When I saw that Richmond was scheduled to play its opening 2019 JLT Community game in Shepparton (against Melbourne) one famous Tiger’s name immediately sprang to mind . . . Tommy Hafey.

The greatest coach in Richmond’s history, and Club ‘Immortal’, started his coaching career at Shepparton in 1960 after leaving the Tigers, where he’d played 67 senior games as a determined small defender.

Hafey laid the foundations for what was to be an outstanding coaching career during his time with Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley League.

He had a six-season stint as Shepparton’s captain-coach from 1960-65 and guided them to a premiership hat-trick in his final three years at the helm (1963-65), before taking the coaching reins back at Richmond.

The Hafey ethos of hard work, discipline, dedication and camaraderie, that served him so well throughout his magnificent league football coaching career, was developed at Shepparton.

And, to this day, Tommy Hafey remains revered throughout Shepparton for what he was able to achieve with the football club in the early 1960s.