Royce Hart on Richmond’s back-to-back aspirations and what Tom Hafey would have made of Dustin Martin
ROYCE Hart, Richmond’s last back-to-back premiership captain, has forecast a modern yellow-and-black dynasty but believes there’s one key element that the Tigers must add.
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ROYCE Hart, Richmond’s last back-to-back premiership captain, has forecast a modern yellow-and-black dynasty capable of rivalling the Tigers’ teams of the late 1960 and early 70s that won four flags across eight seasons.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald Sun from his Hobart home, the Australian football Legend is confident last year’s drought-breaking first premiership in 37 years can be followed up with more success.
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And he insisted a second flag in as many years would be one of the club’s greatest achievements, given the AFL equalisation structures.
“They have got the ability to do it, as we had in ‘73 and ‘74,” Hart said ahead of the Tigers’ preliminary final at the MCG on Friday night.
“I reckon they might win two or three (flags) in a row now. There is no one coming on the horizon to knock them off … they have to make hay while the sun shines.
“If they can win back-to-back (flags), and keep their players fit, who knows what might happen.”
But Hart, who turned 70 in February, warned Trent Cotchin — aiming to join him as a back-to-back flag skipper — his team had to balance its on-field ferocity with some off-field frivolity to ease the pressure.
“I would just say to them — stay humble, keep working hard, but have some fun off the field when they can,” he said.
“They don’t want to be regarded as cocky, the press used to say that about us, but that was bulls---. The administrators might have been that way a bit, but the players weren’t.
“It is hard to get there (to win a premiership) and it is even harder to stay there.”
Hart — one of the game’s most dynamic and greatest players — prefers to keep a low profile these days and rarely speaks publicly but opened up this week on a range of subjects.
In this interview, he revealed:
# He rates Dustin Martin as the best field kick he has seen in the game, and jokes that in his prime he was a bit like “Dusty without the tatts”.
# He believes Cotchin deserves more credit for galvanising the club from a one-time basket-case into a premiership side.
# Richmond’s regained status as a power club has aided his own health battles against sciatica and persistent knee issues, saying winning is “better than pills”.
# He didn’t watch the 2017 Grand Final on television, preferring to listen to the game on his car radio as he nervously drove through the streets of Hobart.
# He doesn’t feel guilty these days when people tell him he was the reason why they barrack for the Tigers.
# He rates West Coast as Richmond’s biggest danger this year.
Hart points out he and Martin — who have never met — are the same height (187cm), even if the modern No.4 is slightly heavier.
The AFL Team of the Century centre half-forward says he loves it when the midfielder is isolated one-on-one in attack.
In attention and adulation, more so than game style, there are similarities between the pair, with Hart joking: “I was Dusty without the tatts.”
The man who famously signed on with Richmond in the mid-1960s for six shirts and a suit says Martin — who signed a seven-year deal last year worth more than $8 million — has provided great value for money.
“He is the best user of the ball I have ever seen — by hand or foot,” Hart said.
“I wouldn’t want to be an opposition player running at Dustin Martin and trying to tackle him. He just sticks his paw out, and that’s the end of it.”
“He is unstoppable. He’s got some work to do, but he is on the way to being up there with some of the Richmond greats.”
Hart, who played in the club’s 1967 and 1969 flags and was skipper of the 1973-74 victories, loves the “ferocious” nature of the current side.
“If they are within striking distance of any team going into three-quarter-time, the opposition team just seems to collapse,” he said.
“(Coach) Tommy (Hafey) always used to say two will always beat one.”
What would Hafey have made of Martin if he had coached him? “Tommy would have loved him”.
The 187-game and 369-goal champion said one of the great assets his Richmond sides had was having some lighter moments away from the heat of battle which kept things in perspective.
He used the example of when teammate Kevin Bartlett came to training one night after a loss wearing a pink T-shirt emblazoned with a message: “KB for coach”.
“You have less time and more pressure in finals, and off the ground you need to do that as much as you can to keep it normal,” Hart said.
“I’m sure Trent Cotchin is doing that. He epitomises what Richmond is right now and Dusty is the icing on the cake.”
Hart says the club’s success has given him a massive personal boost.
“There’s nothing better when your team is winning,” he said. “It is better than pills, isn’t it!”
“People always come up to me and say I was one of the reasons why they barracked for Richmond. I used to go away and think, ‘You poor buggers’. Now, I can say I am glad of that.
“I can’t really travel these days (due to his health), but as long as I am upright and not in a wheelchair, that’s a good thing.
“I have got myself into a situation where I have been able to organise myself around the disabilities I have got.”
He remains doubtful of coming to Melbourne if the Tigers make it through to the Grand Final, explaining he knocked back several approaches last September.
“It depends on how I feel, but I can be good one day, and then s---house the next,” he said.
Hart didn’t even watch last year’s Grand Final, preferring to listen to the game on ABC radio as the Tigers won an emotional first premiership since 1980.
“I don’t think TV gives you a true reflection of the game sometimes,” he said. “So I got in my car and drove around listening to the game.”
“I could picture it in my own mind …”
He remains a keen observer of the game that made him famous, but doesn’t dwell on the past, saying he isn’t one for reunions.
But he dismissed mainland suggestions he was a recluse, saying his love of Tasmania and his health issues are the reasons he rarely returns to Melbourne.
“I love it here; it’s always been home,” he said of Hobart.
“I suspect we (the Harts) go back to the convict days, as my mother once said to me ‘You might find out something you don’t want’.”
His passion for his home state extends to his latest pastime — sourcing and collecting Huon pine and other Tasmanian hardwood hard-crafted artefacts and furniture, as well as more than 50 local paintings of the state’s picturesque scenery.
“It’s something I am very passionate about,” he said.
You will often find Hart searching local markets for new items to add to his collection, which he is putting away for his adult children for the future.
And if you happen to be in Hobart on AFL Grand Final day — and the Tigers are playing — don’t be surprised who you might pull up next to at the traffic lights, listening nervously to the game.
ROYCE HART ON …
Dusty’s qualifying final boundary goal against Hawthorn
“It was one of the great finals goals of all time. People remember those things. I was down at a country market a few months ago and someone came up and said, ‘I want to shake your hand’. I said, ‘What, for something I did years ago?’ He said, ‘Yes, that’s the same hand that took that mark’ (Hart’s famous 1967 Grand Final mark). Dusty will have people talking about his goal for 50 years.”
Radical rule-change suggestions being put to the AFL Commission
“It’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t be changing the rules. Just interpret the rules as they should be.”
A stand-alone Tassie side in the AFL
“I think it will happen one day. All we need to do is to get a big company involved, a BHP or something like that, and we’d be right. TV rights control footy these days and I’d love to think we can have a team from Tasmania at some stage.”
How he would go on All-Australian defender Alex Rance
“His record suggests he is a good player, even though he is a bit different off the field. But it seems to work for him. Tommy (Hafey) used to always say ‘I don’t care what you are doing off the field, as long as you play good footy on the weekends’.”
Coach Damien Hardwick
“He has been magnificent, and has maintained his thoughts, even when he was under pressure.”
Fellow Tasmanian Jack Riewoldt
“He has kicked 65 goals and he’s the decoy, that makes him the best decoy ever. He was a bit of a worry early and was put out of the leadership group at one stage. But he has really matured as a player.”
Are footballers paid too much these days?
“I don’t think footballers are getting paid half as much as they should be.
“I know that from experience. After you give footy away, you have another 50 years to live, and your body can be badly affected from playing. I’ve got no problem with what Dustin is getting.”
First-year Tiger livewire Jack Higgins
“He’s breath of fresh air. He’s what footy needs now. So many of the players today are robotic but you never know what he is going to say. He went through school and wasn’t getting the marks, so he gave it away. Tommy used to say ‘If work gets in the way of footy, then give up work’. I guess it’s the same for school.”
Former premiership teammate and now Tigers footy boss Neil Balme
“He had white-line fever on the field, but he has changed a bit. Because of his nature, he would be a very calming influence on the players.”
Richmond’s biggest danger?
“I reckon it is West Coast. They’ve got the one thing Richmond hasn’t, a big powerful forward line.”
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