
Businessman Alan Bond was also president for a short time.
But amid a refusal to extend his contract and rumours Richmond was courting Sheedy to take the reins at Punt Road, Northey walked out and sparked a succession of coaches including Robert Walls, Jeff Gieschen and Danny Frawley.
The recruitment of Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin helped put the club on the path to Premiership glory. Picture: Phil Hillyard
Matthew Richardson, Matthew Knights, Brendon Gale and Wayne Campbell added strength to the club’s list, and there were glimmers of hope for a Tiger resurgence that never quite eventuated.
Hawthorn premiership star Terry Wallace took charge in August 2004. Nathan Brown joined from the Bulldogs, and Jack Riewoldt was drafted in 2006, but despite promise, under Wallace Richmond failed to make the finals before his departure in 2009.
Trent Cotchin was drafted to Richmond in 2008, with Dustin Martin arriving the following year, and current coach Damien Hardwick began shaping the side in 2010.
Despite a few early jitters in some seasons, Richmond has been a consistent finals contender since 2013, culminating in that stirring grand final victory in 2017.
RICHMONDVFL/AFL Premierships: 11 (the last in 2017), runners-up 12 times
VFL/AFL games played/won/lost/drawn: 2206 matches, 1108 won, 1076 lost, 22 drawn
Longest serving captain: Percy Bentley (168 games, 1932 to 1940)
Longest serving coach: Tom Hafey (248 games, 1966 to 1976)
Longest serving player: Kevin Bartlett (403 games, 1965 to 1983)
Brownlow medallists: Stan Judkins (1930), Bill Morris (1948), Roy Wright (1952, 1954), Ian Stewart (1971), Trent Cotchin (2012), Dustin Martin (2017)
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/richmonds-road-to-becoming-a-powerhouse-afl-club/news-story/78f5421996e95f74b408addf2af0accb
