Football > Memorable Moments
Memorable Moment #13: Tigers 10 goal final quarter blitz over Dons in '82
one-eyed:
On April 12, 1982, over 90,000 fans packed the MCG to witness the top two unbeaten sides after two rounds battle it out on Easter Monday.
New coach Francis Bourke had Richmond off to a great start with two wins over North and Fitzroy while the Bombers in Sheedy's second season in charge had knocked off reigning premiers Carlton the week before at VFL Park.
After an even first three quarters of high scoring footy, the more experienced and battle hardened Tigers gave the baby bombers a lesson in big game footy with a unrelenting 10 goal blitz in the final quarter to run out 62-point winners.
Score
Richmond 4.7 12.14 15.18 25.22-172
Essendon 6.3 12.9 14.13 16.14-110
Goals: Wiley 7, Bartlett 4, Taylor 3, Weightman 2, Roach 2, Wood 2, Rioli 2, Egan, Cloke, Landy.
Bests: Wiley (BOG), Keane, Jess, Wood, Raines, Bartlett.
Umpires: Sawers and Smith
Crowd: 90, 564 at the MCG.
Teams
Richmond
B: Malthouse Strachan Martello (hamstring - replaced by Sutton)
HB: Landy Jess Keane
C: Egan Raines Welsh
HF: Rioli Cloke Bartlett
F: Taylor Roach Wiley
R: Dunne Smith Rowlings
Int: Weightman, Wood
Emerg: Mount, Sarah, Sutton
In: Roach
Out: Mugavin (inj)
Essendon
B: Clarke T.Daniher Duckworth
HB: Stoneham Crow Carey
C: Euctice Neagle Hawker
HF: Thomson Van Der Haar Watson
F: S.Madden Foulds Otway
R: J.Madden Copping Buhagiar
Int: Walsh, Fowler
In: Thomson, Walsh
Out: Andrews (suspended), Heard (inj).
one-eyed:
front page of the Sun
one-eyed:
TIGERS IN A THILLER
Frontpage, The Sun, Tuesday April 13, 1982.
RICHMOND and Essendon drew a bumper 90,564 crowd to the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday for the battle of the VFL heavyweights.
In perfect football conditions the Tigers won by 62 points and the big crowd paid a record homeand-away gate of $240,755.
One of the highlights of the day was the battle between two of Richmond’s favourite sons, Francis Bourke and Kevin Sheedy.
It was the first time they had met as opposing coaches, with the first round going to Bourke and his Tigers.
The crowd was the fourth highest to watch a home-and-away match.
The record of 99,346 was set in Queens Birthday split round when Melbourne beat Collingwood at the MCG in 1958.
The Easter split-round matches attracted 213,199, failing to break the 1961 record by about 6000, but this weekend's gate of $486,652 was a record.
Although Richmond is unbeaten after three big wins over Fitzroy, North Melbourne and the Dons, Hawthorn is on top of the VFL ladder after its crushing 143-point win over Footscray yesterday.
Sheedy who is renowned for his competitiveness and dislike of losing, ordered a unique punishment for his players last night.
He made sure every player attended the traditional after-match entertainment at the old Richmond ground so they would "suffer and cop it sweet."
For Bourke, the win has established Richmond as the team to beat in the competition.
"It is best to win against opponents we respect,” he said. "Essendon is one side we have to get over to make the finals and we beat a side which is highly-fancied and highly-rated."
The MCG match was marred by brawls between mobs of drunken youths in the outer. The trouble started in Bay 22 in the third quarter, and continued into the last term.
A spectator, Mr James Mano, said the brawls involved youths of about 13 to 17.
"They were drinking beer and just looking for fights,” he said.
"The police couldn't do anything. These kids just kept on coming over the top of them."
Police later charged two men and a woman with having been drunk and disorderly. But police detained "Quite a few more" at the ground until after the match.
Two youths, about 16, were knocked unconscious after they were hit by a train as it approached Richmond station.
Police said the two were standing on the lip of the platform and were hit by the train's extenal mirror about 4.45 p.m. They fell back onto the platform.
one-eyed:
Moi in her younger days lol // Jimmy Jess
one-eyed:
DONS PAY THE PRICE
By Peter Simunovich
The Sun, Tuesday April 13, 1982
ESSENDON coach Kevin Sheedy used a new form of punishment to penalize his players after their 62-point loss to Richmond at the MCG yesterday.
The former Tiger champion ordered players to attend the traditional after-match drinks at Punt Rd, when most of them wanted to walk out of the MCG and go home.
"I want them to go over to Richmond to suffer and cop it sweet," he said after the game.
It must have been bad enough for the Dons to be humiliated in the last quarter before 90,564 people, who paid a record home and away gate of $240,755.40.
But it was Sheedy's way of teaching players that it is far more pleasant to attend the function as winners than losers. And tonight the team will go through the agony of watching a replay of the game when mistakes will be pointed out to them.
Sheedy was bitterly disappointed that Richmond swamped the Dons in the last quarter kicking 10.4 to 2.1 in the finals type atmosphere.
"I prepare sides to win, it was chance to win a big atmosphere football match. When was the last time Essendon played before a crowd of 90,000?," he asked.
For Sheedy's former teammate and unbeaten Richmond coach Francis Bourke, the win has cemented the Tigers as the most powerful combination in the VFL so far this season even though Hawthorn has not yet lost a game and is on top of the ladder.
Richmond has beaten Fitzroy, North Melbourne and Essendon while the Hawks have victories over St Kilda, Geelong and Footscray. Hawthorn will face its real test next Saturday against reigning premier Carlton at Princes Park.
While Bourke is not getting carried away with yesterday's win, the 11 other VFL coaches must be beginning to
wonder how the Tigers can be beaten after the way they swept aside Essendon.
Sheedy was obviously impressed with his old side's performance and said: "When Mark Lee gets in it will be a perfect line-up.
However Bourke sees it differently. He claimed the Tigers would improve even more with Bruce Tempany, Steve Mount, Paul Sarah, Andy Preston and Alan Martello putting pressure on yesterday’s combination.
Bourke was more interested in yesterday's crushing win because he now knows his team can handle big-match pressure and atmosphere. He described the win as: "It is best to win against opponents we respect. Essendon is one side we have to get over to make the finals and we beat a side which is highly fancied and highly rated."
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