In the 17th of a special richmondfc.com.au nostalgic series celebrating Richmond’s 50 years at home at the MCG, Tony Greenberg looks back at what was the ideal Mother’s Day gift for Tiger mums in 1991 . . .
One of the biggest upset wins in Richmond’s league football history occurred on Mother’s Day 1991 – Sunday, May 12 – when the battling Tigers took on reigning premier Collingwood at the MCG.
Richmond was 13th on the ladder (in the then 15-team competition), having won just one game and lost five (with one bye).
Collingwood, on the other hand, was sixth going into the game, having won three, lost two and drawn one (with one bye).
The Magpies, with 17 of the 20 members of their 1990 premiership side, were red-hot favorites to beat the young Tigers, who were coached by Club great Kevin Bartlett.
At quarter-time, everything appeared to be going to script, with Collingwood having seven goals on the board and leading by 16 points.
But Richmond turned the game on its head in the second term, slamming on 8.5 to 4.5, to take an eight-point advantage into the long break.
And, it was all one-way traffic after that, with the Tigers scoring 12.7 to 4.6 during the second half, as they powered away to a crushing 57-point victory over their arch rivals in a stunning performance subsequently dubbed the ‘Mother’s Day Massacre’.
Talented spearhead Jeff Hogg was the hero for Richmond, producing a brilliant 10-goal display in the Yellow and Black rampage.
Hogg, 24 at the time, had kicked 159 goals in 91 games, going into the match against Collingwood.
But he’d also spent a bit of time plugging holes for the team up the other end of the ground, playing at full-back.
His previous best goal return was nine, in the final home-and-away round of the 1988 season against Fitzroy (the club he would later join) at the MCG.
On Mother’s Day, ’91, Hogg took eight marks and kicked 10.1 from his 13 kicks in an exhibition that combined excellent efficiency with exciting forward play.
He beat three fairly handy Magpie defender opponents in the process – Craig Kelly, Denis Banks and Mick Gayfer.
Under the heading, “And this little Hogg went to town”, the following report of Hogg’s dynamic display appeared in ‘The Sun’ newspaper . . .
“Dead-eye Richmond full-forward Jeff Hogg yesterday wrote himself into the club’s rich folklore.
Hogg’s 10-goal tally equalled a record which had stood for nearly 50 years.
He joined the late, great Jack Titus as the only other Tiger player to kick double figures against Collingwood.
Titus booted 10 goals against the Magpies in 1942, and the cool Hogg reserved a spot for himself in the record books when he steered through his final goal 24 minutes into the last quarter.
Hogg was unaware at the final siren that he had even kicked 10 goals, let alone pushed his name alongside such a Tiger champion.
“I wasn’t even aware I had reached 10,” Hogg said as he asked what was the year of Titus’ achievement.
“It’s always nice to do it against Collingwood. One team you always like to beat is Collingwood because they have that love-hate relationship.”
Coach Kevin Bartlett paid a special tribute to Hogg, who played competitive tennis instead of football during his formative sporting years.
He preferred tennis, but was spotted by the Tigers playing football for Mt Waverley High and worked his way through the under 19s at Punt Road.
Bartlett said Hogg, as a senior, had shown the lead by carrying an injury for the past three weeks.
“He’s played under extreme duress and each time it was doubtful he would take the field,” Bartlett said.
“It’s probably 10 years since a Richmond player kicked 10 goals.
“You’d have to go back to the halcyon days of Michael Roach.
“Jeff has shown great leadership and it’s a tribute to him as not many people kick 10 goals in a league game.”
Hogg said the Tigers used former Collingwood players John Mrakov, Terry Keays and David Cloke to plan the strategy yesterday.
“We had a team meeting on Friday night and Johnny gave us a good insight on every player and it all went according to plan,” the Tigers’ new goalkicking hero said.
“KB chaired the meeting but the others (Mrakov, Keays and Cloke) took over.
“They had a lot of knowledge on each player.”
Years later, Jeff Hogg reflected on his mighty Mother’s Day match-winning performance against the Magpies.
“It was one of those days where everything went right. The ball just coming to me . . . I had guys like Matty Knights, Craig Lambert and Tony Free, coming out of the centre and giving me some good passes. And, I was lucky enough to kick pretty well that day, too . . . the wind just seemed to take it through the goals,” Hogg said.
“Look, it was obviously a big thrill and certainly one of my career highlights. At the time, I was just happy to have a good game and happy that we’d had a win.
“I wasn’t sure whether I’d actually kicked nine or 10 goals, until after the game when someone mentioned it straight away. I know Michael Roach, used to say to me that a good full-forward always remembers how many goals he’s kicked, but I wasn’t really sure . . .”
Match details
Richmond 4.3 12.8 18.13 24.15 (159)
Collingwood 7.1 11.6 14.8 15.12 (102)
Goals – Richmond: Hogg 10, Naish 3, Weightman 2, Gale 2, D. Ryan 2, Lambert, Keays, Underwood, Young, Campbell.
Leading possession-getters – Richmond: Lambert 36, Weightman 33, Knights 27, Naish 24, Campbell 23, Banik 22, B. Gale 21.
Crowd: 28,322
