In a special summer series, Richmond Media is counting down the top 25 Tiger recruits from rival AFL clubs throughout the past five decades. Today, at No. 22, is Ricky McLean.
Ricky McLean is regarded as one of the roughest, toughest players ever to pull on the famous Yellow and Black guernsey.
That reputation, however, overshadows the fact that McLean could seriously play the game.
The powerfully-built 185cm, 92kg full-forward joined Richmond at the end of 1971 after being cleared by Carlton, where he had managed only 19 senior games in six years.
Starved of opportunity during his playing career with the Blues, McLean was hell-bent on making up for lost time at Tigerland.
He booted four goals in an impressive first-up display for Richmond in the opening round of the 1972 season against Collingwood, with the Tigers winning a thrilling contest by four points.
That season, McLean finished with a career-high 55 goals, sharing Richmond’s leading goalkicker award with kindred spirit, Neil Balme, with whom he formed a formidable combination deep in the Tigers’ forward line.
The dynamic duo, “affectionately” known as “Biff” and “Bam”, struck fear into the hearts and minds of opposition backlines during the early 1970s.
In the ’72 season, McLean scored multiple goals in a match 13 times, with a career-best return of eight against St Kilda at the MCG in Round 17.
Clearly, the two best sides that year were Richmond and McLean’s old mob, Carlton. They met in the second semi-final out at Waverley Park and slugged out a low-scoring draw.
McLean kicked five goals against the Blues in the second-semi replay the following week at the MCG, as the Tigers recorded a comfortable victory and became raging-hot flag favourites.
Unfortunately, two weeks later, McLean injured his hamstring early in the ’72 premiership-decider against Carlton and he spent the entire second half on the bench watching the Blues pile on a record Grand Final score in a major upset.
McLean started the following season strongly, kicking 21 goals in his first six matches. But he then missed a fair chunk of the year, mainly due to injuries, and was not a member of the Tigers team that gained sweet revenge over Carlton in the 1973 Grand Final.
Still, his 32-goal return for the season placed him equal-second on the Club’s goalkicking list in that ’73 premiership year.
McLean left Richmond during the 1974 season to play for Tasmanian club Burnie but returned to Tigerland in 1976 for three more senior appearances that year, before retiring from league football.
He’d averaged more than two and a half goals per game throughout his time with the Tigers and had provided the team with a very strong, aggressive focal point in attack.
