Tony Greenberg provides his favorite memories from life following the mighty Tigers throughout the sensational 1970s decade . . .

• Back-to-back premierships in 1973-74.

• Royce Hart.

• Michael ‘Disco’ Roach’s dazzling sky-scraping mark against Hawthorn.

• Duffle coats emblazoned with Richmond badges.

• Lace-up guernseys.

• Clean guernseys minus sponsor logos.

• Umpires in white uniforms.

• Goal umpires in white, laboratory-style coats.

• The uniqueness of suburban league football grounds, especially the sardine-tin-shaped Glenferrie Oval.

• The introduction of Waverley Park (originally known as VFL Park) as a playing venue.

• Channel Seven’s ‘World of Sport’ at noon each Sunday, hosted by Ron Casey, with the main footy features of the show being the ‘Coaches Corner’ and ‘Football Panel’ segments.

• The VFA on a Sunday afternoon live on Channel Ten.

• Channel Seven’s ‘League Teams’ late on Thursday nights on Channel Seven with Jack, Bob and Lou (still the funniest footy show by a long way).

• Jack Dyer’s unique commentary style on 3KZ.

• The best-ever TV football commentary from the likes of Channel Seven’s Mike Williamson, ‘Butch’ Gale, Bob Skilton, Ted Whitten, Jack Edwards, ‘Bluey’ Adams, Lou Richards and Peter Landy and Channel Two’s Doug Heywood, Geoff Leek, Thorold Merrett, Dick Mason, Doug Mason and Ken Dakin.

• Alf Brown’s comprehensive Friday night preview of the match of the day in ‘The Herald’.

• Lou Richards’ ‘Kiss of Death’ preview in ‘The Sun’.

• All six games on a Saturday afternoon.

• Watching the Tiger reserves play the curtain-raiser to the seniors each week.

• Royce Hart.

• The sensational Bill Barrot-Ian Stewart swap.

• ‘Stewie’ winning the Brownlow in his debut season at Tigerland.

• Sturt stars Malcolm Greenslade and Mick Nunan being able to play for a very brief time, on loan to the Tigers in 1971, due to their National Service training.

• The peanut man at league football venues, particularly Princes Park, selling unshelled peanuts.

• The call of “Drinks, lollies, chocolates and potato chips” from the young mobile food vendors.

• Following the progress of other matches on the hand-operated scoreboards, with letters representing the various teams.

• Mal Brown’s highly-publicised arrival at Punt Road from Perth.

• The Windy Hill brawl.

• Queueing for finals tickets at Punt Road.

• Grabbing the ‘Sporting Globe’ – ‘the pink paper with the punch’, as it was known – on a Saturday night to read the hot-off-the-press match reports.

• ‘Footy Week’ magazine on a Sunday morning.

• ‘Inside Football’ magazine mid-week.

• ‘Football Inquest’ hosted by Mike Williamson on Channel Seven on a Saturday night.

• Royce Hart.

• The John Pitura trade.

• Watching the reserves play as a curtain-raiser to the seniors each week.

• Following the progress of the Tiger cubs in the under 19s.

• Players wearing special, club-designed, dressing-gowns on match day.

• A sea of floggers/streamers/cut-up telephone books at grounds.

• The sign around the outer grandstand at the MCG for Tiger home games which said, in part: “Ruthless Richmond, On Victory We Thrive, Eat ‘Em Alive!”.

• Getting your membership card cut by the match-day turnstile attendant.

• Standing in the outer at all league grounds, apart from the MCG or Waverley Park.

• Walking from one end of the ground to the other each quarter, to get a better look at Royce (Hart) and co. strutting their stuff up forward for the Tigers.

• A centre diamond formation before the centre square.

• Muddy grounds, especially in the middle, where the cricket pitches were.

• Players sucking on oranges at three-quarter time.

• Scanlen’s footy swap cards and pink bubble gum.

• Kicking a footy on the road outside your house.

• The Tigers’ team wearing yellow shorts for a very brief period in 1975 because of the advent of colour TV in Australia.

• Drop kicks, stab kicks, punt kicks and torpedo punts.

• Metropolitan and country recruiting zones for league clubs.

• Form Fours (the means by which league clubs could sign interstate players).

• The June 30 clearance deadline (the final day each year that clubs could recruit players in-season).

• Attempting to listen to football commentary on 3UZ and 3DB in between a multitude of horse-racing calls from metropolitan and country tracks throughout Australia.

• Excellent Grand Final day entertainment at the ground provided by the Army band.

• A huge bunch of balloons, in the colours of the competing Grand Final teams, released when the players burst through their respective cheer squads’ banners on that ‘one day in September’.

• Coloured footballs kicked into the crowd by the competing Grand Final teams, after they ran out on to the MCG for the big season-decider.