To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Tigers’ 1973 premiership, Richmond Media is transporting Yellow and Black barrackers back in time throughout 2023 to follow the Punt Road path to that fabulous flag triumph. Today we delve back into The Age newspaper’s archives for a review of Richmond’s Round 18 match of the ’73 season against Fitzroy by football writer Paul Speelman.
Twenty-thousand people paid $9500 to see the Richmond-Fitzroy game at the MCG on Saturday – and all they got was 14 minutes of class football.
And to make things worse, the 14 minutes were in the first quarter when Richmond piled on seven goals out of a total for the match of 15.
In all fairness, those 14 minutes were definitely worth watching, especially the five minutes which saw Dick Clay in full flight with three beautiful goals.
But what happened to the rest of the game? Richmond went to sleep and woke up only long enough to score one or two quick goals whenever the battling Lions got a little too close.
And battling Lions they were indeed – battling to kick straight. They had every chance to steal the game in the last quarter but after kicking five points straight in the first 15 minutes all they could manage was 2.7 for the quarter.
Forget the Tigers for the premiership is Saturday’s game was any indication.
Centre half-forward of course is their big trouble spot. Clay sparked for a little while, but he was worn down eventually by Kevin Murray. And there’s no guarantee Royce Hart will be back for a while.
Ricky McLean adds a little life to the forward line but they’re missing Neil Balme and the half-forward flankers add a great deal on Saturday.
The Tigers could do worse than bring back veteran Roger Dean for next week’s torrid battle against Hawthorn in the Glenferrie gluepot.
Brian Roberts was the Tigers’ one big gun against Fitzroy, but Craig McKellar and Mike Green contributed little. Green in fact was taken off at three-quarter time after bagging only two kicks and three marks.
For Fitzroy there were a lot of triers, but, as coach Graham Donaldson said, they just weren’t up to it – especially without a full-forward.
Their one surprise packet was Ian McCulloch who worked like a Trojan round the ground all day. But it just wasn’t enough.
Match details
Richmond 7.2 10.8 13.10 15.14 (104)
Fitzroy 4.2 7.4 11.7 13.14 (92)
Goals – Richmond: McLean 4, Sproule 4, Clay 3, Green 2, Lamb, Sheedy.
Leading disposal-winners – Richmond: Bartlett 29, Stewart 23, Walsh 23, Sproule 21, Sheedy 20.
Best – Richmond: Roberts, Walsh, Stewart, Bartlett, Fowler, Sproule, Bourke.
Goals – Fitzroy: O’Keeffe 3, Dare 2, Murphy 2, R. Serafini 2, Brown, Christou, McMahon, Wall.
Leading disposal-winners – Fitzroy: Wilson 28, Murphy 23, O’Keeffe 21, Padley 21, Dare 20.
Best – Fitzroy: McCulloch, O’Keeffe, Wilson, Murphy, Padley, Merrigan, Wall.
Attendance: 20,578.
