In the final of a special richmondfc.com.au nostalgic series celebrating Richmond’s 50 years at home at the MCG, Tony Greenberg takes great delight in reflecting on Royce Hart’s incredible, iconic mark in the last quarter of the 1967 Grand Final.
Talented Tiger teenager Royce Hart had enjoyed a near-perfect debut season of league football leading into the 1967 Grand Final against Geelong.
Hart, recruited from Tasmanian club Clarence, had kicked more than 50 goals for Richmond, including six in the second semi-final against Carlton, seven goals for Victoria in a State game against Western Australia, and was widely regarded as the League’s recruit of the year (long before the competition’s official Rising Star award).
If the Tigers could account for the Cats in the Grand Final, it would complete a perfect first-up season at the game’s highest level for the exciting 19-year-old.
Before a crowd of 109,396, in magnificent conditions, Hart set about attaining that perfection.
He scored Richmond’s first goal of the Grand Final, when he used his trademark excellent anticipation to mark a kick that had slewed off the side of ruckman John Ronaldson’s boot.
The Tigers held a narrow six-point advantage at quarter-time, and increased that to 16 points by the long break, with Hart continuing to shine on league football’s biggest stage.
Hart set up a goal for Ronaldson via a slick handball, after cleverly roving the ball off a pack.
Later in the second term, Hart hit the scoreboard again, goaling from a fine mark.
Geelong started the third quarter in brilliant fashion, piling on four unanswered goals to take the lead, before Hart once more stepped up for the Tigers.
He took another top mark and kicked truly to register his third goal for the match, putting a halt to the Cats’ surge in the process.
By three-quarter time, Richmond had managed to wrest the lead back from Geelong, albeit narrowly (two points).
The final term was as frenetic as any in the league’s Grand Final history, with players from both sides hurling themselves into the fray in a desperate attempt to gain the upper-hand and bring the prized premiership cup home.
It was a nail-biting, see-sawing affair, with the lead changing on several occasions and the fans roaring encouragement.
Big Tiger forward Paddy Guinane levelled the scores yet again at the 20-minute mark, when he marked strongly, but could score only a point from his set shot.
The resultant kick-in by Geelong full-back Roy West, sparked a magical moment from Royce Hart that, to this day, still sends a shiver down the collective spines of Yellow and Black barrackers who witnessed it.
Hart used Cats’ defender Peter Walker as a step-ladder, to soar skyward and pluck one of league football’s all-time great marks.
His almighty leap would become a treasured memory from a classic Grand Final.
“It was an important mark in the context of that game,” Hart said years later.
“The ball came down and it was too high for me to jump straight up and mark it.
“I just thought, ‘I've got to mark it’.
“Peter Walker was between me and the ball, and all I could do was run and jump on him . . . it was a desperation thing.
“I landed on his shoulders, and I took the mark.
“Without him [Walker], I wouldn't have reached the ball . . .
“There was no theory in what I did – just instinct.
“I knew I had to take the mark, as the ball would have fallen behind us and the Cats would have been away.
“I came in from the right and just had to go for it.
“A goal for either side at that stage of the game would have been critical, and I did not want the ball to get past me.”
Inspired by Hart’s act of sheer brilliance, Richmond went on to win by nine points and claim its first premiership since 1943.
Although the mark rates as one of the best ever taken in a Grand Final, Hart is uncertain about declaring it the best of his magnificent 187-game career with the Tigers.
“It might be up there with some of my best marks and, although it might not have been THE best, it certainly was the most important one I took because the game and the flag could have gone either way,” he said.
1967 Grand Final details
Richmond 4.3 9.10 12.15 16.18 (114)
Geelong 3.3 7.6 13.7 15.15 (105)
Goals – Richmond: Bartlett 3, Brown 3, Hart 3, Ronaldson 3, Barrot, Guinane, A. Richardson, B. Richardson.
Leading possession-getters – Richmond: Barrot 27, A. Richardson 20, Hart 19, Bartlett 18, Dean 17.
Goals – Geelong: Sharrock 4, Wade 4, Goggin 3, Andrews, Eades, Hynes, Ryan.
Leading possession-getters – Geelong: Farmer 29, Goggin 28, Newland 26, Closter 23, Polinelli 23.
Crowd: 109,396.
