The case for Richmond ‘Immortal’ Kevin Bartlett becoming the 15^th Australian sports star to be commemorated at the MCG with a bronze statue is utterly compelling, as Tony Greenberg reports.

Two major defining moments in Richmond Football Club’s history occurred in 1965 . . .

The first was the Club’s move to the MCG to play its home games.

Richmond’s traditional home base, Punt Road Oval, had become increasingly unsuitable for league football, primarily due to the ground’s small size.  So the Tigers, hell-bent on reviving their flagging fortunes, decided the best way to make that happen, was by becoming a co-tenant with Melbourne at the MCG and playing home games at the ground where all finals at the time were contested.

Eventually, they were able to persuade League directors to give the green light to their move across Yarra Park to share the MCG with the Demons.

The second defining moment for Richmond in 1965, was the senior debut of a lightly-framed 18-year-old by the name of Kevin Bartlett, which took place in Round 3 of that season, against St Kilda at the MCG.

Bartlett ended up playing 14 games for the ’65 season and a further 14 in 1966, as the Tigers knocked on the door of the then final four.

In 1967, when Richmond swept all before it to break a 24-year premiership drought, Bartlett was a star.  He played all 20 games for the Tigers that season in the role of first rover, was one of the team’s best in a memorable Grand Final victory over Geelong, and capped off a superb year by winning the first of five Club Best and Fairest awards.

The man who was to become known simply by his initials – KB – was first rover again in 1969, 1973 and 1974, when the Tigers won three more premierships, and he was a driving force in all those glorious triumphs. 

Then, in 1980, when Richmond won the flag in record-breaking fashion against Collingwood, the 33-year-old Bartlett turned football’s traditional graveyard – the half-forward flank – into a Yellow and Black oasis, booting 84 goals in a magical season.  Seven of those goals came in a devastating display in the Grand Final massacre of the Magpies, earning him the Norm Smith Medal for being best afield.

Kevin Bartlett and the MCG were made for each other.  It was as if he knew every blade of grass on the hallowed turf and, with his electrifying pace and cunning football brain, he was constantly able to wreak havoc on opposition teams.

Etched in the minds of Richmond supporters, fortunate enough to have lived through that greatest era in the Club’s history, are images of the little No. 29 strutting his stuff in front of packed stands at the ‘G’ . . . weaving through packs, leaving bewildered opponents in his wake as he sped away, spearing the ball through the goals, and then jubilantly pumping his fists in the air in celebration.

KB, in full flight at the MCG, was like a maestro conducting a symphony.  He was in total control out in the middle, making the seemingly impossible look relatively simple, and thrilling the Yellow and Black hordes with his brilliance.

Bartlett’s consistency over such a long career, on the game’s biggest stage, was truly remarkable. No-one has played more games of football on the MCG – and no-one, arguably, has been a greater match-winner at the game’s mecca.

It was as if all the planets aligned for Richmond back in 1965, when Kevin Bartlett arrived on the scene at the same time as the Tigers shifted their home games to the MCG.

Over the best part of the next two decades, KB and the G were to become an irresistible force in Richmond’s dominance of the league competition.

Kevin Bartlett’s MCG record

• Made his senior league debut with Richmond against St Kilda at the MCG in Round 3 of the 1965 season, aged 18 years and 56 days.

• Reached the 300-game milestone against Footscray at the MCG, Round 8, 1979.
• Reached the 350-game milestone against Melbourne at the MCG, Round 11, 1981.
• Became the first player in the history of the competition to reach the 400-game milestone, against Collingwood at the MCG, Round 19, 1983.
• Played his 403^rd – and final – game of league football, against Fitzroy at the MCG, Round 22, 1983, aged 36 years and 174 days.
• Played 200 games all-up at the MCG, which is the most by any player in league football history.
• Played in 138 wins (and two draws) in his 200 games at the MCG, for an overall winning ratio of 69%.
• Kicked 379 goals at the MCG, which is the fifth highest tally by a player at the ground.
• His highest goal tally in a match at the MCG was seven, in the 1980 Grand Final against Collingwood.
• He played in five premierships at the MCG (1967, 1969, 1973, 1974 and 1980) and two losing Grand Finals (1972 and 1982).
• All-up, he played in 18 finals at the MCG, for 14 wins and 4 losses.
• He was in Richmond’s best players for the overwhelming majority of those games.
• Games coached at the MCG (1988-91):  41 (18 wins, 23 losses).