Re: New Book about Tommy Hafey
The Hafey Years
richmondfc.com.au 5:08 PM Tue 12 Jul, 2011
On the cusp of the 80th birthday milestone of Richmond ‘Immortal’, Tommy Hafey, comes the release of a superbly detailed book about the golden Hafey era at Tigerland.
Some of the AFL’s most influential figures have contributed to the telling of this remarkable tale - the likes of Kevin Sheedy, Neil Balme, David Parkin, Ray Jordon and Robert Walls.
Get your copy of The Hafey Years from the Tigerland Superstore.
Furthermore, genuine Richmond champions, such as Francis Bourke, Ian Stewart, *smile* Clay, Roger Dean, Michael Green and Bill Barrot, provide tremendous insight into Tigerland in the 1960s and 1970s. The candid thoughts of Brian ‘The Whale’ Roberts, John Pitura, Robbie McGhie, Paddy Guinane, along with host of others, are also revealed.
The book does not merely focus on stories from the confines of the playing arena. Maniacally driven by leading administrators Graeme Richmond and Ian Wilson, the Tigers earned a reputation for being even tougher off the ground. Some of the material unearthed in The Hafey Years about GR, for example, has astonished Club historians and will enthrall readers.
Behind it all, of course, was the modest and unassuming figure of Tommy Hafey. No name is more synonymous with the Yellow and Black glory years. Throughout Richmond’s proud 126-year history, Hafey oversaw its most dominant period - coaching the Club to four premierships in a stunning eight-season period that, to this day, represents the Tigers’ high-water mark.
It was not so much the winning of those 1967, ’69, ’73 & ’74 premierships, but how they were won: Richmond became the most ruthless, feared and controversial football club of a generation.
The result was success that few clubs have tasted before or since, and a legion of names and personalities who still reverberate in Tigerland legend today.
Exhaustively researched, author and long-time Richmond devotee, Elliot Cartledge, has captured every pivotal, acrimonious and amusing moment of this time.
He chronicles the Tigers’ battling post-war years, Hafey’s arrival in 1966 as an untried League coach from Shepparton, the rise of a mighty team, bruising off-field power struggles, on-field stoushes, and Hafey’s contentious departure after the 1976 season and what followed thereafter.
Discover what really happened during the infamous ‘Battle of Windy Hill’, how Hafey was the meat in the sandwich between GR and Ray Dunn, the real story behind the Pitura swap and, most revealingly, a blow-by-blow account of the events that led to Hafey leaving Richmond.
This is a ‘no-holds-barred’ examination of the most successful and fascinating era in Tigerland history.
Sample quotes:
“They made you hate losing at Richmond - Graeme Richmond, Tommy and Alan Schwab and the committee.”
- Kevin Sheedy
“We walked in and Graeme said, ‘Righto, this is our offer’, and threw the bag down. Money spilled all over the place.”
— Les Flintoff, Richmond committeeman and recruiter
“From that point on, there were Carlton players who were not prepared to speak to Richmond people. Ever.”
- Robert Walls
“It’s a pretty difficult way to play if you think your survival at that level depends on you being a hitman.”
- Tony Jewell
“I just dived in there, head first, and ‘Sheeds’ has just smashed me . . . And I reckon it was either GR or Tommy who put him up to it to test me out.”
- Bruce Monteath
“It was about going to play for the right club. I chose Richmond because of Graeme Richmond.”
- John Pitura
“Put your mouthguard in and enjoy the read.”
- from The Hafey Years foreword, by respected football commentator Tim Lane
The Hafey Years
RRP: $39.95 Hardback, 400pgs + 16pg colour illustrated sections + statistical analysis + coaching notes
Author Elliot Cartledge, Published by Weston Media and Communications, 2011.
Available on-line at the Tigerland Superstore (Please note: stock will arrive in store week, ending July 24. Price excludes $10 postal fee per book).
