It was back on June 14, 1952 that the Tigers played arch rival Collingwood in their inaugural match held in Sydney for premiership points.
Round 8 of the ’52 season was unique, with the VFL promoting the code by organising matches at selected interstate and country venues that Saturday.
Apart from the Tigers v Magpies fixture, Melbourne played Fitzroy in Hobart, North Melbourne and South Melbourne met in Albury, while Geelong and Essendon clashed in Brisbane (this match was subsequently held on the Monday after torrential rain forced a wash-out on the Saturday).
The Richmond-Collingwood contest took place at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which, 30 years later, was to become home to the transported South Melbourne Football Club.
Little did the respective captains, Des Rowe (Richmond) and Lou Richards (Collingwood) realise that early winter’s Saturday afternoon, when they walked over to toss the coin, just before the opening bounce, they were about to be pioneers for an Australian Football revolution.
These days, the Sydney Swans (old South Melbourne) have been joined in the Harbour City by AFL newcomer Greater Western Sydney, who Richmond will play for the first time this Saturday.
Apart from Sydney, and Melbourne, which remains football’s ‘Mecca’, the now national competition hosts games on a regular basis in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Launceston, as well as occasionally in places such as Darwin and Cairns.
Back in 1952, however, it was a vastly different league football scene . . .
Looking through one of the Tiger museum’s well-kept, fascinating, old scrapbooks, I found out that the Club’s players, officials and coach - the great Jack Dyer - departed for their historic trip to Sydney on the Spirit of Progress train at 6.30pm on the Wednesday before the game.
They arrived in Sydney the following morning and proceeded to the Continental Hotel, North Shore, where they stayed for the duration of their trip.
On the Thursday afternoon, they had a training run at the SCG to familiarise themselves with the conditions and then, the day before the big game, the Tiger party enjoyed some sight-seeing at Palm Beach and Manly.
That night, they went to a local picture theatre in Sydney to see a comedy starring Van Heflin, Patricia Neal and Gigi Perreau called “Weekend with Father”.
As for the match itself, well, unfortunately it wasn’t a good result for the Tigers, with Collingwood winning by 36 points in a low-scoring slog played on a rain-soaked SCG (10.12 to 5.6) in front of a crowd of 24,100.
Although Richmond lost, the team’s half-back, Col Austen, was a unanimous choice as best-on-ground.
According to the newspaper review of the match, “His brilliant marking and accurate kicking frequently won applause.
“Steady and cool, he was a dominating figure, particularly in the second and third quarters when the rest of his side fell to pieces.”
Also among Richmond’s best players on the day were Max Oppy, Kevin Hogan, Graham Cox, Kevin Dillon and Geoff Spring.
As a spectacle, the match left a fair bit to be desired . . .
The newspaper report declared: “Little good play was seen and, as a propaganda match, the game was disappointing.
“Despite attempts to build up the clash as a “blood” match, it was a pretty tame affair.
“The centre of the ground, cut up during the season by Rugby scrums, was a quagmire, and the ball was greasy from the first minute.
“The Magpies won the game in the second quarter. With the wind they kicked 6.5 without Richmond scoring. From then on the result was never in doubt.”
Match details
Richmond 1.2 1.2 2.3 5.6 (36)
Collingwood 2.1 8.6 9.7 10.12 (72)
Goals - Richmond: Hogan 2, Ednie, Boland, Schofield. Collingwood: Davey 3, Williams 2, Dunstan, P. Twomey, M. Twomey, R. Richards, Tuck.
Best - Richmond: Austen (best-on-ground), Oppy, Hogan, Cox, Dillon, Spring. Collingwood: W. Twomey, Davey, Hams, Lucas, Hamilton, Healey.
The Richmond team
Col Austen
Kevin Betson
Brian Boland
Allan Cations
Fred Clarke
Allan Cooke
Graham Cox
Kevin Dillon
Ray Ednie
Rex Geard
Kevin Hogan
John Nix
Max Oppy
Ray Poulter
John Ritchie
Des Rowe
Havel Rowe
Peter Schofield
Geoff Spring
Bill Wilson
