Richmond has strong links with the two country towns it will play pre-season competition games in early next year.

The Tigers meet Adelaide first-up at Etihad Stadium on Friday, February 24, then travel to Mount Gambier for a clash with Port Adelaide at Malseed Park on Sunday, March 5, before finishing the pre-season series against Collingwood at Ted Summerton Reserve, Moe on Saturday, March 11.

One of Richmond’s top performers throughout the 1990s was a product of Mt Gambier.

Nick Daffy was recruited by Richmond from North Gambier Football Club, where, as a 16-year-old, he’d won the Western Border League’s Rookie of the Year award.

The Tigers had claimed him with their fourth selection (pick 49 overall) in the 1990 National Draft, and they subsequently nursed him through his first few seasons of league football.

Daffy played a few games with Richmond’s under 19s, in the final year of that competition in 1991 and then made his senior league debut early the next season.

He managed only four senior appearances in 1992 and five in 1993, before establishing himself as a permanent member of the Tigers’ team during the second half of the 1994 season.

Initially, Daffy made a name for himself at the game’s highest level as a medium-sized forward, winning Richmond’s leading goalkicker award in its 1995 preliminary final season with 45 goals.

Such was Daffy’s influence in attack for the Tigers throughout this period, West Coast’s coach at the time Mick Malthouse described him as the best medium forward in the competition.

Daffy further underlined his importance to the Richmond side when he eventually moved into a midfield role.

With his pace, ability to create space, and long kicking, Daffy became a key member of the Tigers’ midfield.

In 1998, Daffy produced his best season of league football.  He averaged 23.6 disposals per game, was ranked third in the whole competition for total kicks, kicked 30 goals as a midfielder and won the Jack Dyer Medal.

Daffy backed it up with another strong season in 1999, before his league career started to taper off after that.

At his peak, however, Daffy had been a damaging player for Richmond, both as a goalkicking forward and ball-magnet midfielder.

In the same 1990 National Draft that the Tigers chose Daffy, they also selected a young ruckman from Mt Gambier – Matthew Clarke – at pick 56 overall.

Unfortunately, Clarke never played a game at senior level with Richmond, but his AFL career took off when he joined Brisbane.

He went on to play 130 games for Brisbane, and then a further 118 with Adelaide, before finishing his league career at St Kilda (10 games).

Richmond’s Moe connection primarily revolves around Barry Rowlings, who had a superb career at Tigerland after leaving Hawthorn, where he had been a premiership player.

The Tigers originally attempted to recruit Rowlings in the early 1970s, but missed out on securing his services then due to the fact he was playing for Moe, which was in Hawthorn’s country zone at the time.

Rowlings had won five club and three competition Best and Fairest awards while he was with Moe, before joining the Hawks in 1975.

He quickly became a valuable contributor at Hawthorn, playing 72 games with the club, including the 1976 premiership win against North Melbourne, before departing the Hawks’ nest at the end of the 1978 season following a serious knee injury.

Hawthorn felt he was finished as a player at the highest level because of his knee problems, but Richmond was confident that, even at age 28, he still had plenty to offer, and moved swiftly to sign him.

The Tigers finally had their man and, over the ensuing eight seasons, Rowlings more than justified their faith in him.

Rowlings was a star from the outset at Tigerland, winning the Jack Dyer Medal in his first season with the Club, finishing second in the Best and Fairest in 1982 and third in 1984.

In 1980, Rowlings was one of the pivotal players in Richmond’s dominant season, which culminated with that thumping Grand Final victory over Collingwood.

He was a standout in his role as ruck-rover, with his breakaway speed and spearing, left-foot kicks providing plenty of opportunities for teammates further afield.

In 1983, following four seasons of consistently top-class football, Rowlings was rewarded for his efforts and consummate professionalism with the Club’s captaincy – a role he was to carry out admirably for the next couple of years.

Rowlings was just five days short of his 36^th birthday, when he played his final game of league football, in Round 20 of the 1986 season.

He had given superb service to his adopted club, Richmond.

The Tigers’ other prominent Moe connection was Jervis Stokes.

Originally from Tasmanian club Burnie, Stokes played 33 games for Richmond and kicked 32 goals in a three-season career from 1948-50.

Stokes embarked on a coaching career after leaving Punt Road, and he took over as Moe’s coach at the end of a disastrous 1954 season, where it had failed to register a win.

Two years later (1956), Stokes guided Moe to the premiership in the Latrobe Valley League.

To this day, his name is still revered at the Moe Football Club for what he was able to achieve as coach.