A DAY OUT AT VICTORIA PARK
This is a reminisce to gladden the hearts of all true Tiger supporters.The year is 1946. Australia is just coming to terms with the fact that World War 2 is over. Some servicemen, and women, are still to be demobbed (disbanded), and there is still some rationing, particularly of petrol. However, things are on the improve and, besides, there is always footy.
It is Round #5 of the football season and Richmond is to play Collingwood at Victoria Park. Collingwood has been a traditional rival of Richmond going back to the 1920s. Victoria Park is not a ground for the faint-hearted to visit. Dyer once spoke of Victoria Park as the ground where the hot water was always turned off to the visitors' showers if Collingwood were beaten - and, sometimes, even if the Magpies won. You were faced with two choices, shower under cold water or go home dirty.
The Tigers did not know it but they were on a downhill slide. In 1943, they finished on top and won the premiership. The following year they were favourites and they looked the goods, finishing in top spot slightly ahead on percentage from Fitzroy. They lost the grand final at the Junction Oval to Fitzroy by 15 points. 1945 the Tigers slumped to finish 7th at the end of the home-and-away games. But it is that Round #5 game in 1946 that is of interest. Richmond is 2-2 going into that game, whereas Collingwood has won all four of their games.
I am there with my father who has drilled into me to mind my Ps and Qs this day as Black'n'White barrackers are not to be trusted. So the first quarter begins and when the umpire signals the closure of that period of play the scoreboard reads: Collingwood 0 goals 6 behinds; Visitors 3 goals 4 behinds. In those days, players merely changed ends and the second quarter would begin. Dad probably tipped me a wink as if to say "this is alright" and I possibly hugged myself to keep hold of the good feeling that we had, at least, won a quarter of football against THEM, and on THEIR ground.
The second quarter finishes and the scores read: Collingwood 0 goals 8 behinds; Visitors 4 goals 7 behinds - we're nearly four goals up at half-time! I should imagine this would have resulted in Dad buying me a saveloy in a roll, as he would have been feeling very good. In those days, every ground had a man with a 44 gallon drum filled almost to the top with boiling water, in which saveloys or frankfurts tumbled end over end until you ordered one and it would be fished out and slapped between two halves of a white bread roll, followed by a dollop of tomato sauce whether you wanted sauce or not. That was football to me in those days, the promise of a saveloy in a roll, wood smoke from the boiler stinging my eyes, envying the obligatory boy crouched there feeding the fire, and a sav scalding my lips while the winter cold tugged at my scarf.
I can't describe the match, it was too long ago for me to recall, but the euphoria is something one never loses. A fight breaks out nearby. Some Tiger supporters are giving it to the hosts, who are not too happy about the on-field results. It got fairly willing, and soon half the Outer is embroiled in a what-for, some of the crowd spilling out onto the ground. My father had his hat trampled on, and soon the Bobbies arrive looking huge in their capes and tall polished helmets. Peace is restored and the quarter ends. Can the scoreboard be correct - Collingwood 2 goals 12 behinds; Visitors 8 goals 8 behinds? We are 32 points ahead!
My father gives me more money and I buy myself a soft drink, I am on a good thing when Richmond are winning. I realise there is now lots of room in the Outer. When I get back to Dad, he is drinking out of a beer bottle with some other men. They are all in a very good mood. We stand there observing the Inner and the members' stand across from us, emptying as we watch. The official crowd that day was 24,000, which is not bad for Victoria Park, but there wouldn't have been half that number by three-quarter time.
Into the last quarter, it must have been only the Tiger barrackers left to see out the game. There was plenty of room but everyone stayed together in little knots. There was a warm friendly feeling overall. Final score: Collingwood 2 goals 16 behinds (28 points); Visitors 14 goals 10 behinds (94 points). I think we made it onto the train ok, there were no Magpie supporters lurking to see us off this time and my Dad said there certainly wouldn't be any Sporting Globes sold in the Collingwood area that night.
That year, Richmond finished 5th on the Ladder, two games out of the Final Four, and the following year, 1947, they made it into the Finals only to be bundled out by Fitzroy in the First Semi, beaten by 28 points. We were not to know it but that was to be the last time Richmond made the Finals until 1967.
Through those bleak unsuccessful years that followed 1947, we had little to cheer us, excepting Bill Morris' Brownlow Medal win, followed by Roy Wright's two Brownlows. Jack Dyer retired from playing, then he was replaced as coach. It was a dark world surrounding Tigerland. But every so often, when fellow Tigers gathered together, someone would sooner or later say, "remember that time we belted Collingwood on their own ground?" Someone else would say, "remember it? I was there that day!"and my mind would drift back and I swear I could still smell that wood smoke and taste that saveloy and Collingwood only kicked two goals - two goals for the whole game!
Ah, the football gods were kind to us that day.
