Cameron Clayton is Richmond’s fourth Homecoming Hero of the 2024 season.
The Tigers will pay tribute to Clayton in the lead-up to Saturday’s twilight clash with Hawthorn at the MCG.
Clayton will walk to the Punt Road end to receive the plaudits of the Tiger Army and then kick a ceremonial goal.
Richmond recruited Clayton from Tasmanian club New Norfolk. He had attracted the attention of Tiger talent scouts at the 1972 Australian schoolboys’ carnival, where his impressive form for Tasmania earned him selection in the schoolboys’ All-Australian team.
The Tigers enticed Clayton to Punt Road on the promise of Grand Final tickets for all his family members, however, he didn’t tell club officials at the time that he had four brothers and 10 sisters!
Clayton played in Richmond’s 1973 under 19s premiership side as a 16-year-old.
The following season, he broke into the Tigers’ powerful senior line-up, making his debut in the Round 15, 1974 match against Carlton at the MCG as a 17-year-old.
Clayton went on to play seven more senior games in the ’74 season, including Richmond’s Grand Final triumph over North Melbourne as the 19th man, coming on to the ground late in the premiership-decider.
That made it eight wins from eight games for Clayton in his debut season of league football.
Nicknamed “Ratller”, he was a strongly-built, talented, tough, utility player with good pace, who was a valuable contributor for the Tigers over the course of the next three years in a variety of roles.
In Round 18 of the 1975 season, Clayton had a career-high 32 disposals against Melbourne.
Clayton’s last senior appearance with Richmond was in Round 21 of the 1977 season against Carlton at the MCG.
Overall, he played 57 goals and kicked 20 goals in his time at Tigerland, before subsequently transferring to Melbourne and later Essendon.
Richmond is proud to have welcomed back Motorola as partner of our Homecoming Heroes. Motorola is the official smartphone partner of the Richmond Football Club.
Cameron Clayton profile
Born: February 5, 1957
Height: 180cm
Playing weight: 85kg
Recruited to Richmond from: New Norfolk (Tasmania)
Guernsey numbers at Richmond: No. 43 and No. 26.
Debut at Richmond: Round 15, 1974 v Carlton, MCG.
Games at Richmond (1974-1977): 57
Goals at Richmond: 20
Honours at Richmond: Member of the 1974 premiership side.
Richmond's Homecoming Heroes since 2014...
| 2014, Rd 2: Michael Green | 2014, Rd 4: Kevin Bartlett | 2014, Rd 6: Bryan Wood |
| 2014, Rd 13: Kevin Morris | 2014, Rd 14: Wayne Walsh | 2014, Rd 16: Barry Richardson |
| 2014, Rd 19: Rex Hunt | 2014, Rd 20: Francis Bourke | 2015, Rd 2: Bill Barrot |
| 2015, Rd 5: Andrew Kellaway | 2015, Rd 7: Mark Lee | 2015, Rd 9: Derek Peardon |
| 2015, R12: Dale Weightman | 2015, R15: Matthew Richardson | 2015, R17: Dick Clay |
| 2015, R20: Barry Rowlings | 2016, R6: Matthew Rogers | 2016, R7: Jake King |
| 2016, R8: Nick Daffy | 2016, R12: Nathan Foley | 2016, R14: Dan Jackson |
| 2016, R17: Scott Turner | 2016, R20: Jim Jess | 2016, R21: John Ronaldson |
| 2016, R22: Graeme Bond | 2017, R2: Roger Dean | 2017, R3: Richard Clay |
| 2017, R8: Mick Malthouse | 2017, R10: Michael Mitchell | 2017, R13: Shane Tuck |
| 2017, R14: Paul Broderick | 2017, R18: Stephen Mount | 2017, R20: Graham Burgin |
| 2017, R23: Trevor Poole | 2018, R3: Michael Roach | 2018, R4: Michael Gale |
| 2018, R7: Craig Lambert | 2018, R10: Stephen Rae | 2018, R16: Chris Naish |
| 2018, R19: Tony Jewell | 2018, R20: Gareth Andrews | 2018, R22: Mark Eustice |
| 2018, R23: Nathan Brown | 2019, R2: Geoff Raines | 2019, R9: Darren Gaspar |
| 2019, R10: Andrew Krakouer | 2019, R12: Jeff Hogg | 2019, R17: Greg Tivendale |
| 2019, R18: Ivan Maric | 2019, R21: Tony Free | 2019, R22: Merv Keane |
| 2019, R23: Michael Pickering |
2021, R7: Chris Hyde | 2021, R8: Kayne Pettifer |
| 2021, R17: Lionel Proctor | 2022, R2: Jacob Townsend | 2022, R4: Joel Bowden |
| 2022, R8: Brett Deledio | 2022, R10: Phil Egan | 2022, R13: Kelvin Moore |
| 2022, R14: Sam Lloyd | 2022, R16: Ben Holland | 2022, R20: Brett Evans |
| 2023, R1: Neil Balme |
2023, R4: Robert McGhie |
2023, R8: Laurie Fowler |
| 2023, R9: Bachar Houli |
2023, R11: Shaun Grigg |
2023, R14: John Howat |
| 2023, R17: Mike Perry |
2023, R19: Craig McKellar |
2023, R20: Bruce Monteath |
| 2024, R2: Matt White |
2024, R8: Reece Conca |
2024, R11: Shane Edwards |
| 2024, R14: Cameron Clayton |
