Punt Rd will host its first game for premiership points in 56 years when the Tigers kick off their AFLW season against Brisbane
Footy returns to Punt Road for the first time in more than 50 years on Sunday and former Tiger Frank Dimattina was there for the remarkable last game in 1964.
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Frank Dimattina says he felt like more like a gladiator than a footballer some days.
Back in the era of suburban grounds, the Richmond army would stand 15 deep at Punt Rd Oval when Dimattina was a gun rover for the Tigers, who, for a period in the 1960s, kept a young Kevin Bartlett out of a spot.
In the last game played at Richmond’s home in 1964, there was 15,500 squeezed in at Punt Rd to see the Tigers go down by 43 points to the fast-finishing Hawks.
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Dimattina, 74, can’t remember how he kicked his two goals that day, but the typical Punt Rd atmosphere will stay with him forever.
“You would arrive at the ground and it was always wall-to-wall with people, all wedged in, and it was just electric,” Dimattina said.
“I used to come here when I was 12 or 13 to watch Richmond because I was a Richmond supporter and it was just always a marvellous place to watch footy.
“It was always packed, and it was so exciting, but Windy Hill (Essendon) was the same. Victoria Park (Collingwood) too.
“They were cauldrons and hostile for any away team. When you went to play there, it was like you were a gladiator.”
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On Sunday, Richmond’s AFLW team will play the first game for premiership points at Punt Rd in 56 years against Brisbane Lions, in front of a sold-out crowd of 1300.
It is a proud moment for the club as it progresses with plans for a $60-$70 million redevelopment of its headquarters to be completed within 5-10 years.
The major upgrade will provide the men’s and women’s teams with elite facilities. It includes new change rooms and lighting, will increase the ground’s capacity to 8000, and help Richmond continue to deliver community programs including the Korin Gamadji Institute and Bachar Houli’s Islamic Academy.
For Dimattina, Sunday’s clash re-ignites the Punt Rd flame, after he was part of the Tiger team which moved to the MCG in 1965.
“It is fabulous the girls are playing here because it is such a marvellous ground and there is so much history here,” Dimattina said.
“I remember fans stamping their feet up here in the grandstand, the same happened at North Melbourne where the change rooms were underneath, and the noise was unbelievable.”
For Monique Conti, one of the stars of the Richmond’s AFLW team, Sunday begins a new chapter for a young team which failed to get a win in 2020 before COVID-19 cut the campaign short.
Since then, it has been a tough year of trying to cope, like everyone, in isolation, meaning team bonding sessions were held over zoom and training was done in the backyard.
Now, more than anything, the Tigers want to experience some redemption on the scoreboard and afterwards, the pure joy of singing the team song for the first time.
“I will probably cry when we get to sing it, it will be really great and we deserve it,” Conti said.
“We are all super-excited to get out there because it has been a long time coming.
“We have really put in a lot of hard work in the preseason because we were a really young and inexperienced team last year.
“I think we will improve a lot and the Tiger army can expect us to lift a few more levels because we have lot of raw talent out there and I think this year we will be able to show that on the field.
“This year hopefully it will be a bit of redemption.”
That connection which has been synonymous with the men’s team success was on show when the emotions flowed for the Tigers’ first AFLW team training session in the preseason.
In the break, Conti, 21, went to school on the game.
“I have never watched more football in my life,” she said.
“I tried to improve my IQ of the game in a sense, having nothing really else to do except to watch some AFL games
“So I probably did a lot of that and a lot of home workouts.
“It was really emotional coming back for the first day of preseason and a great feeling. A big sense of relief.
“But we knew the hard work starts now.”
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As Richmond’s men’s team begin its journey for a fourth flag in five years, Tigers’ chief executive Brendon Gale is happy to see the Swinburne Centre redevelopment master plan take shape.
“To get members and fans back to Punt Rd is wonderful and very exciting,” Gale said.
“It is such a significant and huge part of our identity as a footy club.
“Clearly we have got some ambitious plans and we are grateful the Federal and State Government have seen fit to support it to make it really impressive and so much more accessible for all forms of footy and particularly women’s.”
Over the next year or two, Richmond will fine-tune the drawings and begin the approvals process. The Jack Dyer Stand, built in 1914, will come down to make way for a new building.
But the redevelopment will help secure Richmond’s future in its Punt Rd heartland and could potentially connect with the Richmond station and a direct walkway to the MCG.
“We can invest in it and we are going to keep investing in it and we are just so fortunate we are located in perhaps the greatest sporting precinct in the world,” Gale said.
“The MCG are a wonderful supporter of our plans and it is going to take Punt Rd to the next level.”
‘I can’t remember’: Dimmattina’s concussion concerns
Frank Dimattina’s old coaches say he might have been too courageous for his own good.
The former Richmond and North Melbourne rover says he suffered “five or six” concussions throughout his career including a heavy hit in 1966 season which affected him for months.
Now, Dimattina says he cannot remember much of his 56-game VFL playing career between 1964-1970.
“Back in those days you would just get back up. You would go back out there. But at the end of the season I was sick for about two or three months,” Dimattina said.
“You hate to think about it and what’s happened to all the old footballers.
“If they put their brains in (for study) they’re all going to come back with this (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), who knows?
“I like to think I’m all right but my wife thinks I’ve been badly affected. But don’t all wives?
“There’s certain things I struggle with. Memory and that. A lot of the memories of football I can’t remember.”
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