The 1980's Poaching War. One of our worst times.
The 1980's Poaching War. One of our worst times.
There is a delicate irony about one of the many donors pledging money to Richmond in 1990 during our “Save Our Skins” campaign, designed to save the club from extinction. That donor was the Dirty Rotten Collingwood Football Club. If someone had suggested that might happen six or seven years earlier, you would scarcely have had anyone believe it. For during a period through the early to mid-1980s, Dirty Rotten Collingwood and Richmond waged one of the most bitter and personal recruiting wars ever seen in football. Not only were there big contracts and transfer fees to pay, but the costs of an expensive court action as well. The 1980s were a bit like that. Perhaps it was the ‘Greed is Good’ theory that permeated the decade, or simply the combative mode of sport as it was back then. Adversaries and foes were everywhere you looked. And these two old football rivals developed a raw, new chapter in their football histories. The enmity between the Dirty Rotten Magpies and the Tigers had a Cold War kind of feel to it. It wasn't quite the USA versus USSR - at least no one had their fingers on the red button - but the hatred was as intense as footy could be. Almost at the same time as Frankie Goes To Hollywood sang "Two Tribes" in 1984, the two neighbouring footy tribes were doing everything on and off the field to hurt and hinder each other. In the end, the cost to both clubs would prove immense, and the pain was almost immeasurable. The poaching wars, the transfer fee nightmares involving a host of players who switched the colours of both side, and the cost in legal fees pushed both Dirty Rotten Collingwood and Richmond almost to the point of financial ruin. But it was our beloved Tigers who were hit hardest; both on and off the field. So how it did it get to this situation where a few Richmond players transferred to Dirty Rotten Collingwood, and a host of Dirty Rotten Magpies went back the other way to the Tigers? The genesis was probably the 1980 Grand Final when the Tigers destroyed the Dirty Rotten Magpies by 81 points, which was then the record winning margin in a premiership playoff. (I partied for a month!) A menacing David Cloke kicked six goals and a talented midfielder Geoff Raines had a game-high 36 disposals, as the Dirty Rotten Magpies could barely believe their dominance. Dirty Rotten Collingwood's much lampooned premiership drought stretched back to 1958. Another Grand Final loss came a year later - this time to Dirty Rotten Carlton - before a frustrating 1982 season cost Tom Hafey his job. Richmond missed the finals the year after its 1980 flag, costing Tony Jewell his job. But the Tigers came close again in 1982, finishing runners-up to Dirty Rotten Carlton, yet that loss cut us deeply. And as the two teams positioned themselves to chase premierships at almost any cost, it led to something akin to a declaration of war between the two. The hostility ran deep off the field as on it. Dirty Rotten Collingwood's failure in 1982 led almost to a civil war of its own. The John Hickey administration had been challenged by a group known as 'the New Magpies', led by media proprietor Ranald Macdonald. It was a time when the past collided with the brave new world of football. Most of the VFL clubs - some of them existing metaphorically on the smell of an oily rag - gambled their future on the present, by embarking on unprecedented recruiting campaigns that were waged across a competition - without fear or favour or even about financial prudence. The Tigers, too, had our share of big dreams, and our hard-nosed administrator Graeme Richmond, demanded more success and wracked by the disappointment of the 1982 Grand Final loss went about ruthlessly trying to achieve it. At any cost. A cost that almost saw us leave the competition, ala Fitzroy. It's fair to say that the Dirty Rotten Magpies crossed the line first in 1983, but only after they realised disenchantment among some of the Richmond players, frustrated by the club's ruthlessness and some divisions within the group that had a fair bit to do with new coach Francis Bourke. Cloke sat down with the Tigers to suggest the club was taking its players for granted. Raines was angered by the fact he could not command the same sort of money as the club's 1982 high-prized recruit Maurice Rioli. When the Dirty Rotten Magpies knew they were likely to lose Brownlow-winning ruckman Peter Moore, they quickly fixed their attention on Cloke, who had just turned 28 and still had plenty of good football left in him. Dirty Rotten Collingwood fans were shattered to lose Moore, but the club was to secure potential stars, including Cloke, high-priced WA players Mike Richardson and Gary Shaw (who was originally a Queenslander), as well as cheaper recruits such as Phillip Walsh from Hamilton. Shaw's transfer fee alone was more than $300,000 - the price of a half-dozen houses in some suburbs back then. Money was changing hands as if it was confetti. And while the Tigers resisted strongly to the fact that they might lose Cloke, the VFL Appeals Board granted the big man a pathway to Victoria Park. To rub salt into the wound, new Dirty Rotten Collingwood coach John Cahill made Cloke the vice-captain. But the unrest between the two sides turned into a full scale war when Raines informed Richmond that he too wanted to leave for Dirty Rotten Collingwood. It all came back to a meeting Raines had with Richmond, the administrator. Years later he told the Herald Sun: "I felt I'd put my heart and soul into the joint and they weren't giving me due respect. "Nothing against Maurice (Rioli), but I'd won three best-and-fairests and finished runner-up in another one, and I'd heard during the year Maurice was getting a lot more (money) than me. "At the end of the year I just went to the club and said: 'Whatever Maurice is getting, I'd like the same.'" "All I said was I wanted comparable pay. "'GR' (Graeme Richmond) came back and offered me a feeble amount. It was an insult really." It was only when Richmond realised Raines was serious about leaving - to Dirty Rotten Collingwood, of all clubs - that the Tigers sought to desperately fight off the Dirty Rotten Magpie offer, but it was too late. "I had to stand out the first few weeks (of 1983) because they wouldn't clear me," he said. "Richmond had lost the first three or four games and 'GR' came around to see me. "He said: "We'll give you what you want'. I said: "No, I have given my word (to Dirty Rotten Collingwood), there's too much water under the bridge." Raines fought Richmond on the threat of legal action before the Tigers finally relented in mid April 1983, after the season had already started. As one newspaper said at the time, "The big spending Dirty Rotten Magpies are believed to have paid Richmond $180,000 for Raines and given permission to interview three Collingwood players, Neil Peart, Wally Lovett, who both trained at Richmond last night, and Terry Domburg, who is playing at Portland and is undecided whether he wants to return to the VFL." Fittingly, the Raines deal was completed between the two clubs at the South Yarra offices of his solicitor. He rushed from there to Victoria Park for his training session in Dirty Rotten Black and White. The Dirty Rotten Magpies beat the Tigers twice that season and on one of those occasions the club's banner read: "Out in the Woods, without a Cloke, and it Raines". But Richmond - the club and the administrator - plotted their revenge, having lost two key players to Dirty Rotten Collingwood as well as Bryan Wood to Essendon. “GR” incensed with what was going on totally lost the plot and almost singlehandedly sent us into bankruptcy so hell bent was he on revenge. We made a play for one of Dirty Rotten Collingwood's favourite sons, Peter Daicos, and for a time the star Magpie gave it plenty consideration. "That was the period when Dirty Rotten Collingwood and Richmond were at war, pinching one another's players," Daicos recalled. "The money on offer was well above what I was being paid, and although I didn't really want to leave, I was a bit excited about it and told my father. "I said: 'Look, dad, it's big money.'" "I will never forget his response. "He said: 'Look, your name is with Dirty Rotten Collingwood, Peter Daicos at Dirty Rotten Collingwood.'" "It was sound advice. It doesn't matter when money is being thrown around; it's a question of losing your identity by leaving your first club, particularly when you are a well-known player." The tigers had missed their first big target. But if that poaching pathway was blocked, another opened, and it helped to drive a wedge further between the two clubs. Phillip Walsh had been Dirty Rotten Collingwood's best first year player in 1983, and looked to have a long and successful career in black and white ahead of him...until Richmond swooped in, intent on revenge. It was said Richmond "bluntly told the football world that cost was no obstacle" and that was the way in panned out as Walsh and later Jon Annear were prepared to head to the Federal Court to make a move. That move made Dirty Rotten Collingwood furious, and the Dirty Rotten Magpies also lost Craig Stewart to Punt Rd in 1984, and a year later Peter McCormack also headed to Richmond. “GR” and Richmond were in full swing. The Dirty Rotten Magpies hit back again in 1985 when it managed to secure Tigers forward Brian Taylor, who would eventually go onto kick a century of goals a year later. But for all the changes, what hurt the most was the financial bottom line. It crippled us and the war was the reason the “Save Our Skins” campaign was needed. Dirty Rotten Collingwood's New Magpies pushed the club to the point of extinction in 1986 when the banks were ready to foreclose on the most famous football club in Australia before the club started to fight back. One of the main reasons was the exorbitant transfer fees that leaked money out of both sides. Richmond, too, was all but broke by the end of the 1980s, putting their hands out for assistance to save the club. Raines would not last long at Dirty Rotten Collingwood, leaving for two more clubs, Essendon and Brisbane. But he still has a bitter taste about the poaching war that changed Dirty Rotten Collingwood's relationship with Richmond. "It was crazy what the attitude was," Raines said. "The attitude was 'If they get one of ours, then we will get one of theirs'." And, 30 years on, club legend Royce Hart believes the war was responsible for pushing the club backwards to the point that it has not won a premiership since. Jewel agreed: "You could go back to when we lost Cloke, Raines and Wood, that was the demise...we went broke because we attacked Dirty Rotten Collingwood to try to get even." The late, great Bob Rose acknowledged the New Magpies spent too much money chasing players during those years. Rose said: “We imported a lot of players from interstate and from other clubs (at the time)...and I believe we paid too much for some of those players.” Richmond continued to sign a number of mediocre players on big contracts, and the club's financial situation took a battering. With the team failing to improve, a challenge to the committee was brewing and Richmond's traditional political stability threatened. The rebel group, organised by long-time servant Bill Durham, convinced former player and coach Barry Richardson to be leader. An election in late 1984 failed to clarify the situation. Ian Wilson held on to the presidency into the new year. When the one hundredth birthday of the club arrived in February 1985 and unbelievably there was too much dissension to mark the moment fittingly. Eventually, Wilson handed over to Richardson, who had selected his former premiership teammate Paul Sproule to return from Tasmania and take over the coaching position on a guaranteed contract. As the season progressed with Richmond still struggling, Sproule came under pressure. Richardson guaranteed his position, but at the end of the year, the committee overruled Richardson and sacked expense of Sproule. Incensed, Richardson walked out of Punt Road, which was in turmoil again. Desperately, Richmond turned back to Tony Jewell, who was appointed coach for a second time, the only man in the club's history to get a second go at the job. Jewell later commented on the destruction wrought on the club during his four-year absence: "the supporters were gone, the members were gone, the money was gone, ... a real shame." With the competition set to expand, Richmond made a number of misguided moves in 1986. To fill the vacancy left by Richardson, Richmond wooed high-flying West Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond to become president. Bond came with an agenda to raise money for the club by listing on the stockmarket and relocating to Brisbane. When the latter plan was revealed in the media, a furious reaction from supporters and high profile club personalities buried the proposal almost immediately. Early in 1987, Bond's tenure at the club ended in farce when he resigned without presiding over a single game. The off-field confusion was reflected in the players' performance as Richmond slumped to only its second wooden spoon in 70 years. Three years later we were rattling tin cans to “save our skins”. We were to feel the effects even longer as in 2004 and having five picks inside the 20 and with only a part time recruiting officer only one player remains today. Brett Deledio. Thankfully we have recovered and it’s only now that we are slowly recovering from the sins of the past. Do you remember the time? What were or are your thoughts? JUST FOR FUN A composite side of players who switched clubs. Backs Noel Lovell (Coll ‘81-84 – Rich ‘85-86) Peter McCormack (Coll ‘76-85 – Rich ’86) Craig Stewart (Coll ‘78-83 – Rich ‘84-86) H-Backs Gerald Betts (Rich ‘74-75 – Coll ‘77-79) Neil Peart (Coll ’82 – Rich ‘83-84, ’86) Michael Lockman (‘83-86 – Coll ‘86-87) Centres Phillip Walsh (Coll ’83 – Rich ‘84-86) Geoff Raines (Rich ‘76-82 – Coll ‘83-86) Wally Lovett (Coll ’82 – Rich ‘83-84) H-Fwds Rod Oborne (Coll ‘72-76, ’78-79 – Rich ‘79-81) Allan Edwards (Rich ‘75-79 – Coll ‘79-83) Ross Brewer (Coll ‘79-81 – Rich ‘82-83) Fwds Bob Heard (Coll ‘70-75 – Rich ‘76-79) Brian Taylor (Rich ‘80-84 – Coll ‘85-90) Jon Hummell (Rich ‘77-78 – Coll ’80) Foll David Cloke (Rich ‘74-82, ‘90-91 – Coll ‘83-89) Kevin Morris (Rich ‘71-76 – Coll ‘78-81) John Annear (Coll ‘81-83 – Rich ‘84-86) Inter Steven Roach (Rich ’78 – Coll ‘79-80) Wes Barrot (Rich ‘73-74 – Coll ’75) Coach Tom Hafey (Rich ‘66-76 – Coll ‘77-82)
