Royce Hart joins the Immortals
Jon Ralph and Bruce Matthews | March 18, 2008
CHAMPION Richmond forward Royce Hart was last night awarded the Tigers' greatest honour when he was elevated to Immortal status in the club's Hall of Fame.
Hart, a four-time premiership hero and considered the club's greatest centre half-forward, became the club's fifth Immortal, joining Jack Dyer, Kevin Bartlett, Tom Hafey and Francis Bourke.
Hart was supreme for more than a decade, a dominant player in the club's greatest era.
In an 11-year, 187-game career, he was involved in the 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974 flags, the last two as captain.
At 22 he famously wrote a book in which he named himself as centre half-forward in the best-ever team, but by the end of his career he was not too far short of that lofty title.
Hart was also a superb state player, captaining Victoria and representing the Big V 11 times.
One of the best players to represent Tasmania, he was recently named at No. 18 in Herald Sun chief football writer Mike Sheahan's best footballers of 150 years.
The Tigers also elevated dual premiership backman Kevin O'Neill and 1980 premiership pair Geof Raines and Jim Jess into the Hall of Fame.
Raines was a member of Richmond's Team of the Century, and won three best-and-fairest as a slashing centreman.
Jess, nicknamed "The Ghost", played 161 games and was centre half-back in the 1980 premiership side.
Tigers legend Bartlett strengthened ties with the club he was once estranged from, attending his first Hall of Fame function since his sacking as coach in 1991.
He labelled Hart the best centre-half-forward in history. "He could play Wayne Carey on a break. There was no greater centre half-forward than Royce," Bartlett said.
Hart lives in Hobart and occasionally attends Richmond games and events.
Last night he urged the current band of Tigers to break the premiership drought, telling them to set up another era of success for the club.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23393001-19742,00.html
