Tom Hafey - Premiership Success

Premiership Success

Richmond began 1966 in brilliant form. A month before the finals, they hit the top of the ladder for the first time since 1951 and seemed certain to play in September. But two losses relegated the Tigers to fifth place with thirteen wins and a draw, the best performed team to miss out since the inception of the McIntyre finals system in 1931. Stung by the near miss, Richmond cleared a number of players who failed in the two crucial defeats and boosted by two champion new players in Royce Hart and Francis Bourke, dominated the 1967 season, running out winners in a classic Grand Final against Geelong. In two years, the team lost only seven games and Hafey had gone from an unknown coach in the bush to the toast of the football world. In particular, the critics were impressed by Hafey's ability to succeed in the finals with a team that went into September without a single player with finals' experience.

With hindsight, the premiership marked a turning point for the game. The Tigers were fitter than any team that had gone before and were the highest scoring team since 1950. Australian football, after two decades of defensive-based play, was about to enter an era of high scoring, aided by rule changes, new tactics and betters standards of fitness.

However, Hafey was powerless to prevent a premiership hangover the following year, and although the Tigers made a last-gasp bid to play finals by winning the last six games, they were denied. The club believed that had they made it, they would have gone all the way. When the Tigers were again lethargic in mid-1969, accusations of under-achievement arose. The Richmond administration were not above spreading a few rumours with the press that Hafey was on the way out. But the players rallied behind Hafey and finished the season brilliantly, snatching fourth place before winning all three finals to take a second premiership. It was noticeable that Hafey was able to get his players to peak at the business end of the season.

After another dip in 1970, Hafey took the Tigers to the finals for the next five years, finally finding the consistency that had eluded the club during his early years. Basing the team's strategy around all-out attack had drawbacks, most famously during the 1972 finals, when his team conceded the highest score to Carlton in a shock upset. Hafey later admitted that the defeat him left down, to the point of depression, for many months but it later became the motivation his greatest success, the back-to-back premierships of 1973–1974. By now, the aggressive attitude of the club both on and off the field had created deal of resentment toward the club. A number of controversial incidents during the 1973 Grand Final, the Windy Hill brawl, the attempted recruitment of John Pitura from South Melbourne and the reaction to Kevin Bartlett's failure to win the Brownlow medal all focussed negative attention on the club. Yet Hafey used the various reactions to his advantage claiming "it's Richmond against the world" and adding the rider after the 1974 Grand Final "…and today we won".

However, just two years later, the most successful coach in Richmond's history had left the club. The team showed signs of ageing in 1975, when only experience and guile got them as far as the preliminary final and then a raft of player departures destroyed the Tigers' 1976 season. The team slumped to seventh, Hafey's worst ever result. Hafey had no contract with Richmond; the coach was appointed on a year-to-year basis. He was reappointed for 1977, but not unanimously and crucially, it was the club's powerbroker Graeme Richmond who voted against Hafey. When this outcome was leaked to Hafey, he immediately resigned.