To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Tigers’ 1973 premiership, Richmond Media is transporting Yellow and Black barrackers back in time throughout 2023 to follow the Punt Road path to that fabulous flag triumph. Today we take a look at Richmond star Kevin Sheedy’s column in The Age newspaper that reviewed the Tigers’ convincing Round 3 victory over St Kilda at Moorabbin on Saturday, April 21.

“Some people say I’m a pretty good talker.

I’ve got news for them: talking wins games, if it leads to the sort of teamwork we had against St Kilda on Saturday.

There was teamwork on every line – from full-back to full-forward, from our rucks and rovers to the tall fellows dropping back and giving us a hand in defence.

Talk about defence. When a side like St Kilda can manage only 12.9, that’s a good answer to all those people who keep knocking our backline.

And while we were talking about scoring, hands up all those who realised we didn’t kick our first point until well into the last quarter.

Up to then, we had two points on the board and both of those were forced through by desperate St Kilda defenders.

Where did we win it? Everywhere, but especially through those two Bs, Francis Bourke and Kevin Bartlett. Their new roles of acting vice-captain and acting captain in the absence of Royce Hart seemed to spur them on.

Bourkie is without doubt the greatest footballer I’ve seen, just ahead of John Nicholls (Don’t laugh, I really mean that, in spite of Nick’s Grand Final last year).

And what can you say about Bartlett that hasn’t been said already? I think he showed up St Kilda’s lack of roving strength now that Ross Smith has gone.

Paul Sproule, in the middle, played a tremendous game, too. The new centre diamond suits our style of play, and no-one more than Sproule.

We were all terribly pleased with out “make-shift” half-forward line. Ian Stewart, with four goals, showed he is far from the spent force some of the knockers have been saying.

And Mike Green’s return from retirement is a great tonic. He took 11 marks and had 16 kicks on a half-forward flank. That’s a pretty good effort.

I don’t think the Saints need worry too much. They’ve a pretty good side and they shouldn’t be written off.

They have a good find in that half-back flanker Russell Reynolds. He played a good, solid game and should go a long way.

Just one more point. I noticed that some St Kilda supporters booed the umpire because they thought he was giving them a raw deal.

Well, some statistics I saw showed that St Kilda had 49 frees to our 24 and five 15-metre penalties to only one for us.

On top of that, one football writer I know told me that two of Barry Lawrence’s four goals came from “charity” frees.

But enough said. We won and won well and it’s gone a little way towards wiping off the memory of last year’s Grand Final.”

Match details

Richmond         2.6       8.2       13.2     17.8 (110)

St Kilda             2.3       5.3       7.6       12.9 (81)

Goals – Richmond: Stewart 4, Morris 4, McLean 2, Fowler 2, Sproule, Clay, Wood, Balme, Green.

Leading disposal-winners – Richmond: Bartlett 37, Bourke 24, Stewart 18, Green 16, Bond 14, Morris 14.

Best (by Paul Speelman) – Richmond: Bourke, Bartlett, Sproule, Stewart, Green, Morris, McGhie.

Goals – St Kilda: Lawrence 4, Davis 3, Stephens 3, Grambeau 2.

Leading disposal-winners – St Kilda: Besanko 24, Reynolds 24, Davis 21, Colling 20, Trott.

Best – St Kilda: Besanko, Reynolds, Davis, Mynott, Neale, Stephens.

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