To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Richmond’s 1973 premiership, we have been transporting Tiger fans back in time throughout 2023 to relive that glorious Yellow and Black year. Today we examine the Tigers’ success in the Champions of Australia series that took place the weekend after the ’73 Grand Final triumph over Carlton.
The 1973 Champions of Australia series, held at the Adelaide Oval from October 6-8, consisted of the four premiership teams from the then main football states – Richmond (Victoria), Glenelg (South Australia), Subiaco (Western Australia) and Scottsdale (Tasmania).
Richmond was drawn to play Glenelg in the semi-final, with Subiaco and Scottsdale meeting in the other semi-final.
Due to the fact that Richmond and Glenelg had identical guernseys (black with a yellow sash), the teams tossed for the right to wear their traditional strip. The Victorian Tigers won the toss, so the SA Tigers were forced to wear a clash strip for the match (yellow tops with black shorts).
In a spirited encounter, played before a crowd of 34,104, Richmond prevailed by 15 points – 19.16 (130) to 16.19 (115).
Richmond set up its success with a superb second quarter, scoring 10.3 to the home team’s 2.0.
Brilliant rover Kevin Bartlett produced an outstanding performance for the Victorian Tigers, racking up his customary high number of disposals and booting a game-high five goals.
Neil Balme, Rex Hunt and Wayne Walsh also were prominent with three goals apiece, as was Kevin Sheedy with two goals.
Subiaco defeated Scottsdale by 32 points in the other semi-final to advance through to the final against Richmond.
The Tigers went into the final as warm favourites, but received a major shock when Subiaco burst out of the blocks and led by 33 points at quarter-time.
Richmond took until the midway mark of the last quarter to wrest the lead from Subiaco, and it managed to grind out a 13-point win to claim the title.
Here is a report of the 1973 Champions of Australia final by The Age leading football writer at the time, Ron Carter . . .
“Richmond is Australia’s champion football club – it has the prize of $10,000 to prove it.
But the Australian crown sits shakily on the Tigers’ head.
Yesterday at the Adelaide Oval, Richmond turned in probably its poorest display of the season as it struggled to beat Subiaco in the championship final.
The Tigers trailed the West Australian premier for three-and-a-half quarters, only to get up near the end to win by 13 points.
A lot of people, particularly West and South Australians, will say the better team lost. They are probably right.
Subiaco could easily have had three more goals with shots that hit a goal post.
Richmond looked nothing like the team which won the VFL Grand Final against Carlton just over a week ago. In fact it would not have beaten South Melbourne, the wooden-spooner on yesterday’s form.
The Tigers were woeful in the first half. They made every mistake in the book, and came up with a few new ones, too.
Except for three or four players they were a tired, worn-out side. It was their 31st match of the season, and this probably had a lot to do with their lethargic play.
On top of this they were without five Grand Final players – Royce Hart, Ian Stewart, Francis Bourke, Mike Green and Stephen Rae – and they also lost another, Neil Balme, with a knee injury in the second quarter.
Others, including Kevin Sheedy and Wayne Walsh, were carrying bruises from Saturday’s tough game against Glenelg.
The few “goers” Richmond had in the first half included Daryl Cumming, Walsh and Brian Roberts.
Too many of the others failed to chase their opponents, and their kicking was often disgraceful.
No wonder then that Subiaco bolted to a six-goal lead in the second quarter with play that had the Tigers gasping.
Richmond’s plight looked desperate when Balme went off, leaving them without a regular goal kicker apart from Rex Hunt.
But, like the Tigers have done so many times in the past, they came back.
At half-time coach Tom Hafey reminded the players that they were famous for their great fighting comebacks, and if ever they had to pull a game out of the fire, this was it.
Hafey’s message got through and the Tigers came out for the second half as if they wanted the ball. But their shooting for goal was atrocious.
In the end it was the big body and marking strength of Hunt that turned the game Richmond’s way.
Two goals in the last quarter to Hunt and one to Cumming finally put Richmond ahead at the 15-minute mark, and two more goals to Hunt were enough to overcome a Subiaco final effort snatch back the lead.
Just how much the Richmond players will get of the $10,000 championship prize still has to be decided by the club committee.
But, according to the president, Mr. Al Boord, “there’ll be a big split-up for the boys”.
In the early game yesterday Glenelg thrashed the Tasmanian champion, Scottsdale???, by 133 points.
The big win lifted Glenelg to second place in the championship on percentage from Subiaco.
Glenelg win $3000, Subiaco $2500 and Scottsdale $1000.”
Match details
Richmond 2.1 5.7 7.16 12.20 (92)
Subiaco 7.4 8.10 9.16 10.19 (79)
Goals – Richmond: Hunt 4, Cumming 3, Morris 2, Balme 2, Bartlett.
Best – Richmond: Clay, Cumming, Roberts, Walsh, Sheedy, Bartlett.
Goals – Subiaco: Ash 2, Malone 2, Randall 2, Bayens 2, Watt, Burton.
Best – Subiaco: Fitzpatrick, Featherby, Manning, Bayens, Randall, Paterson.
Attendance: 9,491.
Richmond’s acting captain Kevin Bartlett won the Winfield Medal for the fairest and best player in the championship.
He polled 30 votes to finish five votes in front of Subiaco forward Mick Malone. Peter Featherby, of Subiaco, and Glenelg’s Kerry Hamilton were equal third with 18 votes.
