Dick Clay has been elevated to ‘Immortal’ status at Richmond.
The four-time Tiger premiership star received the Club’s ultimate individual accolade at a special ceremony held before tonight’s big MCG clash with Geelong.
He joins other Richmond Immortals in Kevin Bartlett, Francis Bourke, Roger Dean, Jack Dyer, Tommy Hafey, Royce Hart, Vic Thorp and Jack Titus.
Dick Clay arrived at Punt Road in 1966 amid a blaze of publicity . . .
Richmond managed to sneak under the guard of rival league club North Melbourne, who had Clay signed on a Form Four agreement, and snared the 21-year-old, key-forward sensation from Victorian country club Kyabram.
Dubbed the ‘Kyabram Kid’, Clay quickly captured the imagination of the Tiger Army with his exciting playing style.
From his first senior appearance with Richmond, when he lined up at centre half-forward in Round 2 of the 1966 season on Footscray champion, and one of the game’s all-time greats in Ted Whitten, Clay looked comfortable in the pressure-cooker atmosphere of League football.
“The much-publicised, controversial Dick Clay from Kyabram did much better than most Richmond officials and supporters dared hope,” was how one football writer of the day described his excellent debut.
“Anyone who can win 19 kicks in his league debut against Ted Whitten, has a bright and prosperous future ahead.
“Clay put the mark of class on his work by making use of every kick.”
Clay went on to play 213 games and kick 79 goals for the Tigers over the course of a superb 11-season career from 1966-76. He was a member of the Club’s premiership sides in 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974, playing a key role in all four triumphs.
To highlight Clay’s tremendous versatility, he played on a wing for the first two premierships and then full-back for the next two. That was after making his debut with Richmond at centre half-forward in 1966.
A fairly handy player by the name of Royce Hart pushed Clay out of the centre half-forward role in his own brilliant debut season the following year (1967), but the Kyabram Kid soon found his niche on a wing, forming part of the greatest centreline in League football history, alongside Bill Barrot and Francis Bourke, before eventually becoming one of the competition’s best full-backs.
The attributes that had made Clay such an attractive proposition as a key forward – explosive pace, poise, strong marking and long kicking – ideally suited Richmond’s then revolutionary concept of using a taller player (185cm) player on a wing.
Clay took to the wing like a duck to water. He caught the eye of the men in white during that ’67 season, too, finishing equal fifth in the Brownlow Medal with 12 votes.
On Grand Final day ’67, Clay was a solid, rather than spectacular contributor, finishing with match stats of 11 kicks, one handball and one mark, but he had more than played his part throughout the entire season with his excellent exploits on the wing.
Two years later, Clay was rated in the top three Richmond players on the ground, as the Tigers overwhelmed Carlton before a massive crowd of 119,165 at the 1969 Grand Final. He had 18 kicks, took six marks and provided the Tiger team with considerable drive from his wing in customary dashing fashion.
When Richmond next tasted sweet premiership success, in 1973, Clay had “abandoned” the relative freedom and safety of a wing for the unrelenting, pressure-cooker environment of full-back.
Clay’s overall standing in the game, however, soared due to the mighty fist he made of his full-back role with the Tigers. Fist is an appropriate word because time and again Clay would spoil marking attempts by his opponents with well-timed defensive punches that cleared the ball out of danger. He also used his elite speed and towering torpedo-punts to initiate countless attacking thrusts for the team.
In the ’73 Grand Final success against Carlton, Clay was one of Richmond’s best, carrying out his defensive duties with aplomb, shutting down his opponents and backing his judgment to the hilt.
A year later, in the 1974 Grand Final, Clay had the tough assignment on champion North Melbourne spearhead Doug Wade. Although Wade finished with four goals, the by now veteran Kyabram Kid again was a valuable contributor in another Yellow and Black premiership triumph.
The Herald newspaper’s legendary chief football writer Alf Brown was a big Dick Clay fan.
Here is how he summarised Clay’s football attributes and immense value to the Tigers . . .
“Young Clay, big and fast as a wingman, fitted admirably into Richmond’s long-kicking game. He would run 10 metres with the ball, have a bounce if it was safe, and then let them go with a 60-metre kick.
“As a full-back he could reach close to the centre when kicking off and he had the best mark-spoiling punch in the game.
“Clay was a brilliant wingman and is remembered more in this role than as a defender. As a full-back, he was a superb team-man. He broke a full-forward’s heart. He did not try for the big mark. He was content to punch the ball away all day and rely on his own quickness or teammates around him to clear.”
Dick Clay Fact File
Born: March 6, 1945
Height: 185cm
Playing weight: 89kg
Recruited to Richmond from: Kyabram
Guernsey number at Richmond: No. 8
Games at Richmond (1966-1976): 213
Goals: 80
Honours at Richmond: Four-time premiership player (1967, 1969, 1973, 1974), member of the Tigers’ Team of the Century, Richmond Hall of Fame inductee, Tiger Immortal, Club life member.
