Richmond AFL: How publican Greg ‘Clanger’ Kleynjans put fresh bite into the Tigers
He’s a charismatic barman, musician and martial arts referee. But he also played a key role creating one of the AFL’s greatest dynasties of the modern era.
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In the minutes following last year’s epic AFL preliminary final at Adelaide Oval, television cameras caught a poignant moment in the life of one of South Australia’s most intriguing and charismatic publicans.
Greg Kleynjans, known to all as “Clanger”, let out an almighty roar of celebration in the change rooms as the victorious Richmond Tigers players crowded around him in unbridled passion.
The scene spoke volumes of the love the players have for the man better known in Adelaide as the wisecracking barman at the iconic Grace Emily Hotel in Waymouth Street for nigh on 15 years.
Few who frequented the Grace from the late 1990s would have comprehended the life Kleynjans had been living away from the beer taps, nor the huge success that was to come.
But Kleynjans isn’t the kind of bloke to beat his own drum, despite his stint on percussion in the Grace’s much-loved resident rock band The Shandy Butchers.
The 55-year-old is never short of a good story, but he ain’t about to brag about the varied and fascinating worlds he walks in.
Not only has he played a part in Richmond’s current dynasty-making premiership years that began with the 2017 grand final victory over the Adelaide Crows, he also travels the globe as a leading mixed martial arts referee, all the while remaining a friend and confidante to some of the world’s most talented musicians.
“I had a bit of a secret life away from the pub and I kept it all pretty quiet,” he grins. “I was in the pub being the musical guy and I’d sneak off to my house across the road to box and wrestle AFL players. Then I’d head off to referee mixed martial arts fights around the world.
“I didn’t make it known at the time because back then Adelaide wasn’t really cross-cultured. You were generally either a muso and arty weirdo or you were a footy bogan. There wasn’t much in between.”
Despite attempts to stay incognito, there’s no hiding the important work Clanger has done with the Tigers to help deliver the famous club three stunning premierships in four years. He arrived at the club at the end of a tumultuous 2016 season, in which the team had missed the finals and coach Damien Hardwick was only just clinging to his job.
Clanger had been recommended to the Tigers by former Port Power player and Magarey medallist Matt Thomas, who had high praise for his training methods.
Charged with bringing a new hardness to the team, Clanger implemented a tough boxing, tackling and grappling regimen that helped players with bodywork and positioning. Four seasons later, the club has become one of the greatest of the modern era. So is Kleynjans the secret weapon?
“I would never say that, but did I immerse myself in the culture and want the players to get better?” he asks. “Absolutely, 100 per cent. Richmond is a pretty honest club and you’ve got to commit. You’ve got to buy in otherwise you won’t be around for long.
“In the four years I’ve been there we’ve won three AFL premierships, a minor premiership and a VFL premiership. I’ve got to be the luckiest bloke in the world. Right place, right time.”
The year 2020 became the wrong place, wrong time for the man whose world was about to be turned upside down. In the space of a month, while confined to the AFL hub in a Gold Coast hotel during last year’s Covid-altered football season, Kleynjans lost his father and two widely loved musician friends: acclaimed American singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle and ARIA-nominated Sydney musician Mick Hart.
His father’s home was in Melbourne and Covid restrictions at the time meant only 10 people were permitted at funerals.
“The whole thing sounded like it was going to be horrible,” he says. “No hugging, no wake, everyone wearing masks. It sounded like everything I didn’t want as a send-off for my old man. On top of that I would’ve had to fly back to Queensland and go into a hotel room by myself for two weeks so I decided I wasn’t going. I knew I had the greatest support network I could ever have in the hub.”
That support soon emerged in ways that he never envisioned.
“It was a tough time because my Dad’s death was so unexpected,” he says. “I spoke to him the day before, and then he had a massive heart attack. That week we had a team meeting where one person gets up in front of the group and talks about some real soul-bearing stuff. It’s very inner-circle stuff and ironically it was my week to do it.
“They told me I didn’t have to do it, but I thought it would probably do me more good than bad. I spoke in front of the team and stayed strong through it all and I felt better for doing it. A lot of the guys didn’t know what had happened and the support after it was amazing. By the time I got back to my room there was this beautiful letter from the players.
“The following week we played in Darwin and Dimma (coach Damien Hardwick) did this incredible speech before the game about being a Richmond man. He included me in it, and then I was allowed to tape all the boys’ arms with black bands to honour my father and I’ve got this amazing photo of me with the players.
“After the game, Dustin Martin (Richmond’s three-time Norm Smith medallist) gave me his playing jumper and it was signed by all the boys. I’ll get it framed up with my Dad’s name on it and his birth and death date. That’s the greatest headstone you could ever have.”
What support the club gave him, Kleynjans paid it back in-kind during that unprecedented Gold Coast relocation. The mental struggles of some players who spent four months in “hub life” away from family and friends was well documented.
Kleynjans’ role over the years has extended beyond the physical to providing support with mental health. This was no more important than during the 2020 season. He is part trainer, part mentor and part mate – and the players love him for it.
“He’s just a really wholesome and authentic guy,” triple-premiership defender David Astbury says. “To have a person like that around – from a cultural mindset – is incredible. Sometimes in our industry we can get really caught up in what’s being said externally, but when you talk to Clanger you’re really sound at the end of it. It’s a really good perspective and he has an unbelievable ability to narrow it down to what’s actually important.
“Over the past few years we’ve become really close and he’s someone who I try to catch up with on a day off and do a boxing session with him. It’s like therapy pretty much. He’s great company and he’s got a great sense of humour. When my footy career finishes he’s someone that I’ll catch up with for years to come.”
Kleynjans says his door is always open for players that just want to talk and get things off their chest. “You’re an old bloke who’s been around a while and you’ve seen a few things, maybe you’ve got some answers for them,” he says. “Maybe you can push them in the right direction.”
With no gym available at the Tigers’ Gold Coast confines, Kleynjans started a Fight Club in a car park under the building.
“I got a heap of rubber mats and set up a boxing ring,” he says. “Players and their wives who were struggling without a routine started coming down for hit-outs from 6am every day. There’d be a steady stream of them … some turned into good boxers.”
Nathan Broad, another three-time premiership defender, says there was one particular moment that “sums up Clanger to a tee”.
“Due to Covid restrictions we were short of masseuses but out of nowhere Clanger puts his hand up and says he knows how to do it and he got straight in,” Broad says. “Next thing you know he’s doing flushes on bloke’s calves and hamstrings! He’s the man that keeps on giving.”
Kleynjans worked so hard during that period that physical performance manager Peter Burge had to force him to take a break.
“He was always available for the players to the point where I actually had to get him to take some time out for himself because he was working non-stop with individuals,” Burge says. “That was just the character of him and what he brings to the group. He’s a highly respected member of our staff and a real Richmond person.”
That respect has led to a widening of his role within the club, including running water during games and even working on strategy with the line coaches.
“There’s a bit of stuff involved in strategy but we don’t need to talk about that,” Kleynjans grins. “My strategies are somewhat secret.”
But Broad gives a hint: “He’s so competitive he thinks he’s playing the game sometimes. He’s been out there running water and he’s had a few words to opposition players and we’ve had to remind him he’s just a coach, not a player.”
That passion was on full display during Kleynjans’ emotional release in the Tigers’ change rooms at the end of last year’s thrilling preliminary final win over Port. For him, that victory was about more than just football; it was as much a triumph over personal adversity and shattering loss in the midst of a global pandemic.
“That was the best game of football I’ve ever been involved in – it was better than the grand finals. It was an emotional game because everything was stacked against us and I don’t think anyone thought we were going to win. But I knew we were tough enough and somehow we found a way.
“The Port fans didn’t see it like that. We copped a mountain of abuse as we drove out of the stadium and things were thrown at us. I leant out the window and yelled ‘Sorry fellas, we’re in a bit of a rush! Have to get ready for a grand final’.”
Broad says that part of the players’ motivation to win the 2020 premiership one week later was to honour Kleynjans and his father.
The steady ascension of one of the doyens of Adelaide’s live music scene has been noted by all.
“Clanger might be CEO or president soon at the rate he’s going,” Broad laughs. “He’s just happy to throw himself at anything, which has been his life. He’s done every job you can think of.”
One of those jobs is refereeing mixed martial arts fights for global sporting behemoths like the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).
Before Covid, Kleynjans was adjudicating fights in Korea, Japan, Singapore, Russia, Italy, Slovakia, Poland and even Azerbaijan. He has also been in charge of more than 50 fights in China, where he features regularly on Chinese television.
“I’ve been to some of the most bizarre places and done the most amazing shows,” he says. “I once did three shows in Tibet up on a mountain. I’ve missed that terribly since the pandemic.”
For now, Kleynjans is happy to visit his Grace Emily Hotel during trips from Melbourne to enjoy a few beers and watch bands on the tiny but intimate stage that has hosted the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Tim Rogers, Jeff Martin, Spencer P. Jones, Nick Barker and Mick Thomas.
One of Kleynjans’ proudest moments was giving the late Justin Townes Earle his first show in Australia.
“If you saw his first ever gig here you will always remember him,” he says. “He was bloody incredible. I’m just really lucky and blessed that I’ve seen that sort of stuff.
“The whole plan with the Grace was to have an original live music venue and it’s stayed that way so we’ve had great success over the years.
“I still co-own the place and I’ll hang onto it. Everything I do, I want it to be fun.
“I don’t care how much or how little I get paid. If it’s not fun I don’t really want to do it.”
Originally published as Richmond AFL: How publican Greg ‘Clanger’ Kleynjans put fresh bite into the Tigers
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