In part four of a feature series on richmondfc.com.au commemorating the release of the unique “Tommy’s Guns” nostalgic memorabilia piece, Tony Greenberg looks at the winning Grand Final feats of Michael Green, under the Club’s ‘Immortal’ four-time premiership coach Tommy Hafey.
Michael Green worked his way through the ranks at Richmond, starting with the Club’s fourths (under 17s) in 1963.
He made his senior league debut with the Tigers in Round 17, 1966 and held his place in the team for the final home-and-away round match of the season the following week.
Surprisingly, given the profound impact Green was subsequently to have in the Tiger team as a ruckman, his first two senior games were actually at full-back.
The 193cm Green was then moved to the back pocket for Richmond’s historic 1967 season, where his role was to negate the influence of the opposition’s resting ruckmen.
Click here to view this great memorabilia piece
Green missed only one home-and-away game during the ’67 season, but on the morning of the Tigers’ second semi-final match against Carlton - the Club’s first finals appearance for 20 years - he awoke to find he couldn’t lift his left arm above his head. After seeing the Club doctor, he was withdrawn from the second semi-final team that subsequently beat the Blues by 40 points to advance straight through to the Grand Final.
The Tiger teenager then had an unbelievably anxious wait for a couple of weeks to see if he would be selected for the ’67 premiership-decider.
In the end, he got the nod from the selectors, returning to the line-up as 19th man for the big clash with Geelong. But, frustratingly for the enthusiastic 19-year-old, he would spend the entire 1967 Grand Final on the bench, watching the Tigers overpower the Cats to break a 24-year premiership drought.
Two years later, it was to be a vastly different story for Michael Green at the business end of the season . . .
Green had taken over the mantle as Richmond’s No. 1 ruckman and been a valuable contributor for the team throughout the 1969 home-and-away rounds. In that season’s finals series, however, he took his game to an incredibly high level.
He was voted the Tigers’ best player in each of their three finals games, as they charged from fourth place on the ladder, smashing Geelong (by 118 points) in the first semi-final, then comfortably accounting for Collingwood (by 26 points) in the preliminary final, before convincingly defeating the highly-fancied Carlton (by 25 points) in the Grand Final, to take the flag.
Opposed to the Blues’ champion ruckman John Nicholls in the ’69 GF, Green was simply magnificent. He finished with the impressive match stats of 16 kicks, four handballs, 13 marks, had numerous hit-outs, and provided the Tiger team with enormous drive. There’s no doubt his ruck dominance was a major factor in Richmond winning its second premiership in three years.
Four years on, Green, a solicitor by profession, was lured out of retirement to help Richmond in its 1973 premiership campaign, and quest for revenge over arch rival Carlton, who had stunned the Tigers in a Grand Final goalscoring frenzy the previous season.
The Green-boosted Yellow and Black line-up did exact sweet revenge against the Blues on Grand Final day ’73. Green’s comeback was totally vindicated when he gathered 17 disposals (13 kicks, four handballs), took eight marks and kicked a goal in the most important game of the year.
And, 12 months later, the near-veteran Green was a prominent member of the Tiger team that etched its name into the record books, disposing of North Melbourne by 41 points in the ’74 Grand Final, to make it back-to-back premierships.
‘Greeny’ had eight kicks, three handballs, six marks and kicked two goals as the Tigers ruled the league jungle for the fourth time in eight seasons under Tommy Hafey’s masterful coaching guidance.
