Approaching the 30th anniversary of Richmond’s last premiership win (September 27, 1980), Tiger great Dale Weightman reflects on that glorious triumph over traditional rival Collingwood . . .

“In 1980, I was living in Punt Road, Richmond with two other Tiger players in Col Waterson, and Robbie Semmens. Robbie was playing in the under 19s back then and they’d also made the Grand Final, so he was up and about early on the Saturday morning getting ready for his big game.

I also awoke early, had a good breakfast, and then listened to predictions on the radio of a Collingwood victory in the Grand Final. One clairvoyant-type bloke said it was all written in the stars that the Magpies would win, while 1980 Brownlow Medallist, Footscray’s Kelvin Templeton, also went for the Pies on the basis that the Tigers appeared to be front-runners. Pretty hard not to look like front-runners when you’re 10-15 goals ahead of your opposition for much of the season!

The bottom line was that the Magpies went into the Grand Final having gathered some good momentum during September. They’d finished fifth at the end of the home-and-away season, but had beaten North Melbourne, Carlton and Geelong in three cut-throat finals, to advance through to the big one. Richmond, on the other hand, had accounted for Carlton in the qualifying final and Geelong in the second semi-final, to get a week off before the Grand Final.

I was quietly confident going into the match that we’d win, even though I’d never been in that situation before at the game’s highest level. Sure, I’d been in junior grand finals, but you just turned up, played, and hoped that you win. This was very different - especially for a bloke only 20 years old (I actually turned 21 the Saturday after the 1980 Grand Final).

As I walked up Punt Road to the MCG from my house in Richmond, I thought about my injured teammate Bruce Tempany. Bruce, one of the unluckiest players to pull on a boot for the Tigers, had damaged his achilles in our second semi-final victory over the Cats, and wouldn’t be part of the Grand Final action. At our team meeting during the week, Bruce came along and spoke to us about what it meant to him to miss out on playing in the Grand Final. It was very emotional, and we all had tears in our eyes by the time he’d finished. I vividly recall our coach, Tony Jewell, then saying, “If you blokes don’t f ------ beat this mob, you can all go and get f------!” And, then TJ walked out the door. That was the end of our team meeting. As far as TJ was concerned, we’d done all the planning and preparation. Bruce Tempany’s situation was a bit of emotional motivation for us . . .

When I arrived at the ground, I was really taken with all the color and atmosphere. It was a fantastic day weather-wise and the Tiger fans were out in force. The important thing, from a player’s perspective, was not to get caught up in all the hype that Grand Final day generates.

We were lucky at Richmond to have experienced campaigners such as Kevin Bartlett, Francis Bourke, Bryan Wood and Merv Keane. They weren’t worried about the occasion - they just focused on doing the things that needed to be done, and treated the Grand Final more like a normal game.

I remember seeing a lot of people in our rooms before the game - former players, etc. - but because we were so focused on the task at hand, I couldn’t specifically tell you who was there. It’s fair to say I was right in ‘the zone’ that day - and that’s the way it was with all our other blokes, too. You could see it in their eyes, and I knew then that Collingwood would have to play their very best football to beat us.

Running through the giant cheer squad banner out on to the field, I vividly recall dodging all this stage equipment that had been set up for the Grand Final’s pre-game entertainment, which was provided by the late Peter Allen. Fair dinkum, it was the biggest stage of all time and they still hadn’t got it off the ground when we ran out there. We were thinking, ‘get this sh-- off’!

Anyway, finally, they cleared the arena and we were set to go . . . You could actually tell from the opening bounce that we were really switched on. TJ and the selectors had really done their homework well because our match-ups worked a treat.

Merv Keane, normally a reliable defender, ruck-roved most of the day and kicked two goals in a fine performance; Terry Smith went on to Magpie danger man Rene Kink and shut him down; Jimmy Jess playing at centre half-forward, rather than his customary position at centre half-back, provided us with another strong target in attack; and Stephen Mount, who was shifted to centre half-back, did a top job.

Then, you had Peter Welsh, who actually was a reserve for the Richmond reserves in the last home-and-away round. ‘Woosha’ was having an end-of-season drink with the reserves boys on the following Monday, when TJ contacted him and told him to get down to training. TJ felt he needed someone to play on the likes of Michael Turner (Geelong) and Ricky Barham (Collingwood) - and Woosha was just the bloke for the job.

It’s history now, of course, that Woosha went on to be one of the success stories of our 1980 finals campaign. He epitomised what we were all about with his fierce determination and will-to-win.

With Kevin Bartlett in freakish form roaming the forward line, and David Cloke marking everything near goal, Collingwood just didn’t know what hit ‘em. The dynamic duo booted 13 goals between them (KB seven and ‘Clokey’ six) to mangle the Magpies.

Big ‘Scotch’, in fact, finished with 6.5. I delivered three passes to him - and he missed the lot of them, from inside the 10-yard square! He could easily have kicked 10 goals in the Grand Final, such was his dominance.

‘Rainesy’ (Geoff Raines) was superb, too, in the centre. He’d had a fantastic season and was favorite for the Brownlow Medal - but didn’t score a single vote from the umpires! Funnily enough, after the Grand Final, the umpire came up to Rainesy and said, “I would have given you three votes today, even though it was KB who won the Norm Smith medal for best-on-ground . . .”

My big mate, ‘The General’ (Mark Lee) had a tough assignment on Collingwood ruck star Peter Moore - and he did it magnificently. General just smacked the ball forward at all costs, and consistently gave us first use, which was so important.

We had some really good on-ballers, with the likes of Barry Rowlings and Robert Wiley, and they ensured a steady supply of leather into the forward line, where KB, Clokey and co. did the rest.

From a personal perspective, I went into the match just hoping I’d get a kick. As luck would have it, I kicked the first goal of the Grand Final, thanks to ‘Ghost’ (Jimmy Jess), who was ruffled up in an early incident by my opponent, Stan Magro. Following that, I was sitting out there on my own in the forward pocket, and Ghosty cleverly got the ball over to me. I managed to steer it through the ‘big sticks’, much to my relief, and the delight of the Tiger masses at the ground. The roar of the crowd when I kicked that opening goal was unbelievable and something I’ll never forget. 

At each break during the match, it didn’t matter how far in front we were, the message from TJ stayed the same - “Scores are level, get back on track, and let’s go away from them!” TJ was hell-bent on making sure that we never got ahead of ourselves at any stage. We had made it through to the big one because we’d proven we were a good side. What we had to do now was keep really focused and do the things we knew made us successful.

It wasn’t until about the 20-minute mark of the last quarter that we allowed ourselves to think we were going to win the premiership. That’s how focused we were on just getting the job done!

And, it was with only 10 minutes to go, that TJ made his first interchange changes of the entire match, even though we were 12 goals in front for a fair bit of the contest. He brought our captain Bruce Monteath and Daryl Freame on to the ground for those final few minutes, although it was a real struggle for our runner, Peter Grant, to find someone who would agree to come off.

Eventually, I thought I’d better do the right thing and allow our skipper a run. So, I went to the bench, as did Stephen Mount, allowing Bruce and Daryl to soak up some of the glorious on-field atmosphere.

It was an incredible feeling when the final siren sounded. I remember thinking, “How bloody good is this . . .  we’ve actually done it”! Mind you, it probably took a couple of days for it to sink in that we’d achieved something pretty special.

Back in the rooms afterwards, it was crazy, with happy people everywhere. I’d got a Grand Final ticket for a good mate of mine, Peter King, who’s a Collingwood supporter. His seat happened to be in the middle of the Richmond cheer squad, which I thought was hilarious. ‘Kingy’ rocked up with all his Collingwood gear on, but about 20 minutes into the game, he took it off and started yelling out, “Go Tigers”!

And then, I don’t know how he did it, but I looked around in the rooms at one stage during the post-game celebrations - and there was Kingy, drinking merrily out of our premiership cup . . . I asked him how he’d managed to get into the rooms in the first place and he said, “I just walked up the race”. He was one of the first blokes to drink out of the precious cup. To this day, I still don’t know how he got away with it . . .

Our official premiership dinner that evening was held at the old Southern Cross Hotel, and Stephen Mount got festivities underway in style, rocking up to the celebrations with two sisters - twins, if you don’t mind - one on each arm. And, they were glamors . . .

Not surprisingly, it was a huge night, and it was back to Punt Road the next day for more of the same. But it was ‘Mad Monday’ at ‘The Whale’s’ (Brian Roberts) pub in South Melbourne where the biggest celebrations took place. That just went on and on and on . . . It was fantastic.

The sobering thought, however, amid all the euphoria, were the words from legendary Club administrator Graeme Richmond in the rooms after the game. GR simply said, “Well done boys. Let’s start planning for next year.”

We had won the Grand Final by a record margin, but GR was already thinking how we could improve in 1981 . . .

1980 Grand Final details

RICHMOND  6.5 11.11 15.17 23.21 (159)
COLLINGWOOD 2.6 4.10 5.18 9.24 (78)

Goals - RICHMOND: Bartlett 7, Cloke 6, Wiley 3, Roach 2, Keane 2, Weightman, Jess, Rowlings.

Best - RICHMOND: Bartlett, Raines, Lee, Wiley, Cloke, Wood, Keane, Bourke.

Attendance: 113,461

Grand Final player statistics
Mick Malthouse: 10 kicks, 6 handballs, 3 marks
Francis Bourke: 14 kicks, 2 handballs, 2 marks
Emmett Dunne: 8 kicks, 6 marks, 4 handballs
Greg Strachan: 5 kicks, 2 handballs, 0 marks
Stephen Mount: 7 kicks, 8 handballs, 3 marks
Terry Smith: 11 kicks, 6 handballs, 2 marks
Peter Welsh: 13 kicks, 4 handballs, 4 marks
Geoff Raines: 19 kicks, 17 handballs, 4 marks
Bryan Wood: 11 kicks, 12 handballs, 7 marks
Barry Rowlings: 12 kicks, 6 handballs, 0 marks
Jimmy Jess: 9 kicks, 7 marks, 5 handballs
Kevin Bartlett: 20 kicks, 1 handball, 9 marks
David Cloke: 11 kicks, 1 handball, 9 marks
Michael Roach: 7 kicks, 1 handball, 3 marks
Dale Weightman: 6 kicks, 14 handballs, 2 marks
Mark Lee: 6 kicks, 6 handballs, 3 marks
Merv Keane: 14 kicks, 13 handballs, 4 marks
Rob Wiley: 20 kicks, 6 handballs, 8 marks
Bruce Monteath: 1 kick, 2 handballs, 1 mark
Daryl Freame: 2 kicks, 0 handballs, 1 mark