Tiger of Old - KB article in the Age

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Tiger of old
Rohan Connolly | May 12, 2007
The Age

PROBLEM? What problem? It's been more than 15 years since former Richmond champion Kevin Bartlett famously turned his back on the club he'd played with and coached for more than a quarter of a century.

It was a bitter bust-up at the end of 1991 when Bartlett's coaching contract wasn't renewed and he vowed never to return to Punt Road while any of the administration involved was at the club.

That moment came and went, and still Bartlett stayed away, even when elevated to legend status in Richmond's Hall of Fame in 2003. His son Rhett accepted the honour on his behalf.

It was no surprise, then, that Bartlett's presence at Richmond's recent Tom Hafey Club lunch at the Grand Hyatt was seen by the Tiger faithful as a big deal. Introduced by MC Rex Hunt, the club games record-holder, five-time premiership player and five-time best-and-fairest winner received a standing ovation.

The popular view was that peace had been made. The only problem with that line, says Bartlett, is that there was no war to begin with.

"I wouldn't say it was significant. I just went along to a lunch," he shrugs. "I've got no problem with Richmond. I've never had a problem.

"I've never been bitter. I've never wished anyone ill in my life, and only wished the Richmond Football Club success. I've made certain that I've never been involved in anything that could be critical of the club, and tried to be fair and considerate in anything I've had to say.

"Because you don't attend things, it doesn't mean you have a problem. I decided to step away, and that's what I did."

For Bartlett, it's simple. For a score of long-suffering Richmond folk, however, it's an issue that has remained a lot more complicated.

Every time the Tiger faithful pick up the pieces from another letdown such as last Sunday's obliteration at the hands of Geelong, the legacy of that golden era of four premierships between 1967-74, of which Bartlett was such an integral part, seems to grow larger. It was names such as Bartlett, Hafey, Kevin Sheedy, Royce Hart and Francis Bourke that were among football's biggest. The repeated overtures for Bartlett's return have been an attempt to have that culture of success rub off on a club that so desperately needs it. For the hard-liners, it's as if Bartlett has shirked an obligation.

He doesn't agree. "I've always been content with my contribution," he says. "I was involved in some capacity as a player or coach for 26 years, so there's been a lot of words spoken, a lot of training sessions, a lot of talking to players, a lot of poking my head in the rooms.

"I've done little things (since 1991), nothing of any major input. But I don't want to have any major input. The things I've done are if someone's been extraordinarily close to me. A couple of times, I've had a chat to Essendon players because Kevin (Sheedy) and I have been friends since the age of 10. When I was finished, I was happy to step out of the limelight."

Stepping away from the club, however, didn't mean stepping away from the game. While the Richmond family waited for a reconciliation as public and symbolic as the falling-out, Bartlett got on with a life that always has revolved heavily around sport.

"I was brought up in a household that went to the footy every week, and when the footy season was over, went to the races every week, and went to the fights at Festival Hall and Collingwood Town Hall," he recalls. "My mum (Thelma) was a great punter, and I used to run all the bets up to the local SP bookmaker in an old back lane in South Yarra."

Racing, boxing and golf are still big interests, ones Bartlett can pursue at length when he hosts his three-hour radio show five days a week on sports station SEN, for which he also commentates on games at the weekend. He's a member of the AFL's laws of the game committee, its hall of fame committee and an All-Australian team selector.

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They're roles that maintain Bartlett's lofty profile, and put him squarely in the middle of the daily debates that surround the obsession that is AFL. But also at sizeable odds with Bartlett's portrayal of himself as a recluse.

"I know people laugh when I say that, but in many ways I am," he says. "I don't go to many functions at all. There are very few things I attend. I'm not interested in the adulation or recognition. I'm not interested in going to first nights or openings, or picking up the paper and seeing my photograph at some cocktail party. That's not me."

Neither is tokenism. Which is all Bartlett believes his reappearance at Punt Road in recent years would have amounted to.

"Some people believe that if so and so was to poke his head in the club or go down and do training or do something, that some magic would be waved, and it would be like stardust.

"If Tommy Hafey pokes his head in the club, which he has done a number of times, or Royce Hart or Francis Bourke or Dick Clay, history shows it hasn't really made any great difference in terms of the club having any real sustained success.

"It's up to the people there at the time to get the best out of themselves. We can say some nice words and give a talk which some people might think is motivating, but the nuts and bolts of it is somebody's got to go out and perform, and it's not somebody who's 50 or 60 or 70 years of age, and I've always been very aware of that."

Influencing the game per se is another matter. Bartlett turned 60 in March, but as part of the laws of the game committee, he continues to play a key role in determining the on-field course of the AFL.

It was a mantle underlined just a few weeks ago when Essendon's Mark McVeigh took his controversial high mark against Carlton. Bartlett, who thought technically a free kick for hands-in-the-back should have been paid, was seen to be at odds with AFL's director of umpiring, Jeff Gieschen.

Bartlett thinks the matter was "blown out of all proportion" and his view misrepresented. Broken down to hundredths of one second, McVeigh had infringed, he says. "But in the context and quickness of the game, with arms and legs flailing everywhere … if I was the umpire on the day, I would have paid it as a mark."

The responsibility for the keeping of the code is one Bartlett is keen to downplay. Coaches set the game's agenda, he argues. The committee simply keeps an eye on things. And unlike a lot of football peers of his vintage, the path being taken is one with which he is more than content.

"I'm not a critic of the modern game at all," he says. "My theory is that the older supporters who might crave for the drop kick or torpedo punt or more contested marks or one-on-ones will from time to time be disgruntled because they're looking at it from the era in which they were brought up.

"But I think the modern football supporter would look at the game and love other aspects of it. They enjoy the athleticism of the players. They've been brought up with tactics, and keeping the ball off the opposition and not turning it over. There's an appreciation of the fantastic skills on both sides of the body by hand and foot.

"As people get very good at what they do, they'll make fewer and fewer mistakes, and the fewer mistakes that are made, the less contests they'll have.

"It's nice to say bring back the contested mark and high mark and one-on-ones, but how do you turn back the clock unless you want to do something that is very serious in terms of changing the dynamics of the way the game is played? I'm very much against that.

"I think the game is still very enjoyable to watch, and it must have something going for it, judging by the number of people who go, and who listen to it and watch it, and the number of people who want to talk about it in the media."

Bartlett fits all those categories, and plans to do so for some time yet. The qualifier is quite simple.

"I only do things that I enjoy. I refuse to do anything I don't enjoy. That's my philosophy. So if I'm enjoying radio, or the committees I'm on, as long as someone doesn't say, 'We don't want you', I'll continue to do it.

"The only thing that would bring an end to that would be if by some miracle, my golf game improved to the extent I can get on the seniors tour in the US … and I think I'm a much longer price to do that than Richmond is of winning a premiership."

That quip shows that, for all that's happened, the Tigers are never far from Bartlett's mind.

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