Robert McGhie is Richmond’s second Homecoming Hero for the 2023 season.

The Tigers are going to pay tribute to McGhie in the lead-up to Saturday’s Round 4 twilight clash with Western Bulldogs at the MCG.

McGhie will walk to the Punt Road end of the ground, where he’ll undoubtedly be warmly greeted by the Tiger Army.

He’ll kick a ceremonial goal, then sign the football and present it to a Richmond fan in the crowd.

Highlights of McGhie’s playing career with the Tigers also will be shown on the MCG’s big screens.

With his sharpie hairstyle and tattoos, it was too easy to label Robbie McGhie as merely a football tough man.

McGhie, indeed, was a rough-and-ready player, who relished exerting a strong physical presence on the field.  It would, however, be selling him way short to solely focus on that side of his game.

He was to become an important member of Richmond’s back-to-back premiership sides of 1973-74, after previously struggling to cement himself as a regular senior player in four seasons at Footscray.

An off-field incident, just a few weeks before the start of the ’73 season, led to McGhie departing the Bulldogs and joining Richmond.

The Tigers, in the wake of the shock 1972 Grand Final loss to Carlton, had undergone a major post-mortem. A hole in their line-up that they were especially keen to fill was at centre half-back.

McGhie, a tall, rangy player with a rugged, fearless approach, pace and long kicking, appealed as a good fit in that key defensive post.

And that certainly proved to be the case.

In the three seasons from 1973-75, McGhie played in 52 games for a winning strike-rate of 79 per cent.

The Richmond teams of that time were brimming with genuine stars such as Royce Hart, Kevin Bartlett, Francis Bourke, Dick Clay, Ian Stewart, Michael Green and Kevin Sheedy. While McGhie was not quite in that class talent-wise, he, nevertheless, played his role in the powerful line-up superbly.

He put the clamps on opposition centre half-forwards, but also managed to generate drive for the Tigers through his long, clearing dashes and penetrating left-foot kicks.

When Richmond gained sweet revenge against Carlton in the 1973 Grand Final, McGhie had 11 disposals, took six marks and kept the Blues’ star centre half-forward Robert Walls to two goals, after he’d kicked six in the previous year’s premiership-decider.

A year later, McGhie had nine disposals, took six marks and again was rock solid in the Tigers’ Grand Final triumph over North Melbourne, keeping high-flying Kangaroo key forward Phil Baker goalless.

Here’s how Kevin Bartlett, in his book, “KB: A Life In Football”, summarised McGhie’s value to the Tigers team . . .  

“Robbie was 190cm, could run like the wind and, despite an ungainly kicking action, all his kicks were long and effective.

“He had very long arms and he was a fine exponent of Richmond’s game plan, which was to run fast, get the ball, and kick it as far as possible.

“He was as mean and nasty as he looked with all those tattoos, and he roughed opponents up.  But, at the same time, he was effective with the ball.” 

Richmond is proud to have welcomed back Motorola as partner of our 2023 Homecoming Heroes. Motorola was recently announced as the official smartphone partner of the Richmond Football Club.

Robert McGhie profile

Born: July 18, 1951

Height: 192cm

Playing weight: 86kg

Recruited to Richmond from: Footscray

Guernsey number at Richmond: No. 12

Debut at Richmond: Round 1, 1973 v Essendon, Windy Hill

Games at Richmond (1973-1978): 81

Goals at Richmond: 0

Playing honours at Richmond: Dual premiership player (1973-74)

Below is a list of Richmond's Homecoming Heroes since its inception in 2014...