No matter what time of the year it is, Tony Greenberg has no trouble unearthing some quirky Richmond-related facts.  Here is a case in point . .

With the world’s greatest rock band, ‘The Rolling Stones’, on their latest tour of Australia, it’s timely to point out the amazing connection between them and our own Richmond Football Club.

Try these incredible links between the Tigers and Stones on for size . . .

• Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the lyrics to one of the group’s biggest hits, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, while staying at Richards’ countryside house.  Jagger was awoken one morning by the sound of Richards’ gardener walking past the window.  The name of that gardener just happened to be Jack Dyer – the same as the player widely regarded as the greatest in Richmond’s history!  When Jagger asked what the noise was, Richards responded, “Oh, that’s Jack – that’s jumpin’ Jack”!  The rest of the lyrics evolved from there. 
• One of the founding members of the Rolling Stones was Ian Stewart, who shared his name with Richmond’s last Brownlow Medallist, 1973 premiership player, and Tigers’ Team of the Century member.   The Stones’ Stewart was their piano player, and also doubled as their road manager.  According to Keith Richards, in the band’s early days, ‘He was the glue that held the whole thing together’.
• The Rolling Stones played their first official gig in February 1963 at the Crawdaddy Club, which was a popular music venue at the time, situated in Richmond, a town in Surrey, England.
• The Stones played a huge concert in 1995 at the MCG, which, of course, has been the venue for Richmond’s home games since 1965.
• And, in the late 1980s, Mick Jagger performed a surprise, “secret” gig with a backing band at Richmond’s iconic Corner Hotel, which is just two or three towering Ben Griffiths’ drop punts from the Tigers’ Punt Road home. 

Renew or join as a Richmond member for the 2015 season

While on the subject of Tigerland connections . . .

The strong links between Richmond and West Adelaide continue, with two more former players with the SANFL club joining the Tigers since the end of the 2014 season.

Ben Rutten, who played for West Adelaide, before being drafted by the Adelaide Crows, has been appointed to an assistant coaching role at Richmond.

And, Ryan Ferguson, who played AFL football with Melbourne, before moving to West Adelaide, where he went on to captain the club for five years and win four best and fairests, has taken on an assistant coaching post with Richmond’s standalone VFL team.

They join other former West Adelaide players currently at Richmond in Mark ‘Choco’ Williams, Greg Mellor and Steven Morris, along with a long line of others who have been involved at both clubs down the years, including Shane Tuck, Kevin Morris, Anthony Banik, Ian Borchard, Ben Hollands, Glynn Hewitt (father of Lleyton), Marc Dragicevic, Ben Marsh, Brad Helbig, Laurie Cahill and Jack Broadstock.

Throughout a nine-year league career with Richmond, in his role at full-back, Scott Turner thrived under the pressure associated with curbing the effectiveness of the best full-forwards in the competition – the likes of Lockett, Dunstall and Ablett.

Turner, who played 144 games with the Tigers from 1991-99, is now enjoying the cut-and-thrust of Victorian State politics.

The 44-year-old, born and bred in Ararat, is contesting the upcoming Victorian State election for the National Party.

He is the Nationals’ candidate for the country seat of Ripon, which has been held by Labor’s Joe Helper since 1999.

Turner, a Richmond life member, returned to Ararat with his wife and two children a few years ago, and he’s been working as a Human Resources Manager at a regional manufacturing business.

Taylor Hunt, who was recruited by Richmond from Geelong as a delisted free agent last weekend, is set to become the fourth Hunt to play senior league football with the Tigers.

Previous Hunts to appear at senior level for Richmond were Ray Hunt, who played only six games, with one of them, however, being the 1943 Grand Final victory over Essendon, Rex Hunt, a dual premiership player at Tigerland (1969, 1973), and winner of the Club’s leading goalkicker award (55 goals in 1969), in a 113-game career, and Anthony Hunt, who managed just one game, in the 1972 season.

The ex-Cat Hunt would be the first player with the first name Taylor to play in the seniors at Richmond, although there have been several players with that as their surname, including Brian Taylor, a dual winner of the Tigers’ leading goalkicker award (1982 and 1984).

Find out more about Richmond’s Committed Tiger member rollover in November

With more than half of Richmond’s playing list participating in this year’s ‘Movember’ campaign, from an historical Tiger perspective, it’s well worth encouraging them to keep their moustaches once November finishes.

The current-day Tigers are throwing their support behind their teammate, Shaun Hampson, who has become an ambassador for Movember, following the passing of his father, Tom, earlier this year from prostate cancer.

Throughout Richmond’s glory days of the 1970s to early 1980s, there was no shortage of players, who were proud to display a bit of facial hair – the likes of Kevin Morris, Robbie McGhie, Barry Richardson, Brian Roberts, Rex Hunt, Kevin Sheedy, Noel Carter, Dale Weightman, Michael Roach, Mark Lee, Bryan Wood, Emmett Dunne, David Cloke, Mick Malthouse, Terry Smith, Jimmy Jess (full beard), even Kevin Bartlett for a while, as well as the Club’s last premiership coach Tony Jewell springing immediately to mind.

If some of the success enjoyed by those moustachioed Tigers of old, could rub off on today’s playing group, then it’s time to ditch the razors full-time, boys . . .

To support Movember with Richmond players and staff, click here to join Richmond’s official Movember team.