In a special summer series, Richmond Media is counting down the top 25 Tiger recruits from rival AFL clubs throughout the past five decades. At No. 17 is Graeme Landy.
Graeme Landy had played predominantly as a half-forward at his original league club Geelong, before being traded at the end of the 1978 season to Richmond, where he developed into a strong, consistent performer on a half-back flank.
Landy was a fine mark for his size, excellent left-foot kick, top tackler, tough, and an intelligent reader of the play.
Those attributes enabled him to regularly chop off opposition attacking moves and provide important rebound for the Tigers out of defence.
He made a slow start to his career at Richmond, playing just four senior games in his 1979 debut season.
By the time the 1980 finals series rolled around, however, Landy had established himself as an integral member of the powerful Tigers team due to his steely resolve and all-round skills set in his half-back role.
Unfortunately, though, Landy missed Richmond’s premiership triumph that year, when he was suspended for four matches on a charge of striking Carlton’s Ken Sheldon in the qualifying final win against the Blues at Waverley Park. It was that incident which sparked the fiery quarter-time confrontation between rival coaches Tony Jewell and “Percy” Jones.
In the face of such a major setback in his league career, Landy displayed admirable character to bounce back and play some consistently good football for the Tigers over the next six seasons.
He polled a career-high seven Brownlow Medal votes in 1981, was a key member of the 1982 Richmond Grand Final team that lost to Carlton, and finished third in the Club’s 1983 Best and Fairest award following a season in which he racked up 20 disposals or more on 11 occasions.
Landy left Richmond at the end of the 1986 season and returned to Geelong, where he spent another couple of years.
His Tiger teammates of the day rated him highly for the reliable service he provided the side in an eight-season career at Punt Road from 1979-86.
