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 take a look at star Tiger rover Kevin Bartlett’s column in The Age newspaper reviewing Richmond’s thrilling victory over Hawthorn in Round 19 of the 1973 season. 

Rex Hunt’s kick for goal in the last seconds at Glenferrie Oval was the most important thing that’s happened to him in football.

It was pretty important for Richmond, too. Because it went straight through the goals, it gave us a five-point victory.

But it was important for Rex Hunt because he has never been a reliable kick in front of goal.

But he didn’t muck about. He concentrated hard and put it through with confidence . . .

No one said anything out on the field as he lined it up – but I reckon you could have had some lucrative odds about him kicking it from some of his teammates.

We weren’t lucky to win, though. I’m convinced we deserved to win – even though we took our time doing it.

But I was having a few doubts about the result during time-on. The clock had stopped and our runner Barry Stanton kept coming out to tell us the time.

That was a clever move because if we had taken of the ground clock we might not have played as desperately as we did.

I know it wasn’t a great game to watch – but it was a great win for us.

Great because of the effect it will have on our morale and confidence. We’ve been down a bit lately, but we won this gam which was nice and tough.

Hawthorn put plenty of pressure on us and we couldn’t break away. In fact, after a good start – 6.5 in the first quarter – Hawthorn held us to 2.3 in the next two.

B ut without Royce Hart, Neil Balme and Robert McGhie we battled to a win.

Well, 17 of us battled anyway. From the look of it, Ian Stewart didn’t have to battle very hard. He got kicks at will, or so it appeared, and was easily our best player.

He is incredible, Stewie. Everything he does is classy and his kicking is a delight to receive.

He got a bit of help, of course. Dick Clay at full-back played his best game for ages and I lost count of the number of full-forwards Hawthorn put on him.

Laurie Fowler in the back pocket gave him plenty of assistance. Laurie had to mind Leigh Matthews and Peter Crimmins and that is a hard job.

Hunt gave us drive at centre half-forward but our forward line wasn’t firing too well.

But we should get Balme back this week and Royce the week after, so things might improve.

Hawthorn deserves credit for the way it fought back after being down early. It even had a chance to win the game in time-on, but our back line kept it out.

That mark Dick Clay took on the goal line in the last minute was probably the most vital of the game.

It’s hard to pick the opposition’s best players but I thought Des Meagher did well on a wing, and Kelvin Moore kept Ricky McLean pretty quiet.

Leon Rice picked up a lot of kicks but he played wide of Stewart.

Match details

Richmond         6.5       7.7       8.8       12.10 (82)                                                                    

Hawthorn         3.3       5.3       9.8       11.11 (77)                                                                    

Goals – Richmond: Bartlett 2, Green 2, Dean, Hunt, Sproule, Sheedy, Roberts, Wood, McLean, Morris.

Leading disposal-winners – Richmond: Stewart 30, Bartlett 27, Bourke 20, Clay 17, Hunt 16, Walsh 16.

Best – Richmond: Stewart (best on ground), Clay, Fowler, Keane, Hunt, Bourke.

Goals – Hawthorn: L. Matthews 2, Crimmins 2, Rice, Martello, Bussell, McCarthy, Scott, Meagher, Bevan.

Leading disposal-winners – Hawthorn: L. Matthews 23, Meagher 23, Rice 22, Bremner 21, Jaworskyj 19, Tuck 19.

Best – Hawthorn: Jaworskyj, Stevenson, Moore, Meagher, Scott, Rice.

Attendance: 20,376.