Disco’s Dog Day Debut
1:21:41 PM Thu 13 May, 2004
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au
Richmond’s goalkicking great, Michael Roach, has a rather different standout memory of his senior league debut with the Tigers, which took place 27 years ago this round – ironically, also against the Bulldogs (or Footscray as they were known in those days) at the MCG.
“I kicked a goal late in the game and I vividly remember Neil Balme came running at me full bore, to slap me on the back,” Roach said.
“I thought he was going to knock me over, so I was more worried about that at the time. That image of ‘Balmey’ stands out in my mind more than anything else about the day.
“Seriously, though, it was just sensational to have big Balmey around to protect you . . . I was on cloud nine.”
Roach was forced to stand out of football for the first few weeks of the 1977 season due to a clearance wrangle between his Tasmanian club Longford and Richmond.
Eventually that was settled and after some impressive performances for the Tiger ‘twos’, the man later to become known as ‘Disco’, received his senior opportunity.
The then 6ft 4in, 13 stone, 18-year-old lined up on a wing opposed to the Bulldogs’ Colin Dell and, according to him, had about 10 possessions, including the late goal (from a snap, not what was to later become his trademark – a ‘specky’) which was part of the Tigers’ eight-goal final term blitz that enabled them to turn a 26-point deficit at the last change into a 19-point win.
Here’s the Tiger team that Michael Roach broke into for the clash with the Bulldogs on May 21, 1977 . . .
B: Keane, Jenkinson, Robertson
HB: Clayton, Hart, Bourke
C: Raines, Wood, Roach
HF: Scrimshaw, Edwards, Sheedy
F: Dunne, Jess, Carter
R: Balme, Gaunt, Bartlett
Res: Monteath, Roberts
In: Wood, Carter, Dunne, Roach
Out: McGhie, Lamb, Hummel, Noonan
Match details
Richmond 3.8 6.10 8.13 16.18 (114)
Footscray 4.6 9.9 12.15 13.17 (95)
Goalkickers – Richmond: Edwards 4, Bartlett 3, Carter 2, Wood 2, Dunne, Roach, Jess, Balme, Scrimshaw.
Best – Richmond: Bartlett, Raines, Wood, Clayton, Carter.
