With Richmond continuing the 50-year celebrations of its glorious 1973 premiership triumph by dedicating Saturday night’s clash with St Kilda at the MCG as Retro Round, Tony Greenberg details what football life was like for a Tiger fan in that year . . .
- All six games on a Saturday afternoon at 2.10.
- Following the progress of other matches on the hand-operated scoreboards, with letters representing the various teams.
- Watching the reserves play the curtain-raiser to the seniors each week.
- Following the progress of the Tiger cubs in the under 19s via match details in the newspapers.
- Richmond players wearing lace-up guernseys.
- No sponsor logos on the Tiger guernseys.
Retro Round | This weekend is Retro Round, we are encouraging fans to dress up in their best retro outfits!
Want a $2 Four ‘N Twenty Classic Meat Pie? They will be available inside the MCG before the first bounce at 7:25pm, be there early to secure this deal.
- Club-designed dressing-gowns for players on match day.
- The 19th man and 20th man on the bench.
- One field umpire per game, wearing a white shirt, white shorts and black socks.
- Goal umpires in white, laboratory-style coats and hats.
- The uniqueness of suburban league football grounds, especially Hawthorn’s sardine-tin-shaped Glenferrie Oval.
- Channel Seven’s ‘World of Sport’ at noon each Sunday, hosted by Ron Casey, with the main footy features of the show being the ‘Coaches Corner’ and ‘Football Panel’ segments.
- The VFA on a Sunday afternoon, live on Channel 0.
- Channel Seven’s ‘League Teams’ late on Thursday nights on Channel Seven with Jack Dyer, Bob Davis and Lou Richards (still the funniest footy show on TV by a long way).
- “Captain Blood” Jack Dyer’s quirky commentary style on 3KZ.
- The banter between Harry Beitzel and Tommy Lahiff on 3AW.
- The best-ever TV football commentary from the likes of Channel Seven’s Mike Williamson, Bob Skilton, Ted Whitten, Jack Edwards, ‘Bluey’ Adams and Channel Two’s Doug Heywood, Geoff Leek, Thorold Merrett, Dick Mason, Doug Mason and Ken Dakin.
- The ‘Kevin Dennis’ Football Show hosted by Mike Williamson on Channel Seven on a Friday night, previewing the next day’s games.
- ‘Football Inquest’ hosted by Mike Williamson on Channel Seven on a Saturday night before the replay of the match of the day.
- Channel Two’s Focus on Football Friday night preview show hosted by Harry Beitzel.
- Alf Brown’s comprehensive Friday night preview of the match of the day in ‘The Herald’.
- Lou Richards’ ‘Kiss of Death’ preview in ‘The Sun’.
- The loud call of “Drinks, lollies, chocolates and potato chips” from the mobile food vendors on match-day.
- Grabbing the ‘Sporting Globe’ – ‘the pink paper with the punch’, as it was known – on a Saturday night, to read the hot-off-the-press match reports.
- ‘Inside Football’ magazine mid-week.
- ‘Football Life’ magazine monthly.
- Streamers strewn across the playing field.
- Duffle coats emblazoned with Richmond badges.
- The sign around the outer grandstand at the MCG for Tiger home games which stated, in part: “Ruthless Richmond, On Victory We Thrive, Eat ‘Em Alive!”.
- Getting your membership card clipped by the match-day turnstile attendant.
- Standing in the outer at all league grounds, apart from the MCG or Waverley Park.
- Walking from one end of the away grounds to the other, each quarter, to get a better look at Royce Hart and co. strutting their stuff up forward for the Tigers.
- A centre diamond formation (before it was changed to a centre square).
- Muddy grounds, especially in the middle, where the cricket pitches were.
- Players sucking on oranges at three-quarter time.
- Scanlen’s footy swap cards and pink bubble gum.
- Drop kicks, stab kicks, punt kicks, torpedo punts and drop punts.
- Metropolitan and country recruiting zones for league clubs.
- Form Fours (the means by which league clubs could sign interstate players).
- The June 30 clearance deadline (the final day each year that clubs could recruit players in-season).
- Attempting to listen to football commentary on 3UZ and 3DB in between a multitude of horse-racing calls from metropolitan and country tracks throughout Australia.
- Queueing for finals tickets at Punt Road.
- Great Grand Final day entertainment at the ground provided by the Army band.
- A huge bunch of balloons, in the colours of the Richmond and Carlton teams, released when the players burst through their respective cheer squads’ banners on Grand Final day 1973.
- Team-coloured footballs kicked into the crowd by the Tigers and Blues players after they ran out on to the MCG for the ’73 premiership-decider.
