Reserves Coach Col Saddington, in suit and tie, addressing his players at three-quarter time. Merv Keane (40), Tony Smith (33), Dave Baxter (49) are some of the players identified.

Footage of the Richmond Reserves 1972 season has been digitised and donated to the club by former player Tony Smith.

Smith played senior football for the Tigers in 1969 and 1972 for 4 games, and 56 games in the Reserves from 1969-73, and 1975. He was a member of the 1968 and 1970 U19s premiership, and won their Best and Fairest in 1968.

Approximately 30 small reels of 8mm and 16mm footage was shot by his mother Barbara, which included footage of Rd 7 1972 (embedded below) and the Reserves Semi Final and Qualifying Final matches (which will be posted at a later date).

The 1min 43 seconds of footage from Round 7, 1972 shows the second-placed Richmond Reserves battling North Melbourne Reserves (11th on the ladder) at the MCG.

The Tigers won 23.23.161 to North 9.11.65.

Goalkickers for Richmond were:

Daryl Cumming 4, Russell Jenkinson 4, Mervyn Keane 3, Dave Baxter 2, Lee Brown 2, Colin Cruse 2, Anthony Hunt 2, Robert Lamb 2, Wes Barrot 1, and Craig McKellar 1.

Below are some screen captures followed by the footage.

The old manual MCG scoreboard makes an appearance, allowing us to date the footage as three-quarter time.
Not surprisingly, Tony Smith (No. 33) appears often in the footage. He is seen here wearing the old Richmond dressing-gown. Smith’s football career was interrupted by multiple knee reconstructions.

A reminder, should you have any footage hidden away involving the Richmond Football Club, please contact Richmond Historian Rhett Bartlett at rhettrospective@gmail.com.

Watch the digitised footage of Round 7, 1972 below.