In the wake of Richmond’s glorious 2017 premiership triumph, Tony Greenberg (with some valuable assistance from the Club’s expert history researcher Rhett Bartlett) offers up some extra tasty Tiger tidbits . . .
Damien Hardwick has become the oldest premiership coach in Richmond’s league football history.
Hardwick was 45 years and 43 days of age last Saturday, when he guided the Tigers to their drought-breaking 2017 premiership triumph over Adelaide.
Richmond ‘Immortal’ Tommy Hafey was the previous oldest Tiger premiership coach.
Hafey, a four-time premiership coach at Tigerland, was 43 years, 55 days old, when he lifted the 1974 premiership cup after Richmond defeated North Melbourne in the Grand Final.
Age of Richmond premiership coaches
1920 – Dan Minogue: 29 years, 30 days
1921 – Dan Minogue: 30 years, 42 days
1932 – Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes: 38 years, 219 days
1934 – Percy Bentley: 27 years, 304 days
1943 – Jack Dyer: 29 years, 314 days
1967 – Tommy Hafey: 36 years, 50 days
1969 – Tommy Hafey: 38 years, 54 days
1973 – Tommy Hafey: 42 years, 56 days
1974 – Tommy Hafey: 43 years, 55 days
1980 – Tony Jewell: 36 years, 294 days
2017 – Damien Hardwick: 45 years, 43 days
Hardwick achieved the ultimate success in his 182nd game as Richmond’s coach, which places him behind only Hafey on the Club’s list of experienced premiership coaches.
The Tigers’ win in the 1974 premiership-decider against North Melbourne was Hafey’s 202nd game as their coach.
Number of games coached to a Richmond premiership
17 – Dan Minogue, 1920
20 – Percy Bentley, 1934
36 – Dan Minogue, 1921
38 – Tommy Hafey, 1967
47 – Tony Jewell, 1980
53 – Jack Dyer, 1943
81 – Tommy Hafey, 1969
120 – Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, 1932
178 – Tommy Hafey, 1973
182 – Damien Hardwick, 2017
202 – Tommy Hafey, 1974
Talented, tough teenager Jack Graham has slotted into equal third place on Richmond’s list of least number of games played as the member of a Tigers’ premiership side.
Last Saturday’s Grand Final victory over Adelaide at the MCG was only the 19-year-old’s fifth senior appearance for Richmond (three of them finals).
Graham’s Tiger teammate, Nathan Broad, was playing just game No. 12 at AFL level.
Least number of games played to a Richmond premiership
1 – Bill James (1920)
4 – Jack Anderson (1932)
5 – Ernie Taylor (1920), Noel Carter (1973), Jack Graham (2017)
6 – Jack Broadstock (1943), Ray Hunt (1943)
7 – Laurie Cahill, (1943)
8 – Cameron Clayton (1974)
10 – George Parkinson (1920), Colin Beard (1969)
12 – Nathan Broad (2017)
Jack Graham also became the first player in Richmond’s league football history to wear the No. 34 guernsey to premiership glory.
And Nathan Broad was the inaugural wearer of the No. 35 guernsey in a Tigers’ premiership side.
Young Graham’s rewriting of the Richmond record books continued, with his game-high three goals in the 2017 Grand Final.
It was the most goals kicked by a Tiger teenager in a Grand Final since star key forward Royce Hart also scored three, in the 1967 premiership-decider against Geelong.
Graham was 19 years, 218 days old on Grand Final day, 2017, while Hart was 19 years, 225 days on the last Saturday in September ’67.
Richmond’s 48-point victory over Adelaide last Saturday was their second-highest winning margin in a Grand Final.
The Tigers’ 81-point demolition of Collingwood in 1980 was their greatest Grand Final-winning margin.
That final margin in the 2017 Grand Final was Richmond’s biggest-ever win against the Crows, eclipsing its 46-point success in Round 12, 1996.
The average points conceded by Richmond throughout the 2017 finals series of 55.7 was the lowest by a premier team since Hawthorn in 1988 with 50.5 points.
The biggest score by an opposing team against the Tigers during their last 10 games of the season, when they notched nine wins, was St Kilda’s 81 points at the MCG in Round 23. And the Saints were beaten by 41 points that day.
Only twice for the entire season did Richmond concede 100 points or more in a match – v Adelaide, Round 6 and v St Kilda, Round 16.
Trent Cotchin is now in a class of his own at Tigerland.
He’s the first player in the Club’s history to be a premiership captain and a Brownlow Medallist.
From an overall AFL/VFL level, he’s just the eighth player to accomplish the feat in the competition’s history.
Cotchin, the 2012 Brownlow Medallist and 2017 Richmond premiership captain, joins Collingwood’s Syd Coventry (1927 Brownlow and 1927-30 premiership captain), Essendon’s Dick Reynolds (1934, 1937, 1938 Brownlows and 1942, 1946, 1949, 1950 premiership captain), Melbourne’s Don Cordner (1946 Brownlow and 1948 premiership captain), Essendon’s James Hird (1996 Brownlow and 2000 premiership captain), Brisbane’s Michael Voss (1996 Brownlow and 2001-03 premiership captain), West Coast’s Chris Judd (2004 Brownlow and 2006 premiership captain) and Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell (2008 premiership captain and 2012 Brownlow).
Jacob Townsend is the master of efficiency . . .
The ex-GWS Giant, who had to wait until Round 22 this year to break into the senior Richmond line-up, ended up kicking 16 goals from just 32 kicks, in five wins out of five games!
Francis Jackson, understandably, is a mighty proud man in the wake of Richmond’s 2017 premiership.
Jackson recruited 16 of the 22 members of the Tigers’ latest flag-winning side, including Cotchin and Dustin Martin, who he both predicted, from the outset, would go on to be Brownlow Medallists.
Hats off to you, Francis . . .
Last Saturday’s MCG attendance figure of 100,021 was the highest for an AFL Grand Final since the 101,861 at Hawthorn v Carlton in 1986.
And, it was the highest-ever at a Grand Final featuring a team from outside Victoria, topping the 100,007 for Hawthorn v Fremantle in 2013.
