To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Richmond’s 1973 premiership, we have been 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 an article in The Age newspaper by its then chief football writer Percy Beames, in the aftermath of the 1973 Grand Final, which detailed how Richmond plotted its premiership success that year.

“Take a couple of League discards, a nomad or two, throw in a couple of crocks and pull a player out of retirement . . . and you end up with a premiership.

At least that’s the recipe if you are Tom Hafey and your team is Richmond.

The worry, the constant hard work, the planning . . . it all paid off for Hafey on Saturday when Richmond settled a year-old account by beating Carlton in the Grand Final.

And what a historic day it was for the Tigers, with all four of their teams winning premierships.

The Firsts, Reserves and Under 19s emulated Essendon’s 1949 feat of three flags in the one year.

And Richmond’s Under 17 side, Essex Heights, completed the monopoly in the South-East Suburban League.

Premierships are hard enough to win when a settled team holds an edge in most positions.

They become a nightmare for a coach who has to improvise and who knows the crocks he has gambled on could so easily break down.

But no one let Hafey down on Saturday, certainly not the discards or nomads like Ian Stewart and Stephen Rae from St Kilda, Robert McGhie from Footscray, and Paul Sproule from Essendon.

Nor did captain Royce Hart and Francis Bourke, who on strict medical grounds were not even half fit to be playing in a Grand Final.

Such was their respect for Hafey and so much did they desire to be part of a 1973 Richmond premiership team, that they were able to shut their minds to their injuries.

Nor did Mike Green fail Hafey. After standing out of football last year, Green was dumped late this season and his form coming to the Grand Final had a lot of people worried.

Yet he was among Richmond’s best players.

There were other factors, too, behind Richmond’s success – a gruelling training programme for one.

No team devoted more hours to training.

The Tigers “kicked off” almost as soon as the 1972 Grand Final was over and from then on muscles, lungs, heart and everything else that goes with stamina were conditioned.

Except for Hart and Bourke, the Tigers were the fittest side to make the finals.

But fitness without shrewdness would not have landed this year’s flag.

The shrewdness came from something that happened when the Tigers last played the Blues, in the qualifying final.

The Tigers had lumbered badly because of a too heavy, ill-balanced side.

They rarely got the ball away from the centre until the last quarter when in desperation Sproule was converted to a ruck-rover.

Sproule picked up kicks and gave the Tigers much needed mobility. There and then the Richmond brains trust decided that mobility was the most likely key to the premiership.

Hafey and the selectors concentrated on planning ways to get the ball away from the centre diamond and away from packs.

Kevin Bartlett and Sproule provided the Tigers with an ideal double for the job.

Sproule’s use a ruck-rover was tantamount to Richmond having two rovers at most centre bounces.

Centreman Stewart also fitted into the Richmond plan, and Kevin Sheedy was called on from defence to be part of a recast offensive operation.

Carlton will testify after Saturday that the Sheedy move paid dividends.

Sheedy kicked the first three goals to give Richmond the confidence to take out the premiership.”