Peter Nixon AO, the universally admired politician who, as a staunch supporter of the Richmond Football Club, was Club Patron for over 40 years, has died.

Mr Nixon died May 1st 2025, aged 97.

Whilst serving under five former Prime Ministers - Harold Holt, John McEwen, John Gorton, Billy McMahon, and Malcolm Fraser - he followed the fortunes of Tigerland from within the inner sanctum, always having the ear and respect of powerbrokers Graeme Richmond, Alan Schwab, and Ian Wilson.

“I’ve said privately and publicly, Peter Nixon is the wisest man I know,” Wilson said in 2012.

“Pete’s been a super bloke to this football club. He’s been a hell of a help and a great mentor to me when I was President.”

A search across the Richmond Archive shows his name popping up everywhere – in Annual Reports, Minute Books, Coterie listings, Tommy Hafey Club functions, as a guest at Annual General Meetings, and on the donors’ board showing significant financial contributors to the Jack Dyer Foundation.

Peter Nixon as a special guest at the infamous 1987 AGM with Alan Bond as President.

Born in Orbost on March 22 1928, Nixon went to Wesley College where he played football on a Saturday morning before heading off to a League match.

“It was two pence on the bus. We came to Punt Road. And one day Jack Dyer took the three of us, we were standing in the corner of the race, and he took us into the room and the three of us remained Richmond for the rest of our lives,” Nixon said.

While the Member for Gippsland in the Federal Parliament for 21 years, Nixon held the portfolios of the Minister for the Interior, Postmaster-General, Minister for Shipping and Transport, and Minister for Primary Industry.

26 days after the Tigers' drought breaking Premiership in 1967, Nixon was asked during The House of Representatives sitting, is the Minister for the Interior aware that recently two honourable members have been attacked by marauding magpies in the vicinity of Parliament House? 

His response, “as a supporter of the Richmond Football Club, which won this year's Melbourne premiership, I have frequently been attacked by a certain Magpie supporter who sits in a corner of this chamber”, was a lovely bit of wordplay, but also the first time the phrase “Richmond Football Club” was entered into the esteemed Hansard transcripts for a question without notice.

In 1981 he was appointed a Premier Patron of the Richmond Football Club, a position he held until his death, and from 1995-2004, was a consultant for the Board.

RFC Minute Book January 1979 - Nixon invited to speak at Premier Patrons dinner. He would receive that title in 1981.

At the end of 1984 he was selected as one of the four original VFL Commissioners on the League’s governing body.

In the pre-season of 2024, a special team photograph was taken with him at the Punt Road Ground, the same venue where around 80 years earlier, his love for the Tigers began.

“If you want to know how famous he is...if you go east of Bairnsdale, the people up there aren’t quite sure if God’s God, or Peter Nixon is God,” Wilson said.

AFL Chief Executive Andrew Dillon said Mr Nixon had lived an incredible life, serving the people of Victoria as a Federal member for the National Country Party and, in later business life, serving as Chair of Southern Cross Broadcasting as well as working to assist the formation of the national competition.

“Australian football has undergone enormous change across the last 40 years as the VFL competition grew into our national AFL competition,” Mr Dillon said. 

“The original VFL commissioners, of which Peter Nixon was one of that group of four, began to implement the massive change that sees us with an incredibly even competition today where all teams can plan for success and with clubs based in every mainland state, and soon to include Tasmania.

“Our original commissioners, and the leaders who have followed on from Peter and his colleagues, were steadfast in their determination to ensure our game had both a broad base at the community level and it was an exciting game at the elite level played by the best athletes in our country.

“On a personal note, it was always a pleasure to be able to spend time with Peter at our Grand Final Day function, when he attended as a past commissioner, and I know that he took great satisfaction from the recent premiership successes of Richmond, as a Tigers’ man throughout his life.”

The Richmond Football Club sends its condolences to his family and friends.