One of our PRE forum members has written a book about Tommy. RFC will announce it next week and it will be available for purchase from the Club. That's the recommended option for purpose as proceeds stay with the club that way.
Stay tuned for how you can win a copy of this book.
I can't wait to read it.
In association with the Richmond Football Club, Past Players' Association and RFC historians, with the full participation of those who were there, comes the remarkable story of the Hafey era at Tigerland...
HAFEY SHEEDY BOURKE PARKIN BALME STEWART WALLS BARROT CROWE KEKOVICH PITURA RICHARDSON DEAN MCKAY GUINANE GREEN CLAY and a host of other former players, coaches and officials tell their stories in:
The Hafey Years - reliving the golden era of Tigerland
Foreword by Tim Lane
Published July 2011
Extract:
Hafey coached the Tigers from 1966 to 1976, then joined Collingwood. Some of his Tigers were critical of his supposedly simplistic methods, yet he took the last-placed Magpies to a grand final the very next season and into three subsequent grand finals over the next four seasons.
Indeed, it has been suggested that had Collingwood possessed an administrator like Graeme Richmond, the club would have easily matched Hafey’s record at the Tigers.
He went on to coach Geelong and the Sydney Swans and finished in 1988. Overall, he coached four clubs in 522 games for a winning rate of 65 per cent. There are only two coaches who shade him in this regard, Jock McHale (66 per cent) and *smile* Reynolds (67 per cent) – and they coached at just one club. If Hafey’s record at the Tigers is isolated the figures are even more impressive; 173 victories from 248 games – a winning percentage of just under 70 per cent.
How did he do it? And how did a struggling and impoverished inner-city club break free from a quarter century of mediocrity to dominate the competition to the extent it was equally feared as loathed?
It is a remarkable story.
There are cloak and dagger dealings, brilliant recruiting, far-sighted strategising, punch ups, bitter disputes, astonishing performances, enduring controversies and fame and infamy in equal measures. Given Richmond’s barren record since Hafey left, the club’s followers are held ransom to a glorious past while tentatively hopeful of a better future.
Of note, former star wingman and full-back *smile* Clay returned to the club late in the 2010 season to present a jumper to young debutant Dylan Grimes. He spoke for his generation when he said ‘we’d be the first to admit we’ve had enough of the accolades and the pats on the back…it’s time the wheel turned’.
Thus far, the wheel hasn’t turned at all; the Hafey era at Tigerland remains the most glorious. His teams played finals seven times in 11 years and, since he departed, the club has made it through to September just five times in 34 years.
Over those 34 seasons, the Tigers have averaged nine wins per season. In Hafey’s time, it was closer to 16. Even more remarkably, just once in Hafey’s 11-year reign did Richmond’s scoring aggregate total less than the teams it opposed.
----
It is not for wanting that a more recent history is not presented here. But for that lament, it is timely that a golden era is chronicled and remarkable deeds brought to life.
Here then is a tale of the Tigers and a tale of the time. It is a tale of Hart, Sheedy and Bartlett, the notoriety of Balme, Windy Hill and the Pitura affair, the drama of the Barrot trade and the Stewart fairytale. A tale of off-field struggles then swagger, a tale of ruthless pursuit and ultimate downfall; a tale of controversy and contentment.
It also echoes parts of a long-gone Melbourne, whereby champion sportsmen owned milk bars or pubs or worked nine-to-five in offices or in a trade. Where six games were played on a Saturday and the late edition of The Herald or Sporting Globe would announce the scores.
Where seemingly every AM radio station covered the footy and went ‘around the grounds’ to ‘Skeeter’ Coghlan or Hughie Mitchell, where Ian Major constantly reminded listeners that ‘3KZ is football’ and Channel Seven’s World Of Sport was compulsory viewing on a Sunday morning.
The city lived for football and stopped for football. And with four flags in eight seasons, soaring crowds, headline after headline and a host of household names, the Tigers – for a moment in time – ruled the land.
Stay tuned for how you can win a copy of this book.
I can't wait to read it.
In association with the Richmond Football Club, Past Players' Association and RFC historians, with the full participation of those who were there, comes the remarkable story of the Hafey era at Tigerland...
HAFEY SHEEDY BOURKE PARKIN BALME STEWART WALLS BARROT CROWE KEKOVICH PITURA RICHARDSON DEAN MCKAY GUINANE GREEN CLAY and a host of other former players, coaches and officials tell their stories in:
The Hafey Years - reliving the golden era of Tigerland
Foreword by Tim Lane
Published July 2011
Extract:
Hafey coached the Tigers from 1966 to 1976, then joined Collingwood. Some of his Tigers were critical of his supposedly simplistic methods, yet he took the last-placed Magpies to a grand final the very next season and into three subsequent grand finals over the next four seasons.
Indeed, it has been suggested that had Collingwood possessed an administrator like Graeme Richmond, the club would have easily matched Hafey’s record at the Tigers.
He went on to coach Geelong and the Sydney Swans and finished in 1988. Overall, he coached four clubs in 522 games for a winning rate of 65 per cent. There are only two coaches who shade him in this regard, Jock McHale (66 per cent) and *smile* Reynolds (67 per cent) – and they coached at just one club. If Hafey’s record at the Tigers is isolated the figures are even more impressive; 173 victories from 248 games – a winning percentage of just under 70 per cent.
How did he do it? And how did a struggling and impoverished inner-city club break free from a quarter century of mediocrity to dominate the competition to the extent it was equally feared as loathed?
It is a remarkable story.
There are cloak and dagger dealings, brilliant recruiting, far-sighted strategising, punch ups, bitter disputes, astonishing performances, enduring controversies and fame and infamy in equal measures. Given Richmond’s barren record since Hafey left, the club’s followers are held ransom to a glorious past while tentatively hopeful of a better future.
Of note, former star wingman and full-back *smile* Clay returned to the club late in the 2010 season to present a jumper to young debutant Dylan Grimes. He spoke for his generation when he said ‘we’d be the first to admit we’ve had enough of the accolades and the pats on the back…it’s time the wheel turned’.
Thus far, the wheel hasn’t turned at all; the Hafey era at Tigerland remains the most glorious. His teams played finals seven times in 11 years and, since he departed, the club has made it through to September just five times in 34 years.
Over those 34 seasons, the Tigers have averaged nine wins per season. In Hafey’s time, it was closer to 16. Even more remarkably, just once in Hafey’s 11-year reign did Richmond’s scoring aggregate total less than the teams it opposed.
----
It is not for wanting that a more recent history is not presented here. But for that lament, it is timely that a golden era is chronicled and remarkable deeds brought to life.
Here then is a tale of the Tigers and a tale of the time. It is a tale of Hart, Sheedy and Bartlett, the notoriety of Balme, Windy Hill and the Pitura affair, the drama of the Barrot trade and the Stewart fairytale. A tale of off-field struggles then swagger, a tale of ruthless pursuit and ultimate downfall; a tale of controversy and contentment.
It also echoes parts of a long-gone Melbourne, whereby champion sportsmen owned milk bars or pubs or worked nine-to-five in offices or in a trade. Where six games were played on a Saturday and the late edition of The Herald or Sporting Globe would announce the scores.
Where seemingly every AM radio station covered the footy and went ‘around the grounds’ to ‘Skeeter’ Coghlan or Hughie Mitchell, where Ian Major constantly reminded listeners that ‘3KZ is football’ and Channel Seven’s World Of Sport was compulsory viewing on a Sunday morning.
The city lived for football and stopped for football. And with four flags in eight seasons, soaring crowds, headline after headline and a host of household names, the Tigers – for a moment in time – ruled the land.
