It has been 45 years since Richmond’s last win in an elimination final. Tony Greenberg takes a look at that victory . . .

After missing the finals in 1976, Richmond returned to the September action in 1977 under new coach Barry Richardson.

The triple Tiger premiership star had replaced the Club’s legendary, four-time, flag coach Tommy Hafey at the end of the 1976 season.

Richmond, seventh in 1976, had risen to fourth at the end of the 1977 home-and-away rounds (a 12-team competition and final five back then) with 14 wins, one draw and seven losses and took on South Melbourne in the elimination final at VFL Park, Waverley.

South Melbourne, with Tiger Brownlow Medallist, premiership hero and former champion centreman Ian Stewart as coach, had finished fifth in ’77 with 13 wins, one draw and eight losses.

Adding further interest to the cut-throat final was the appearance of South’s Brownlow Medal winner that season, star ruckman Graham Teasdale, who had started his league football career with Richmond before being traded to the Swans as part of a deal for John Pitura.

The Tigers had been relentless in their pursuit of the highly-skilled Pitura, eventually securing his services during the 1975 season.

Pitura was a member of the Richmond’s ’77 elimination final team, while Teasdale and Francis Jackson, who also was traded by the Tigers to South Melbourne, lined up for the Swans against their former team.

Another interesting Tiger trade pick-up who played that day was former Essendon spearhead Alan Noonan, a seven-time winner of the Bombers’ leading goalkicker award.

In front of a large crowd of 63,663, Richmond asserted its authority early and took a handy 19-point lead into the quarter-time break.

By half-time, South had cut that deficit to just five points and the stage seemed set for a tight finish.

But the Tigers upped the ante in the third term, scoring 4.2 to the Swans’ 0.3 to hold a comfortable 28-point advantage at the last change.

South was unable to make inroads in a low-scoring final quarter and Richmond recorded a solid 34-point win.

Here is a review of the match in The Age newspaper by leading football writer Mike Sheahan . . .

“It was back on April 16 when Richmond first alerted South Melbourne that the big boys in the VFL don’t go much on sentiment and style.

Twelve weeks later at VFL Park, the Tigers again pounded out the message to South.

On Saturday, back at VFL Park, it was the same sad story as Richmond ruthlessly destroyed South’s dream of finals success.

The Tigers, the first team to beat South this year and the only team to beat South twice during the home-and-away series, completed the rout with a 34-point win in the elimination final.

The result was a major disappointment to 80 per cent of the crowd of 63,663 – only 1849 short of the record elimination final crowd.

It was a bitter blow to everyone at South who worked so desperately to get to the finals.

Simply, the Swans still are not good enough when the chips are down against the real pros of the trade.

Richmond play it tough. Not much of the frilly stuff, but the Tigers are fit, strong, relentless workers.

They didn’t provide a great spectacle on Saturday, but they did the job and, in the process, showed South’s rebuilding programme is far from finished.

Twenty minutes after South’s loss, haggard coach Ian Stewart gave a spontaneous and emphatic “no” when asked if the club had the equipment to be a successful finals team.

Stewart, whose amazing success as a player is exceeded only by his desire to succeed as a coach, said South needed several top players if it was to improve.

His team had been caught short under the unique pressure of finals and he wasn’t going to content himself with South’s first finals appearance since 1970 and only its second since 1945 . . .

Brownlow Medallist Graham Teasdale certainly didn’t make the contribution Richmond feared and South hoped for.

His lack of training, the pressure of his first appearance as the reigning medalist and the attention of David Cloke reduced him to mediocrity . . .

Teasdale, like so many of his team mates, succumbed to the pressure and strength of Cloke, Francis Bourke, Mick Malthouse, Bruce Monteath and Kevin Sheedy.

When South persisted with hurried, floating kicks to congested areas, it was obvious too many players lacked the confidence and time to exploit an advantage in pace.

South was restricted to seven goals, only one in the second half, and winner Greg Lambert was the only player to kick more than one goal.

The Tigers, who previously worked on the principle that they must win if they kick enough goals, have swung the emphasis to defence.”

Match details

Richmond         5.4       7.6       11.8     13.10 (88)

South Melb.      2.3       6.7       6.10     7.12 (54)

Goals – Richmond: Dunne 2, Monteath 2, Edwards 2, Cloke 2, Roberts, Noonan, Malthouse, Bartlett, Raines.

Best – Richmond: Bourke (best on ground), Cloke, Bartlett, Malthouse, Monteath, Sheedy, Edwards.

Goals – South Melbourne: Lambert 2, Daniher, Goss, Teasdale, Morrison, Browning.

Best – South Melbourne: Round, McLeish, Browning, Morrison, Rantall, O’Neill, Teasdale.