Versatile . . . Valiant . . . Valuable . . . Victorious . . .

Those four V words provide an apt, concise summary of the league career of Barry Richardson, who played 125 games for Richmond from 1965-74, including three premierships, and kicked 134 goals.

Barry, the father of Richmond’s newly-appointed General Manager of Football, Dan Richardson, played during the Tigers’ golden era, under the Club’s Team of the Century coach Tommy Hafey, surrounded by superstars such as Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett, Francis Bourke, Kevin Sheedy, Bill Barrot, Dick Clay and Michael Green.

Given the sheer depth of Tigerland at that time, Richardson tended to slip under the radar, however, his football deeds are deserving of the highest praise.

After making his senior league debut up forward for Richmond as a 19-year-old at the start of the 1965 season, under the coaching guidance of the great Len Smith (before heart problems forced him to stand down from the role), Richardson suffered a serious knee injury that sidelined him for the rest of the year.

He returned the following season, which was Hafey’s first in charge as coach, but managed only three senior appearances, although he was a member of the Club’s reserve-grade premiership side in 1966.

The first signs of Richardson’s versatility were seen during the 1967 season, when he took on a new role as a tall (191cm) ruck-rover, changing at half-forward.  As that season progressed, he also spent time at centre half-forward.

In the drought-breaking 1967 Grand Final triumph over Geelong, Richardson was one of Richmond’s best, playing as a half-forward, finishing with 15 kicks, one handball, five marks and a goal.

By the time the 1968 season rolled around, “Bones”, as he was affectionately known during his league playing days, had a completely different on-field role. 

With ’67 premiership captain Fred Swift having retired, the full-back position was vacant.  The Tigers subsequently decided Richardson would be an ideal replacement, given his all-round skills set.  It also meant he could run in straight lines, rather than twisting and turning, which would alleviate some of the pressure on his crook knee.

Richardson went on to become one of the premier full-backs of the competition. 

To underline just how well Richardson adapted to the key defensive post, during the 1969 season he became the first player to hold Hawthorn’s champion full-forward, Peter Hudson, goalless during a league match.  Given the fact Hudson averaged a competition all-time high of 5.64 goals per match throughout his 129-game league career, that was some feat. 

By the end of Hudson’s time with the Hawks, only one other full-back had managed to stop him from snagging at least one goal in a game – Carlton’s Rod Austin.

Being a keen student of the game, Richardson had devised a special plan for playing on Hudson that May Saturday afternoon in 1969.

“In 1969, Peter Hudson kicked 16 goals against Melbourne two weeks before I was to play on him.  Every goal Hudson kicked was shown on the news that night.  What I noticed was that most of those goals were of him running into an open goal,” Richardson said in Rhett Bartett’s book, “Richmond FC:  A Proud History Of A Great Club”.

“They would leave Hudson in the forward line all by himself and then kick the ball to the one-on-one contest, but usually over his head.  He would use his big arse to push you out and run back into an open goal.

“I thought I’m going to at least eliminate that one, so he might only kick eight against us.

“When I played on him in Round 7, 1969, I stood around 15 metres behind him. 

“Every time he turned around, I just pretended to look around with folded arms and showing a total lack of interest.  So the Hawks kept kicking the ball over his head and I kept taking chest marks.

“It worried him, he told me later, because every other full-back had stood next to him.

“The next time we played, he stood on the goal line.”

Despite Hudson being completely shut down by Richardson, the Tigers were still beaten.  They struggled for consistency that season until the final few home-and-away rounds, when they hit their straps and stormed into the finals.

With Bones rock-solid on the all-important last line of defence, Richmond restricted Geelong to just seven goals in the first semi-final, en-route to a thumping 118-point victory.  Two weeks later, in the preliminary final, Collingwood could muster only 10 goals, with the Tigers cruising to a 26-point win.

On Grand Final day of the ’69 season, Richardson had the huge assignment of curbing the Blues’ brilliant Alex Jesaulenko, who had been in fine form at full-forward.

Bones played his part to perfection, restricting the dangerous “Jezza” to just one goal in Carlton’s total of eight, as the Tigers powered away to a 25-point win in the premiership-decider.

Richmond missed the finals the following season and when it returned to September action in 1971, Bones found himself back (or forward, to be specific) at the other end of the ground . . .

Midway through that ’71 season, he was switched from full-back to full-forward by Hafey, in a bid to add some much-needed bite to the team’s attack. 

Richardson proceeded to kick 48 goals in the last 12 goals of the season, including five in the Tigers’ losing preliminary final against St Kilda on a sodden MCG.

At the end of 1971, Richmond embarked on a strong recruiting drive, which netted the likes of Paul Sproule (Essendon), Robbie McGhie (Footscray) and Ricky McLean (Carlton) from rival league clubs.

The arrival at Punt Road of McLean, a powerfully-built, tough full-forward, signalled yet another on-field move in Barry Richardson’s playing career.

He reverted to the half-forward flank, where he’d played in the ’67 premiership side, and performed admirably, finishing with 49 goals for the season, including 11 in the ’72 finals series, with three of them coming in the shock Grand Final loss to Carlton.

Then, in the opening round of 1973, against Essendon at Windy Hill, Richardson suffered a serious knee injury that wiped him out for the season and very nearly ended his playing career then.

But, after missing Richmond’s ’73 premiership success against Carlton, Bones decided he still had the necessary fire in the belly to give it another shot.

“So, I went and had an operation, which I found out later removed my cruciate,” he told Rhett Bartlett.

“I made a comeback in 1974, played in the reserves, then Mal Brown did me a favour by throwing the ball at an umpire and getting suspended for four matches.

“I came into the side for the second last game of the year (Round 21) against South Melbourne and I kicked three goals.  It was my first senior game in almost two years.

“Then I kicked four goals in the last game against Footscray.”

Although he was still quite proppy on the knee, Richardson proceeded to have a significant impact in Richmond’s ’74 finals campaign, playing at full-forward.

He kicked five goals out of the Tigers’ total of 10 in a low-scoring, second-semi final win against North Melbourne at Waverley Park.

Two weeks later, against North in the Grand Final, Bones booted another bag of five goals – four of them in the final quarter – as Richmond romped home by 41 points to claim its ninth league premiership.

“The 1974 Grand Final was my last game for Richmond.  I was really lucky, because what I didn’t want to do was have my last football thought being part of a losing Grand Final,” Richardson said.

Over a 125-game career at the game’s highest level, he had managed a highly-impressive winning strike-rate of just over 70%.

Richardson did some media work with Channel Seven in 1975, before returning to Tigerland as reserves coach in 1976.

At the end of ’76, when Tommy Hafey sensationally resigned as Richmond’s senior coach, Richardson was appointed to replace him.

It was as tough a gig as you could imagine, taking over from such a legendary coach, and being in charge of so many of your former teammates, at just 30 years of age.

In inimitable style, however, Bones did it his way and acquitted himself well.

“I was always a deep thinker about the game.  I went to the United States with Tom Hafey at the start of 1976,” he said.

“We visited the San Francisco 49ers and a college gridiron team.  We actually spent some time with a sports psychologist . . . so that gave me more of a cerebral approach to handling players in the game.

“I had a very inquiring mind.  I was doing kickout drills before any other coaches were doing them.

“I remember writing a plan and the plan was something that Allan Jeans was credited with years later.  When we have the ball what do we do?  When they have the ball what do we do?  And when neither side has the ball what do we do?

 “The stark reality is that I was ahead of my time, but we never had the time to implement the drills to reproduce in a game.

“Even so, we did all right.  We finished fourth in my first year and seventh in the second year before getting the sack.”

Richardson also deserves credit as coach for giving young players such as Michael Roach, Dale Weightman, Mark Lee, Greg Strachan and Bruce Tempany, who all became top-line Tigers, a start in their league careers.

At the end of 1984, Richardson was persuaded to have a third stint at Tigerland – this time as president, replacing Ian Wilson.

Unfortunately, after just one year in the presidential chair, Richardson’s reign ended.  He resigned as president when Paul Sproule was sacked as coach (also after only one year).

But nothing can detract from the impact Barry Richardson had in a variety of roles, both on and off the field, with Richmond.

He provided the Tigers with immense value and I know he’s now looking forward to watching son Dan carve out his own influential career at Punt Road.