It’s 50 years today since a long-haired, tall teenager by the name of Neil Balme made his senior debut with Richmond.
On August 15, 1970, Balme lined up at full-forward for the Tigers against North Melbourne at Arden Street.
The 194cm, 18-year-old, ruckman/forward had been recruited by Richmond from WAFL club Subiaco where he’d played senior football.
In fact, Balme, at just 17, had come up against the great Polly Farmer and acquitted himself extremely well.
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Balme arrived in Melbourne from Perth with his family midway through 1969 due to a job transfer for his father.
Most of the VFL clubs attempted to secure young Balme’s signature, but he was lured to Tigerland by top administrator Alan Schwab.
In Elliot Cartledge’s fine book, “The Hafey Years”, Balme detailed how the Tigers won the race for his services . . . “’Schwabby’ had just started at Richmond. He was a pretty good recruiter and my old man said, “You play where you want to play”. My brother (Ian) and I went with Richmond. There was one compelling reason: Schwabby told us that if we signed we could go on the pre-season trip to the Gold Coast. We weren’t quite that shallow, but it was probably the tipping point . . . Richmond seemed like a successful and progressive club.”
Balme served his apprenticeship with the Tigers in the under-19s under renowned coach Ray Jordon and then had a few reserves games, before gaining senior selection for the Round 20, 1970 clash with the Kangaroos.
And he produced an extremely impressive first-up performance at the game’s highest level, kicking four goals in Richmond’s 58-point win – 16.10 (106) to 7.6 (48).
Three of those goals came in a dominant first-quarter display that forced the home side to shift star veteran defender Peter Steward on to him.
Balme’s statistics in his senior debut were seven kicks, three handballs, three marks, one hit-out, an equal game-high four goals (4.2), two free kicks for and four free kicks against.
He kicked three goals the following week against Essendon at the MCG and then one in the final home-and-away round game of the 1970 season v Footscray at the Western Oval.
Interestingly, when Richmond and North Melbourne met early the next season at Arden Street (Round 6), Balme went one better than on debut, booting a game-high five goals in a 62-point Tiger victory.
Balme would go on to have a stellar career at Tigerland throughout the 1970s – 159 games, 229 goals, dual premiership player (1973, 1974), two-time winner of the Club’s leading goalkicker award (1972 with 55 goals and 1973 with 34 goals), vice-captain in 1976 and runner-up in the 1977 Best and Fairest (10 Brownlow Medal votes that season, too, in his role as Richmond’s No. 1 ruckman).
