Frank O’Shea, Richmond’s recruiting scout in the North Central Football League, who recommended future champions Merv Keane and Jim Jess to the attention of the Tigers brains trust, has died. He was 92.
O’Shea died October 14 2026, 15 days shy of his 93rd birthday, his son Shane told Rhett Bartlett.
One month earlier O’Shea was interviewed by Bartlett about his memories of spotting the football prowess of young Keane and Jess.
In the 1960s and 70s, he coached the juniors in Donald and also the schoolboys’ team of the North Central Football League.
That League included players from Birchip, Boort, Charlton (Graham Teasdale), Donald, St Arnaud (Jess), Watchem-Corack, and Wycheproof-Narraport (Keane).
While coaching the Under 15’s he marvelled at the skill of Merv Keane - “a very very good player, who often made it into the Seniors."
Photo: Frank O’Shea as coach, with Merv Keane (middle row, 2nd from right) in 1968.
O’Shea rang Richmond recruiter Leo Rush to tell him of his Wycheproof discovery. Rush re-routed from a planned scouting visit to Swan Hill, and ran his eyes over Keane. “He’s too bloody slow,” O’Shea recalled being told.
Keane would go on to play 238 games for the Tigers including 3 premierships, be named in their Team of the Century, and Hall of Fame.
1970 RFC Annual Report thanking O'Shea
“Frank O’Shea was my junior interleague coach on an annual basis when we played once or twice a year against Mid Murray FL or Sunraysia FL,” Keane wrote in an email, upon hearing of his death.
“He was a wonderful ornament to the game, a life member of the North Central League. Together with the iconic sports journalist Mr Robin Letts (who passed in June) - what incredible football identities!”
As for Jim Jess, O’Shea saw his family often in Donald where they were living, with Jess’s father Noel working in the post office.
“He was a wonderful high mark, he had such a leap on him,” he said of ‘The Ghost’ who would go on to play 223 games including the 1980 premiership.
“Frank was a bit of a legend around town, the local copper, everyone respected him,” Jess recalled from Avoca, when told of his passing.
“He was fantastic. When you were a kid, he’d set a lot of standards and values about the way you play.”
“I played 1 game for Donald Under 16s, but used to go to training every night. Then I went to St Mary’s Secondary school and we used to have a free-for-all, kick to kick, down on the river flat every lunchtime. And every day Frank would come down and umpire a footy game for us.” (The ground had a fence that jutted out onto the playing field, which the school kids had to navigate around).
When the Jess family moved to St Arnaud, O’Shea still marvelled at the teenager’s skill, but from the other side of the ground as opposition coach.
A lifelong passionate Tigers supporter, O’Shea gave his son Michael the middle name of ‘Richmond’, listed centre-half-back Ray Poulter as one of his favourite players, and declared Roy Wright the best Tiger of all time.
He was never paid or reimbursed for his excellent talent spotting skills, but Tiger President Ray Dunn occasionally hosted grand dinners for all the scouts at his residence.
“I got nothing for doing all this, and I was happy to do that,” O’Shea said in September 2026, “because it was Richmond, the Mighty Tigers!”
His son Shane wrote in an email that his father’s “final request as he passed on to the hereafter, was the playing of the Richmond theme song.”
Photo: 1971 Under-16s team. Frank O’Shea coach, with Graham Teasdale behind him in back row
