Ross Lyon’s return as St Kilda’s coach has rekindled memories of Tony Jewell’s appointment to a second stint coaching at Richmond. Tony Greenberg takes up the story . . .
Four years after being sacked as Richmond’s senior coach, Tony Jewell took the Tigers’ coaching reins again following Paul Sproule’s forced departure from Punt Road.
Jewell had guided Richmond to its glorious 1980 Grand Final demolition of arch-rival Collingwood, but 12 months later was gone, replaced by five-time Tiger premiership hero Francis Bourke, despite a 13-win season and narrowly missing the then final five.
He subsequently coached St Kilda in 1983 and for part of the 1984 season, before the struggling Saints opted to axe him and promote assistant coach Graeme Gellie.
Jewell’s coaching days at the game’s highest level, however, were far from over.
Collingwood hatched a coaching succession plan that would have seen Jewell initially become an assistant coach there in 1986, before taking over from Bob Rose the following season.
But the Tigers beat the Pies to the punch, offering their senior coaching job to Jewell for a second time.
With Yellow and Black blood coursing through his veins, Jewell gratefully accepted the offer.
Unfortunately, Jewell’s second stretch as Richmond’s coach didn’t pan out anywhere near how he would have liked.
The Tigers finished 10th in the 12-team competition in 1986 with seven wins and 15 losses, and were wooden spooners the following year (14th in a 14-team competition) with five wins and 17 losses.
At the end of the 1987 season, Jewell was succeeded as coach by Richmond’s other five-time premiership hero, Kevin Bartlett.
Jewell’s lack of success the second time around at Tigerland was hardly surprising, mind you, given the number of quality players that had left the Club since he coached there previously – 1980 premiership team members in Bartlett, Bourke, David Cloke, Geoff Raines, Bryan Wood, Merv Keane, Robert Wiley, Mick Malthouse, Bruce Monteath, Emmett Dunne, Peter Welsh and Stephen Mount, plus star spearhead Brian Taylor, who made his league football debut that year but wasn’t a member of the flag side.
Here is The Age chief football writer at the time Ron Carter’s report of Jewell’s return to Richmond, which also contained a couple of fascinating sliding doors moments for the Tigers . . .
“By snapping up Tony Jewell as coach yesterday after an absence of four years, Richmond has thwarted Collingwood’s bid to get him.
Jewell, appointed by the Tigers for two years at $35,000 a season, was on the verge of joining Collingwood as assistant to Bob Rose next year, becoming senior coach in 1987.
Jewell thought his hopes of returning to Punt Road were dashed late on Wednesday night when David Parkin was replaced as Carlton coach by Robert Walls.
Jewell, Richmond’s last premiership coach, in 1980, said yesterday: “I thought Richmond would be certain to jump on David. Five minutes after I heard Parkin was gone the phone rang and I was told I had the Richmond job. I opened a bottle of beer to celebrate.”
The $35,000 a year Jewell is to receive as almost a full-time coach will make him one of the lowest paid VFL coaches. He will be paid the same wage in 1987.
Parkin, while at Carlton, and Ron Barassi (Melbourne) were in the $75,000-$90,000-a-year bracket. Paul Sproule, sacked as the Tigers’ coach a week ago, is believed to have been paid $60,000 this year.
Jewell said his salary was not a secret and he was not making a big deal of it. “It was the same as I asked for last year when I lost the coach job to Paul (Sproule),” he said. Sproule was sacked after one year of a two-year agreement.
Jewell’s pay cheque would grow as a result of incentive payments should the Tigers make the finals and/or win the flag during his tenure.
Jewell was sacked four years ago, the season after he took the Tigers to the 1980 premiership. He coached the Tigers into eighth place in 1979 and seventh in 1981. In 1983 and part of 1984, he coached St Kilda, which finished last each season.
Richmond announced his return yesterday after it had made an “impossible” decision between him and another former coach, Tom Hafey.
Dick Clay, Richmond’s match committee chairman, who made the announcement, said: “It was almost an impossible decision to make between Tony and Tom. Finally, we settled on Tony.”
On Tuesday, Hafey was replaced by John Devine as coach of Geelong. Like Jewell, Hafey is a former premiership coach at Punt Road having won flags in 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974. He dearly would have loved to have returned.
Jewell, who played 89 games with the Tigers and was in the 1967 premiership side, said he felt he had never been away from Richmond. “It is a very comfortable place to be around,” he said.
“This present group of people are very good friends of mine and I hope I can justify their faith in me. I’m sure I will.”
Jewell said he had found out very late on Wednesday night that he had the job. He had known very little about it until then.
“I’m not surprised to be back at the club, but I’m surprised to be back as coach. Being the coach again was a bit if a pipe dream. I had no idea this was coming until a week ago when there was no longer a coach here.
“I was only vaguely asked about it a week ago. Just briefly. I was asked if I would come back to the club in some capacity. I was never asked about coaching.
“I must admit I’ve thought about it long and hard ever since I was sacked back in ’81. I have always harbored a desire to come back, not necessarily in a coaching capacity, but in some way, and here I am. It happens to be as coach.”
He said his latest coaching position was almost full-time. As a wholesaler of golf equipment, he would have as much time as necessary to devote to the club.
Being the Tigers’ fourth coach in four years – he follows Francis Bourke (1983), Mike Patterson (1984) and Sproule (1985), does not concern him.
“Whenever anyone takes on a coaching job, like Parkin, there comes a time when you are not going to be coach,” he said.
“I think I’m better prepared for coaching now than I was when I first came to Richmond as a senior coach. Anyway, that all will be tested in the next few years.”
Jewell believes the instability at Richmond over the past few years has contributed to the lack of success.
“I know the club has a genuine concern about its image at the moment and rightly so. Certainly there will be a concerted effort to stabilise and become a football family.
“I know how players feel when there are sackings and their mates are gone. That doesn’t help. The general unrest around the place hasn’t helped the players.”
Jewell said he hoped he would not change his coaching methods which won the premiership in 1980.
“We have the nucleus of a real good side – Mark Lee, Jimmy Jess, Michael Roach and others; not really unlike what it was when I came here. We have a lot of young blokes coming along.
“It’s a matter of getting the most out of what you have. We hope to make the five next year and after that we’ll see how the season unfolds.”
