The history of the Richmond Football Club continues to be modified, updated, as new research comes to light.
During the 2020 season, when COVID-19 forced all of us into lockdown, it allowed for more time to investigate recently digitised newspapers, unearth vision, and read in detail the club minute books and Annual Reports.
As a result some changes have been made to the club’s history, and they are detailed below. Each change was reviewed independently by 3 other researchers, before getting signed off by the AFL History Department researcher Stephen Rodgers. These changes will appear on AFLTables over the coming months once the site is updated.
JEFF HOGG
Good news for Hoggy, as he picks up another goal for his overall career tally.
The Rd 6 1986 match against Fitzroy originally had Craig Smith as a goalkicker, but the footage of the match shows no goals to Smith but instead Hogg kicks a great right foot snap in the third quarter. The error seems to have originated in the following week’s Footy Record, where Smith is recorded with 1 goal and Hogg with 0. So Jeff Hogg now has 307 goals, and I’m sorry to say Craig Smith drops to 22 goals.
NEW PLAYER IDENTITIES
For the last several decades, the AFL have identified Richmond’s 1909 player George Ward as being from Tasmania in 1882 and dying in 1951. However a brief paragraph in the Richmond Guardian of 1909 indicating that George is the brother of Port Melbourne player Jack Ward means those details had to be wrong.
A detailed search through the Births/Deaths/Marriages has found our player a new identity. He is now George Grant Ward , born 4 July 1889 in Hawthorn, Victoria, and dying on 18 February 1928 aged 38. George was also a returned World War 1 serviceman.
Our 1916-1918 player Roy Taylor was, for decades, recorded as being born in August 1891 and dying in March 1969. But the 1919 Richmond Guardian notification of his impending marriage, which lists his family, has helped us re-identify him as being born on 11 April 1896 in Norwood, South Australia, and dying on 11 June 1971.
CROWD SIZES
A search through the recently digitised Richmond Guardian and Richmond Australian newspapers have uncovered missing crowd sizes for Richmond’s matches of 1909, 1916 and 1920.
For 1909 season, which was our second in League football, known attendances are:
Rd 3 1909 vs Fitz 12,000 - 15,000
Rd 6 1909 v Sth Melbourne 16,000 - 20,000
For the 1916 season, which was affected by World War I, the discovered attendances are:
Rd 1 v Collingwood 6,000
Rd 2 v Fitzroy 5,000
Rd 3 v Carlton 7,000 (and the game started 7 mins late at 3.07pm)
Rd 4 v Collingwood 5,000
Rd 5 v Fitzroy 10,000
Rd 9 v Carlton 2,000
And in 1920, with the club coming off their first League Grand Final the previous year, attendances were very strong.
Rd 1 v Fitzroy 16,000
Rd 2 v Carlton 30,000
Rd 5 vs Collingwood 30,000
Rd 6 vs Sth Melbourne 18,000 – 20,000
Rd 7 vs Melbourne 31,000
GAMES ADDED / REMOVED
For Rd 17 1909, the newspapers of the time detailed late changes to the match which seem to have been missed.
So, 1909 player Percy Barton gains an extra game that season to take his overall tally to 3 career games
While his team mate Paddy Bourke loses his Rd 17 1909 spot, and his career tally drops to 37 games.
Even players in the 1941 season have had their tallies adjusted. And that’s not too surprising consider it is during World War II when availability was often dependant on your army camp at the last minute.
Bernie Waldron gains 2 new games to take his overall tally to 85 career games.
Ray Steele loses a game that season to take his career tally to 41 games
Alan McDonald loses a game that season to take his career tally to 48 games.
GUERNSEY NUMBERS
As research continues there will be major changes to our club’s guernsey numbers, as currently listed on AFLTables.
At the moment I am going through every Footy Record, game by game, starting in 1912 and the Richmond guernsey numbers for many games differ to what is on the AFLTables site. These changes will be reflected in each of the Guernsey History article that are published in each of the Former Player newsletters.
But one change I wished to report on was AFLTables originally listed Merv Keane as wearing Number 40 in the 1975 season. But the Footy Records and vision from that year clearly show him wearing No. 19.
And … no change is too small to recognise.
Richmond’s Rd 2 1909 quarter time score against University is no longer 2.1, but rather 2.3.
In each Former Players newsletter I will update you on any historical changes that have been discovered.
Regards
Rhett Bartlett
RFC Historian.
