Richmond goalkicking great Michael Roach was elevated to Icon status in the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame at a gala function held in Hobart last Saturday night.

Roach joins other top Tigers in Royce Hart, Ian Stewart, Matthew Richardson and Paul Sproule, who are all Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame Icons.

Michael Roach was recruited to Richmond from Tasmanian club Longford by legendary Tassie Tiger talent scout Harry Jenkins.

Legend has it that Jenkins, who discovered the Tigers’ champion centre half-forward Royce Hart, told the Club: “I got another one for you.”

It’s hard to believe, but Roach, in fact, started his league career at Tigerland as a wingman!

He made his senior league debut with Richmond in Round 8 of the 1977 season against Footscray at the MCG and impressed on a wing, finishing with 18 disposals, four marks and a goal.

Roach played a further eight senior games that season and was awarded the Club’s Best First Year Player award. He also was a member of the Tigers’ reserve-grade premiership side in ’77.

The following season the lanky, tall teenager managed only three appearances at senior level for Richmond, but in 1979 his league career skyrocketed.

He went from a skinny wingman to a potent, high-flying full-forward, kicking 90 goals, earning All-Australian selection, and taking an astonishing mark against Hawthorn at the MCG in Round 5 that was subsequently adjudged the Tigers’ Mark of the Century, when the Club celebrated its 2008 league football centenary.

In 1980, Roach took his game to an even higher level, becoming just the second Richmond player ever (along with Jack Titus) to kick 100 goals in a season.

Roach finished the season with 112 goals, the inaugural John Coleman Medal as the competition’s leading goalkicker, and a premiership medallion after Richmond demolished Collingwood by 81 points in the 1980 Grand Final.

The man affectionately known as ‘Disco’ made it back-to-back Coleman Medals in 1981 with 86 goals.

By the time Roach’s career was over at the end of the 1980s, he had kicked 607 goals in 200 games. And he would have kicked quite a few more goals had injuries not hampered him in the latter phase of his league playing days.

Nevertheless, Michael Roach is one of the most popular, revered, successful figures in Tigerland’s rich history.

Seven times he topped Richmond’s goalkicking in a season, with the Club later naming its leading goalkicker award the Michael Roach Medal.

Two of Roach’s 1980 Richmond premiership teammates, Kevin Bartlett and Dale Weightman, along with his now fellow Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame Icon, Matthew Richardson, paid special tribute to him via video on the night.

Here’s an edited version of what they all had to say about Michael Disco Roach . . .

Kevin Bartlett: “Michael played a significant role in the 1980 premiership side because he had a magnificent season. It was great to have someone at full-forward who could take great marks and kick magnificent goals. He was a beautiful kick, Michael . . . We could bomb the ball down to the forward line and we knew that Michael would compete very, very strongly in the air. And there were very few people that could outmark Michael Roach.”

Dale Weightman: “Being an on-baller, you’d look up and Michael was smart – he led into your vision. So it was easy to kick to. And if you kicked it up high, he’d take a big screamer. But his greatest attribute was when he got the footy. You kicked it to him because you knew he had a 99 percent chance of kicking a goal. And that’s what he did most of his career. ‘Disco’ was a superstar player . . .”

Matthew Richardson: “When I got to Richmond, Roachy was always around. He always has been a supporter and comes to games. I did a fair bit of goalkicking training with him in 1995, and I actually kicked straight for once that year. I kicked 27.3 before I did my knee and I think it was because of Roachy and the work he did with me. He was such a beautiful kick and he really taught that well . . . When you’re a superstar in a premiership team, like Disco was, he’s always going to be remembered by the Richmond fans. Everyone loves him . . .”

Photo: Solstice Digital