You have to go all the way back to 1965 for the last time an appointed interim Richmond coach had more games remaining in a season than Andrew McQualter.
The long-time Tiger assistant coach was chosen to replace Damien Hardwick following his resignation early this week.
As it stands, McQualter will be in charge of the Tigers for at least the 13 home-and-away games still to be played this season.
In 1965, legendary Richmond figure Jack Titus took over as the Club’s senior coach from Len Smith after he suffered a heart attack three rounds into the season.
The Tigers had lost their opening three games, but Titus had an instant impact, guiding them to a major upset victory over the eventual premier team that year, Essendon, at Windy Hill.
Richmond would go on to win a further nine games that season to finish fifth on the ladder in the then final-four system and 12-team competition.
Fast-forward 32 years and following a mammoth 137-point loss to Adelaide in Round 17, 1997 – the Tigers’ 11th defeat of the season – coach Robert Walls was sacked, with assistant and reserve-grade premiership coach Jeff Gieschen promoted in a caretaker capacity.
The next round, against all the odds, Richmond defeated the highly-fancied Western Bulldogs by 15 points at Princes Park.
With four wins in the final five home-and-away rounds of the ’97 season, Gieschen had mounted a compelling case to become the Tigers’ coach on a permanent basis.
“Unleash the Giesch” became the catch-cry of the Tiger Army and, in the end, the Club’s coaching sub-committee simply couldn’t go past him.
Gieschen narrowly missed lifting Richmond into the finals in 1998, the team winning 12 games and finishing ninth, level on points with the eighth-placed Essendon and only four percent behind the Bombers.
At the end of the 1999 season, Gieschen’s time at Punt Road was done with the Tigers slumping to 12th place on the ladder (nine wins, 13 losses).
Two decades later, Richmond was forced into another interim coach situation when Terry Wallace departed the Club at the midway mark of the 2009 season.
Assistant coach Jade Rawlings took on the senior role in a caretaker capacity and he, too, steered the team to a first-up victory over West Coast at Marvel Stadium.
The Tigers, however, recorded only two more wins and a draw for the season and Damien Hardwick subsequently was appointed to the senior coaching role in August that year.
When it comes to successful interim coaches overall in AFL football, you can’t go past Paul Roos at Sydney.
Roos replaced the resigning Rodney Eade as Swans coach after Round 12 of the 2002 season.
Sydney, at that stage, was 14th on the ladder (a 16-team competition then) with three wins, a draw and eight losses.
The Swans thumped Fremantle by 77 points in Roos’ inaugural game as senior coach and finished the season in 11th place with nine wins, a draw and 12 losses.
They won six of their 10 games under Roos and had some close losses as well.
The club’s hierarchy wanted former Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace as senior coach, but the Sydney players and supporters were right on the Roos’ bandwagon.
Ultimately, people power won the day and Roos was given the role.
It proved to be an outstanding move, with Roos propelling the Swans into a preliminary final in 2003, 6th place in 2004, and breaking a 72-year premiership drought in 2005.
