Cold, wet, windy, miserable . . .
They are the words that immediately spring to mind whenever I think about the Whitten Oval.
From 1965, which was the year I first saw Richmond play, until 1994, when the Tigers last did battle with the Bulldogs on their own dung hill, we won just seven of 23 encounters in total, with the last eight of those all resulting in defeats.
The overwhelming majority of these contests took place in weather conditions that, to put it mildly, were ordinary.
I’ve long subscribed to the theory that Richmond sides struggle in windy conditions, because of the fact the Tigers’ home ground for the past 50 years has been the MCG, where I have never seen wind play a part in determining the outcome of a match.
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The wind swirls at the ‘G’, rather than favoring either end of the ground, in particular. Not so, however, at the ground formerly known as the Western Oval.
I witnessed numerous Tiger teams, simply oozing class, failing to find a suitable way of handling the gale-force wind that invariably blew straight down the ground. The underdog home side, on the other hand, would be thriving in the blustery conditions.
It also was perpetually cold at the Whitten Oval and, more often than not, raining, which merely added to the gloomy events unfolding on-field for us Yellow and Black barrackers.
In the Richmond premiership years of 1967, 1969 and 1974, the Tigers lost to Bulldog teams that finished last (in ’67), second last (in ’69) and fifth (’74) respectively.
Somehow, we always found a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at the kennel. Like in the Round 2 clash of the ’67 season, when we had 30 shots to the Bulldogs’ 18, but still lost by eight points – 8.22 (70) to 12.6 (78).
Two years later, Richmond led at every change in a low-scoring battle, but was 11 points adrift of the Dogs when the final siren sounded – 7.8 (50) to 8.13 (61).
Then, in the final round of the ’74 season, the Tigers overcame a four-goal deficit at half-time to hit the front by three-quarter time, only to end up losing by seven points – 11.14 (80) to 13.9 (87).
Richmond’s last match against the Bulldogs, at the Whitten Oval, was in the opening round of the ’94 season.
We lost a thrilling contest, played in unusually fine weather out west, by two points. But it was memorable from a Yellow and Black perspective due to the brilliant eight-goal display by a then teenage, talented, gangly key forward from Tasmania by the name of Matthew Richardson.
Some 14 years earlier, another top-line Tassie Tiger had produced the greatest goalkicking performance ever by a Richmond player at the Whitten/Western Oval.
In Round 7, 1980, on another rare dry and still day at the kennel, Michael Roach booted 11 goals, as the Tigers belted the Bulldogs by 110 points.
‘Roachy’ kicked a ‘lazy’ 10 against the hapless Dogs in the return match that season at Waverley Park.
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The last time that Richmond registered a victory over the ‘Bullies’ at the ‘kennel’ was in Round 16, 1983. The Tigers won that day by 20 points, with Dale ‘Flea’ Weightman starring with four goals, while Robert Wiley and Jimmy Jess kicked three apiece.
Given Richmond’s trials and tribulations at Whitten Oval over the years, it’s interesting to note that the the Tigers, in fact, won their first seven games at the venue against the team formerly known as Footscray, from 1926-32, following the Bulldogs’ entry into the competition in 1925.
There’s one other factor about playing at the Bulldogs’ home ground that sticks out in my mind. As the old footy joke goes . . . Who played on the wing at the Western Oval for 20 years, but never kicked a goal?
Answer: The Hyde Street Band, which was a popular brass ensemble that entertained the Western Oval crowds pre-game.
