Tony Greenberg cranks up the Tiger ‘time machine’ to look back at a league ‘reject’, who landed at Punt Road 40 years ago, and had a huge impact in a relatively short time.
Paul Sproule started his senior football career with the Hobart Tigers in Tasmania in 1962 alongside another player who would subsequently rewrite the league record books - Ian Stewart.
A decade later, after Stewart had won his third Brownlow Medal, the pair would team up again in Tiger colors - this time at Richmond.
The story of Stewart’s arrival at Punt Road - and subsequent dominance - has been well-documented. Sproule, however, slipped into Tigerland with little fanfare or fuss.
The 180cm ruck-rover/centreman (he’d be referred to simply as a midfielder these days) had spent four seasons at Essendon and been a member of the Bombers’ losing Grand Final side in 1968, but at the end of the ’71 season, he was left off their senior list.
Richmond’s leading football administrator of the day, the late Alan Schwab, couldn’t believe his luck when Sproule became available . . .
“I first saw Paul Sproule play with Hobart in 1965. I was assistant secretary of St Kilda at the time and it was my first interstate recruiting trip,” Schwab recounted.
“On the Saturday morning, I saw a skinny kid playing with Clarence under-age named Royce Hart (he had already been signed by Richmond) . . . in the afternoon I saw Paul Sproule.
“Of all the hundreds of recruiting trips I have made since, I doubt I have seen two such talented and highly-promising players on the one day.
“When I returned to St Kilda, I told them of Sproule, but they were not overly-impressed. Later I read that he had signed with Essendon and I followed his career with interest.
“Every time he played against Richmond - I had since joined them - I thought he was a terrific player.
“Then, at the end of 1971, he was dropped off the Bombers’ list. Tom Hafey, Graeme Richmond and I could not believe it. We tore out to his home and, after a fair bit of talking, he agreed to join Richmond.
“Strangely, Paul’s only doubt was his ability to gain a regular game! For this reason, he almost signed with a VFA club.”
All-up, Sproule cost Richmond a transfer fee of $2000. That figure was to represent enormous value for money in the ensuing four seasons . . .
Sproule had a clever football brain, was highly skilled, a prolific ball-winner, and super-fit.
In his time with the Tigers, they won back-to-back premierships - in 1973-74 - were runners-up in 1972, and finished third in 1975. He had a winning strike rate of nearly 71% during his four seasons in the Yellow and Black.
Those in the inner sanctum at Tigerland during those glory days, speak in glowing terms of the superb contribution made by Sproule to the side’s success.
Richmond’s Team of the Century member, Kevin Sheedy, is one such Sproule devotee . . .
“Paul was an excellent player. He had an extremely intelligent football brain. He read the play extremely well and had that ability to get where the ball was all the time,” Sheedy said.
“We got on really well . . . he was my changing partner, along with Ian Stewart . . . we’d all have stints on the ball.
“He was a calculating player . . . he knew exactly what he was doing and was very, very fit. And, he did it with looks . . . a look here, a look there - he didn’t have to talk much.
“He might have been under-rated outside of Richmond, but I can assure you that among his teammates he was very, very highly regarded.”
Sproule was listed among the Tigers’ best in both the 1973 and 1974 Grand Final triumphs.
In the ’74 premiership decider against North Melbourne, Sproule was shifted into the centre 10 minutes into the second quarter, after the Roos had raced to an 11-point lead. Richmond proceeded to kick six goals in the next 15 minutes, with Sproule, Sheedy and Royce Hart dominating, and providing the catalyst another Tiger premiership.
This prompted former Essendon champion and Grand Final coach, Jack Clarke, to write the following tribute to Sproule in his post-Grand Final column for ‘Inside Football’ magazine.
“There is a much forgotten skill in football, and I believe Richmond’s Paul Sproule has mastered it.
“It’s reading the play at the centre hit-outs, and this is where Sproule excelled on Saturday.
“I thought he was probably the best man on the ground.
“Perhaps the fact I knew him from his Essendon days influenced me to look more closely at his performance.
“But Paul is a highly-professional and polished league footballer.
“He has the know-how and the uncanny knack of reading the play, which is rare in football.
“Sproule has obviously spent many hours closely studying the movements and actions of other players in centre contests, and is highly skilled in successfully anticipating these.
“That’s why he was able to break free from the centre so many times on Saturday.”
Sproule played a total of 86 games in four action-packed seasons for Richmond and kicked 93 goals, earning a reputation as one of the Tigers’ best-ever pick-ups from a rival league club.
