We continue our special pre-season series reflecting on the grand journey from Punt Road Oval to the ME Bank Centre with a flashback to the significant season of 1964.
The winds of change were sweeping through Tigerland in 1964 . . .
Club great Des Rowe had retired as coach at the end of the ’63 season, with popular servant Maurie Fleming also bowing out following a long stint as, firstly, Richmond’s secretary and then as president.
Ray Dunn, one of Australia’s leading lawyers, took over the presidency and the new coach was a man regarded as one of the shrewdest thinkers in league football history.
Len Smith, the older brother of legendary Melbourne coach Norm Smith, had coached Fitzroy from 1958-62, guiding the Lions into the finals on two occasions during that time.
According to ‘Tigerland: A history of the Richmond Football Club’, “(Len) Smith was the man who planted much of the football awareness in the brain of brother Norm and their joint protégé Ron Barassi”.
Smith had a clear vision of the style of play he wanted to teach Richmond, and the type of team he wanted the Tigers to become.
He aimed to introduce a fast, play-on style, which was in stark contrast to the traditional mark and kick game.
Tall players, who could kick long and also be creative with the use of handball, were the order of the day for Smith. He was striving to mould a team whose playing style would work most effectively on the MCG, where all league finals at that time, were played.
The planets were starting to align for the Tigers . . .
Smith wanted a team ideally suited to the wide, open expanses of the MCG, rather than the constricted confines of Punt Road Oval.
The Punt Road thoroughfare had been scheduled for widening, to accommodate increased traffic. As a result, Punt Road Oval, which was already lacking in size, would become an unsuitable venue for senior league football.
As reported in Tigerland: A history of the Richmond Football Club: “Richmond, long aware that widening operations were being planned for Punt Road, had been planning for the future. Although determined to retain the Punt Road complex, they realised it was inevitable they should seek the share the MCG with Melbourne. Ray Dunn and Graeme Richmond (Club secretary) believed premierships would come more easily to Tigerland if their side had more experience on the big oval . . . Graeme Richmond was not slow to point out that playing on the MCG would be a great inducement for young players to sign with the club . . .
Plainly, Richmond had men of great stature at the helm, and now it was the responsibility of that administration, under the guidance of Graeme Richmond and Len Smith, to mould and recruit the players needed so desperately be the seniors. Many scores of youngsters were to be put through the hands of the new junior (under 19s) coach, Ray Jordon.
First priority of the new-look Richmond was to streamline recruiting. A group of recruiting officers was formed under Graeme Richmond. These men were flung far and wide and included Jack Dyer, Roy Wright, Alan Cations, Billy Wilson, Les Flintoff, Kevin Callander, Basil McCormack, Ron McDonald, John Nix, Bob Clifford, Ken McGown, Ron Stanborough, Bill McKenzie, Ray Horwood and Ray Stokes.
These scouts were to be blended with country agents such as Ron Branton, Tom Hafey, Jack Eames, Jack O’Rourke and Jim Walton . . .
It was not expected to be a first-year revival. What Smith wanted was a side of the future, a team that would develop and conquer for years to come. He wanted to improve the game as a spectacle. He had the dream of a game so fine it would command international interest and support . . .
So much effort did the great coach put into his pre-season build-up that he suffered a heart attack on the eve of his first game. ‘Skinny’ Titus and Dick Harris quickly stepped in as support coaches.
Len Smith’s love of the game outweighed his consideration of medical advice to give up the job. He had a plan and he wanted to see it through. He was not fiery, ranting and raging like his equally skilled brother, but he exhorted his players to persist with his philosophy that perfection would only come through trial and error and that in time the play-on game would become second nature. Perfection would be built on mistakes, but they would become fewer and fewer.”
Smith resumed as coach at Tigerland after spending a few weeks recuperating from his heart attack.
The Tigers had started the ’64 season with losses to Footscray (Western Oval) and Essendon (Punt Road Oval), before stringing together three wins on-the-trot, against South Melbourne (Lake Oval), Fitzroy (Punt Road Oval) and St Kilda (Punt Road Oval).
Unfortunately, that promising winning streak was followed by six successive defeats, although this did not faze coach Smith in the slightest. He continued to preach his football philosophies, confident that eventually the message would sink in, and the Tigers would again roar.
Tigerland: A history of the Richmond Football Club reported: “Week after week, (Billy) Barrot, (Billy) Brown, (Fred) Swift, (Owen) Madigan, (Paddy) Guinane, (Roger) Dean and (Neville) Crowe were in the club’s best players and Smith was confident he had his nucleus for the future. Unlike some club officials, Smith had not seriously contemplated making the finals, although he believed he had very promising material under his control.
The players deeply respected the new coach and were anxious to please. The fickle fortunes of Richmond were again in evidence as they went from victory to defeat. Some weeks they were co-ordinated and some they weren’t. For a change it worked two weeks running and Len Smith, who had been dealt with rather badly when coach at Fitzroy, had great satisfaction in his team’s 10.16 to 2.9 slaughter of the Lions.”
Richmond’s last-ever game for premiership points at Punt Road took place on Saturday, August 22, 1964, when the Tigers took on Hawthorn in the final home-and-away round of the season, before a crowd of 15,500.
At the time, there wasn’t a huge fanfare about this being the Club’s Punt Road farewell (as a home-game venue). It was quite a smooth transition, with the vast majority of supporters embracing the move to the ‘G’.
In that Round 18, 1964 clash with the Hawks, Richmond dominated the opening term in terms of general play. The Tigers, however, squandered their opportunities, kicking only four goals from 13 scoring shots. Their quarter-time lead of 24 points should have been double that, and they were left to rue their inaccuracy.
By half-time, Hawthorn had taken control of the contest, leading by 14 points, courtesy of a 7.5 to 1.3 second term.
Richmond tenaciously fought back in the third quarter and scores were level at the last change.
But in the final term, Tiger fans looked on dejectedly, as the Hawks piled on 7.7 to just 1.0, to run out winners by 43 points.
It was a disappointing end to the season, although, overall, the Tigers had undeniably made significant inroads over the course of the year, despite winning just six games and finishing 9th (of 12 teams).
From Tigerland: A history of the Richmond Football Club: “In his annual report, the astute secretary (Graeme Richmond) spoke confidently of the future and the great impact Len Smith had had on the team. He was particularly impressed with the development of the recruits and second-year players”.
The seeds for Richmond’s success, in what was to be the greatest era in the Club’s history, had been sown.
Sadly, Len Smith would not see it all eventuate.
He suffered another heart attack early in the 1965 season, and was forced to step down as coach.
Club icon Jack Titus filled in as caretaker coach for the rest of that season, with the Tigers finishing in fifth place on the ladder, two games out of the final four.
In late 1965, Richmond appointed former player Tommy Hafey as its coach.
Hafey, a battling back pocket for the Tigers during the 1950s, had achieved considerable success coaching Victorian country club Shepparton (three premierships in-a-row).
A fitness fanatic, Hafey trained his Tiger charges to the peak of condition, and had them playing a tough, aggressive, exciting, hard-running, long-kicking style of football.
The Tigers were unlucky to miss the final four in Hafey’s first season as coach, winning 13 and drawing one of their 18 games, to finish fifth, just two points out.
In 1967, they would go on break a 24-year premiership drought, defeating Geelong in a classic Grand Final encounter by nine points.
Two months earlier (July 23, 1967), Len Smith had died, aged 55, after suffering another heart attack.
Smith’s time at Tigerland was all too brief, but, notwithstanding, his influence had been profound.
Richmond, under Tommy Hafey’s astute coaching guidance, became a mighty force on the MCG, just as Len Smith had envisaged, with further premiership success following in 1969, 1973, 1974 and then in 1980 (with Tony Jewell as coach).
Last game at Punt Road match details
Richmond 4.9 5.12 8.18 9.18 (72)
Hawthorn 1.3 8.8 9.12 16.19 (115)
Goals – Richmond: Warner 3, Dimattina 2, Davenport, Dean, Deery, Patterson.
The final Tiger team at Punt Road
B. Brown
N. Crowe
D. Davenport
R. Dean
M. Deery
F. Dimattina
C. Dobson
G. Gahan
D. Grimmond
M. Hammond
J. Lawson
O. Madigan
T. Morrissey
J. Northey
M. Patterson
J. Robertson
R. Selleck
K. Smith
F. Swift
R. Warner
