To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Tigers’ 1974 premiership, Richmond Media has been transporting Yellow and Black barrackers back in time throughout 2024 to follow the Punt Road path to that tremendous triumph. On the eve of Richmond’s ’74 Grand Final encounter with North Melbourne, Tiger president Ian Wilson sat down with The Herald newspaper reporter, Peter Game, for a comprehensive interview. Here, in full, is that interview.
Richmond president Ian Wilson is well aware that the Tigers didn’t get to be favorites for tomorrow’s grand final by making friends.
In fact he admits rather regretfully, that many regard the men running Richmond as ruthless in their efforts to win.
But Ian Wilson sees it more as their justifiable determination to give supporters of the club what they want and are entitled to – the thrill of seeing their team win.
He told me: “I know a lot of people feel we have brought Richmond to where they are today in a very ruthless fashion – particularly in the way we have taken players from other clubs.
“But I like to think of it as a determination to reward those unbelievably loyal supporters who put up with the 23 years we spent languishing at the bottom of the ladder.
“We are not ashamed of single-mindedly fighting for success – that’s our job.”
An hour with Ian Wilson leaves you in no doubt that he’s a man used to getting things moving – if not as Richmond’s president, then in his other role as managing director of a nationwide family furniture shifting business.
Not that he’s overconfident about tomorrow’s game – he admits to being edgy.
He relieves any tendency towards complacency by reminding himself of the 1972 grand final debacle when Richmond started favorites and Carlton gave them a hiding.
He said: “That defeat is still very vivid; we will always remember how we felt, not only on the day, but for months afterwards.
“I think the thing that drives both our players and officials is our very great fear of defeat itself and the shame that goes with it.”
Wilson has been a Tiger supporter ever since his father took him to see the 1943 grand final when Richmond, with Jack Dyer as captain, beat Essendon for what was to be their last premiership until 1967.
In 1963 the then president, the late Ray Dunn, and team manager Graeme Richmond, persuaded Ian to become involved with the club.
His football experience: a “very average” member of Geelong Grammar’s first 18.
Wilson said: “A new administration headed by Ray and Graeme had just take over and had begun rebuilding the club.
“We moved to the MCG and Graeme launched what has since turned out to be a very successful recruiting campaign.
“We still have some of the original recruits who played in the first premiership side after we made our comeback in 1967 – Dick Clay, Francis Bourke, Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett and Barry Richardson.”
Wilson said that by today’s standards the money spent on transfer fees doesn’t look much – about 1000 pounds on one player.
(In recent times Richmond has been known to pay out $20,000 on a transfer.)
I asked him how much the club had paid out altogether building up the side.
He said: “It would be hard to be precise, but if we were to sell the team I suppose they would be worth half a million dollars on today’s market values.
“Mind you we haven’t spent that much on them!”
Richmond have two fund-raising groups – the Coterie Club of about 100 in which donations of over $1000 are not unknown; and the Ton Up club in which 100 members donate $100 in exchange for tickets to the finals.
Ian sees as one of Richmond’s strengths the unity fostered between officials, players and supporters.
He said: “I work with an executive – Ron Carson, Neil Busse, Graeme Richmond and Alan Schwab – which meets four or five times a week on club affairs. We are also good friends.
The club sees itself with two roles – to have a successful team with players welded into a happy, satisfied group, adequately recompensed for their efforts; and to promote football in the area allotted it by the VFL.
The club has appointed Kevin Sheedy to preach the gospel through coaching clinics – one of his early targets was Lloyd St. state school in East Malvern where, to his horror, Ian Wilson found the boys playing soccer.
It is coach Tommy Hafey’s old school!
Wilson doesn’t underrate North in tomorrow’s grand final.
He said: “They are very tough. They’ve done much the same as we began doing in the 60s.
“That doesn’t imply we have stopped. In fact the fear of defeat still drives us – keeps us out there recruiting.”
What about the enforced rest last Saturday. Is it bad or good?
Wilson said: “I’ll tell you at 5 p.m. Saturday; but Tommy Hafey put our boys through pretty vigorous training while they were waiting.”
Wilson rates Hafey as the best Australian Rules coach “in the world.”
Wilson said one theme which had inspired the Tigers over the past few years came from the words of famous American grid-iron coach Vince Lombardi:
“Winning isn’t everything; but wanting to is.”
