RichmondRichmond
The Richmond Football club was formed at the Byrne’s Royal Hotel, opposite the Punt Rd Oval. The first mention of a Richmond team playing football, was when the Richmondites played Melbourne. As Richmond emerged as a VFA team in 1885, they were situated very closely to Melbourne, but the two teams cultures and wealth were very different.
When Richmond played its first game in the VFA, their famous yellow and black colours only appeared on the caps, the jumpers were all blue. The very next year, Richmond appeared in a yellow and black stripped jumper.
From the start, Richmond was prepared to stand up for itself, and showed an ‘us against the world attitude’. In an incident against Prahran, a Prahran supporter tore off a picket fence and threw it at a Richmond supporter. It missed and hit a Prahran player.
Richmond clawed its was to respectability in the early 1890’s. The club then lost its way, even to the point where Richmond was about to merge with Collingwood.
But when the VFL breakaway happened in at the end of 1896, Richmond was in no position to make the change. Even in the first with two competitions, Richmond didn’t make a great impact.
By 1901 Richmond had turned the corner and were sitting on top for most of the year, before just being beaten for the flag by Port Melbourne. During this era Richmond-Port Melbourne games were legendary. The fierceness between the clubs often spilled over the fence. Police often attended the games in great numbers.
In 1902 Richmond won its first flag, the last year the ladder leader at the end of the year were premiers. In 1903 a finals system was introduced into the VFA. Richmond first year in the finals system was short lived. It ended when they were beat by North Melbourne in a vicious game.
The very next season Richmond asked field umpire Allen to check the North Melbourne’s players boots as Richmond players had received bad gashes, he refused.
The club would then not play North Melbourne in a finals game if Allen was the umpire. The VFA appointed Allen to umpire the game. Richmond refused to play and North Melbourne won the game.
Richmond went on to win the flag in 1905 and over the next couple of years the club remained in contention to win but they never did. Early in 1907 Richmond defied an edict that no VFA club would play a VFL club in a practice match. In October the club applied for admission to the VFL. Nine days later Richmond was accepted to play in the VFL.
Richmond played in 2 finals series in the clubs first ten years in the VFL, winning flags in 1920-21. The late 1920’s, 1930’s and early 1940’s were the clubs halcyon years. Richmond won five flags from 14 grand finals. Between 1927 and 1934 Richmond played in seven grand finals, winning 2.
In 1965 Richmond left Punt Rd and moved to the MCG, to become co-tenants with Melbourne. In 1967 Richmond defeated Geelong, in the best grand final, by nine points.
The unlikely term ‘Yellow and Black’ angles was used before the 1920. Newspaper reporters sometimes called the team ‘Wasps’. The very next year the tiger was accepted the clubs mascot. Mr. Miles, a keen supporter, sat in a tree outside the Punt Rd Oval because he couldn’t afford the admission price. With his booming voice he would yell ‘Eat ‘em alive Tigers!’. He became a cult figure at Richmond, and his catchcry became the teams logo.
In Brief
