Remembering Royce the rolled gold Richmond rookie (RFC)

[richmondrules]

Couldn't see this anywhere. My favourite Richmond player of all time.

Remembering Royce the rolled gold Richmond rookie

3:00 PM Mon 17 December, 2007 | Back

Tony Greenberg

http://richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/News/NewsArticle/Default.aspx?newsId=54347

for richmondfc.com.au
news detail

He’s the greatest Richmond player I’ve seen in more than 40 years of Tiger barracking and, as this article by the then chief football writer of ‘The Herald’ newspaper, Alf Brown, underlines, Royce Desmond Hart certainly had a major instant impact when he burst on to the league football scene in 1967 . . .
 
“SELECTING the best League football recruit of this season was so easy this year. Richmond full-forward ROYCE HART made it no contest.
 
Hart, only 19, already has everything – skill, pace, courage, kicking ability and a tremendous leap.
 
He shares with the great John Coleman the remarkable ability of being able to take sky-scraping marks from in front. He does not have to climb an opponent.
 
Who will forget that amazing mark of his in the last quarter against Geelong in the Grand Final?
 
He sprang in front of Geelong half-back Peter Walker and went so high that his foot rested on Walker’s chest, then he got extra lift from there.
 
Hart can mark from in front, from behind and from the side.
 
All this from a 19-year-old who two years ago was playing in an under-19 side in Clarence, Tasmania.
 
His success at Richmond is a tribute to the recruiting skill of Richmond secretary Graeme Richmond, who saw this 17-year-old in Tasmania and correctly assessed his chances of success in League football.
 
Hart was not an immediate success at Richmond. In the early practice games last year his form barely was good enough to get him a game with Richmond Thirds. But once he found form nothing could stop him.
 
He was in Richmond Reserves before the season ended and was a member of the Reserves side that won the premiership. In fact, Hart more or less won the flag – he kicked the winning goal.
 
This year’s final series was a triumph for young Hart. He kicked six goals in the semi-final against Carlton and three in the Grand Final although he played most of the game at centre half-forward.
 
Hart cannot be compared with Coleman, but he has one edge – he can star at centre half-forward.
 
The few times I saw Coleman play at centre half-forward he did not take charge of a forward line.
 
But when Richmond switched Hart to centre half-forward after quarter-time last Saturday, he starred against Walker, rated by some critics as Victoria’s best centre half-back.
 
Hart has great reflexes and remarkable recovery. He is like a cat on the ground – he can miss a mark yet a split second later win the ball on the ground.
 
He has great courage and tenacity. Several times in the Grand Final he crawled on hands and knees towards the ball. Nothing deters him; nothing stops him.
 
He got concussion in a match against North Melbourne this year, but the next Saturday kicked five goals against Hawthorn.
 
Hart has great pace and his teamwork is excellent. He is not goal hungry and often handballs to teammates even when he probably could goal himself.
 
Hart kicked 55 goals for the season and it would have been more but for coach Tom Hafey’s habit of switching him from full-forward to centre half-forward.
 
Most full-forwards are shifted to centre half-forward only when they are being beaten. Hart goes there when he is on top, either to liven up the half-forward line or because Hafey wants to confuse the opposition with quick changes.
 
This gambit has won matches. Hart kicked four goals at Carlton in the middle of the season and then was switched to centre half-forward from where he kicked the winning goal.
 
Who knows, Richmond may not have been premiers if Hart had stayed at full-forward throughout Saturday’s game. Hafey has such tremendous confidence in Hart that he gambles on him.
 
If Richmond had lost, Hafey would have been criticised for keeping Hart away from full-forward for the last three quarters.
 
Success has not affected Hart. After a season of plaudits and the winning of a Victorian guernsey in his first year, he is still the same quiet player I first met at Richmond last year.”

[Fluffy Tiger]

I must admit he is my Favorite player of all time. He was the one I wanted to play like when I was a kidd and when playing kick to kick I was always pretenting to be Royce Hart.

This reminds me of a question thats been bugging me but keep forgetting to ask.

I remember one year where we won all three grades. U19, Reserves and Seniors.  I think it was 1969 but I am not sure. Can anybody confirm or tell me the year it was? Please forgive me if I have year wrong as I am getting older and the memory is going.   

[Hellenic Tiger]

I think it was either 73 or 74 Fluffy. I tend to think it was 73 but I am not 100%.

[Fishfinger]

I remember one year where we won all three grades. U19, Reserves and Seniors. 

1973.

Was called a "Tigerella" in the paper when it happened.
Our U17's (Essex Heights - in our metropolitan reruiting zone) also won the 1973 premiership.

[mightytiges]

The old MCG scoreboard at the 1973 GF 



Glenelg Tigers also won the SANFL flag that year.

It'd be nice if we could finally celebrate a modern day premiership captain and champion Tiger  .

[tiga]

Royce was one of my favorite players growing up. As a young Tacker I was given the opportunity to go into the Change rooms after a game against Fitzroy and I head people saying that Royce had suffered torn stomach muscles during the game. Well not knowing any better and only being 7 years old, I went over to Royce expecting to see torn bits of flesh and blood drooping off his stomach and to my amazement he was fully intact. Those memories of the old change rooms and the experience of looking at others looking in from behind the old wire mesh gates I felt incredibly privileged just to be in the same room with all our champions of the day. Actually it was Sheeds who got me the pass into the rooms as he was a friend of our family when we lived in Caulfield.

[Little Jackie]

The 73 Prelim final when we were 6-7 goals down at half time against the pies.
No interchange in those days.
Royce started on the bench due to a groin injury.
After half time , Hafey took Lamb off and bought Royce on, the rest was history. He kicked 3 goals in the 3rd quarter and turned the game our way. A great win!

[mightytiges]

It was Royce's knee that was the problem wasn't it? GR wanted him on the ground but the club doctor said Royce wouldn't make the GF next week if he went on, to which GR replied there won't be a GF if Royce doesn't.

Also didn't Hart play state footy after just 5 games or something like that?

[Smokey]

The 73 Prelim final when we were 6-7 goals down at half time against the pies.
No interchange in those days.
Royce started on the bench due to a groin injury.
After half time , Hafey took Lamb off and bought Royce on, the rest was history. He kicked 3 goals in the 3rd quarter and turned the game our way. A great win!

Yep, didn't get any better than that one.  I was at the 'G' that day and the roar when Hart came on was like nothing I had heard.  You could feel the whole atmoshpere around the ground and demeanour of the team change in that very instant.  Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up! 

And it was definitely 1973 when we won all 4 (including Essex Heights).  I remember our club slogan going into 1974 was "4 more in '74".

[Smokey]

I must admit he is my Favorite player of all time. He was the one I wanted to play like when I was a kidd and when playing kick to kick I was always pretenting to be Royce Hart.

Same here FT.  I had the #4 on my jumper and being the only boy in the family (at that point), all my matches in the backyard were one man affairs.  Richmond was ALWAYS in the grand Final, ALWAYS played either Collingwood or Carlton (no other teams were worth beating), and "Roycey Baby" always kicked the "come from behind, winning goal" after the siren.  Year after year we won our Grand Finals this way!  He was the reason I was able to, from quite a young age, kick adequately with my left foot and in later years the ability to be just as proficient on either foot was a blessing to someone not over-endowed with pace like myself. 

[Little Jackie]

The 73 Prelim final when we were 6-7 goals down at half time against the pies.
No interchange in those days.
Royce started on the bench due to a groin injury.
After half time , Hafey took Lamb off and bought Royce on, the rest was history. He kicked 3 goals in the 3rd quarter and turned the game our way. A great win!

Yep, didn't get any better than that one.  I was at the 'G' that day and the roar when Hart came on was like nothing I had heard.  You could feel the whole atmoshpere around the ground and demeanour of the team change in that very instant.  Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up! 

I reckon Royce kicked the first goal after half time as well, kicked three in that quarter.
By memory, his first was on the run in front of the southern stand at half forward kicking towards the city end

[Hellenic Tiger]

The 73 Prelim final when we were 6-7 goals down at half time against the pies.
No interchange in those days.
Royce started on the bench due to a groin injury.
After half time , Hafey took Lamb off and bought Royce on, the rest was history. He kicked 3 goals in the 3rd quarter and turned the game our way. A great win!

Yep, didn't get any better than that one.  I was at the 'G' that day and the roar when Hart came on was like nothing I had heard.  You could feel the whole atmoshpere around the ground and demeanour of the team change in that very instant.  Still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up! 

I reckon Royce kicked the first goal after half time as well, kicked three in that quarter.
By memory, his first was on the run in front of the southern stand at half forward kicking towards the city end

Yep saw a video of it recently spot on LJ. On his trusty left foot about 50 out about 10 metres in from the boundary. Magical stuff.

[Fluffy Tiger]

I remember one year where we won all three grades. U19, Reserves and Seniors. 

1973.

Was called a "Tigerella" in the paper when it happened.
Our U17's (Essex Heights - in our metropolitan reruiting zone) also won the 1973 premiership.

Oh Essex Heights, I remeber playing against them and they were always up ot near the top in all grades. It was the most feared match of the year even in the under 9's. Rough bunch the Essex Height boys.

[mightytiges]

Was Essex Heights before the VFL brought in specific recruiting zones for each club during the 70s? I thought we were given poor zones and this in part led us to spending up big trying to find decent players in the 80s before the draft was introduced. The zones were meant to be rotated every couple of years but that never happened as the clubs that got the best zones voted not to give them up.

[Fluffy Tiger]

Was Essex Heights before the VFL brought in specific recruiting zones for each club during the 70s? I thought we were given poor zones and this in part led us to spending up big trying to find decent players in the 80s before the draft was introduced. The zones were meant to be rotated every couple of years but that never happened as the clubs that got the best zones voted not to give them up.

Essex Heights was in the Richmond zone in the 70's as was my club Oakleigh Youth Club. Even though I was young and the memory is going now I do know this as the Ricmond little league was chosen from the zone and I got to play on the G (yes this im my one and only claim to fame so dont knock it). The most disapointing thing at the time was that I was given the number 10 where as I played at FF or in the Ruck. This brings the story full Cirlce , as I so wanted the number 4 on my back and not some back pocket plumbers number. Yes Royce will remain my favorite player of all time.

As to the strength of the zone, well I cant comment as I was just a kid. Maybe some of the other OER members can help.