richmondfc.com.au is celebrating the 100th birthday of ‘Captain Blood’ this week. The following is an excerpt from Finding Jack Dyer, a book by Tony Hardy, which is available at the Tigerland Superstore.
Jack’s reputation as a ruthless hard man is even getting to his mother.
“He can’t take it,” Jack continued.
“There is nothing he fears more than a good solid reply with the hips and shoulders. A hard bump usually makes his tongue hang out.
“I won’t go scalp-hunting. I am going to win this premiership, and I am going to build around me the men who will win this premiership for me. There’ll be no bashers in the Richmond team. But every man will have to be willing to crash a barbed-wire fence to get the ball if he wants to be in the premiership team with us. Every man at Richmond knows what I want: goals and more goals will be our theme song.”
Get your copy of Finding Jack Dyer, from the Tigerland Superstore
But sometimes it was a case of do as I say, not do as I do for Jack. Barry Richardson, himself a premiership player and coach of the Tigers, told me this tale of Jack’s early days in charge:
"I was stayin’ with Mum and me sister,” Jack said.
"I'd packed me Gladstone bag and orf I'd go to Punt Road to play me footy. One morning Mum says to me: "Now Jack, don't you hurt anyone today because they’ve been saying bad things about you on the wireless! So I want you to promise not to hurt anyone."
“Ok, Mum, I said. ‘Look, I promise I’ll be a good boy today’.”
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Anyway, I get up to Punt Road and we’re playin‘ Melbourne I think it was and, well, you wouldn't want to know! We ran out onto the ground and the Governor's son is playing his first game. And there he is across the centre square, wide open.
Well what's a man gonna do? So I runs through him.
And they take him orf on a stretcher with the blanket over the top of him. And there's a new young commentator who is commentatin’ with “Sir” Norman Banks. And the new young commentator has said, “Jack Dyer has killed the Governor's son!”
So I get home and Mum and me sister are there in the kitchen, cryin’ they are, cryin‘! And me Mum says: "Jack! You’ve killed the Governor's son!" "No, Mum," I said. "It's OK, Mum. I haven't killed him, I just broke his collarbone."
So I rang Sir Norman Banks the next morning—he's a friend of mine, Sir Norman—and I said, "Look, I need to see your new young commentator, he's upsettin’ Mum." Anyway, the next Saturday I'm about to give me pre-game speech and this young bloke with a big Adam's apple comes in. Tall boy, Adam's Apple.
He says, "I'd like to see Mr Dyer, please." "Who are you, son?" I said. "Mr Dyer, I'm the commentator from last week." So I grabbed him by the throat and held him up against the locker and used him for my pre-game speech."
