By Phil Jarratt
No doubt there were plenty of excited former Melburnians around Noosa on Saturday night as the Demons came from behind to spectacularly win their first AFL premiership since 1964, but few as pumped up as former Demon Peter Richards.
Peter, now 88, and with wife Liz a winter resident of Sunshine Beach for more than 20 years, was so excited when Noosa Today called him in the hours leading up to the game that we had to put the interview off until the next day. Then, still jubilant but calmer, the one-time half forward was happy to share both his joy at the result and an analysis of the game.
“I was there at the MCG when the Demons won the premiership in 1964,” he said. “But it was a very different game to the one we watched last night, because football has changed so dramatically. In our day you never left your man, today they roam wherever they want.”
Peter’s football career began when the country boy from Warburton in the Yarra Valley was sent to Melbourne Grammar in 1947. He recalls: “In those days Grammar was a recruiting ground for Melbourne Football Club, so naturally I became a Demons supporter. In our boarding house of about 100 boys we had 12 in the First 18 and we won the premiership quite a bit. In my last two years, 1951 and ’52, I played in the team that beat Scotch College for the premiership. That was how I started.”
After school he took a gap year and went home to the Yarra Valley, where he helped Warburton win a premiership.
“After one of our wins, a fellow came into the dressing rooms and asked me if I’d like to come down to Melbourne and train with the Demons the next year. I said I would, and 1955 was my first year there, along with a few other boys from Grammar, including Geoff Case, who went on to play in four of Melbourne’s premiership wins.”
But it was another famous Geoff who stood in Peter’s way to the firsts. He recalls: “Norm Smith, the coach said to me, ‘Peter, you’ve got some ability but unfortunately you’re a left-footed half forward and we’ve already got one.’ He was referring to Geoff Tunbridge, who was an absolute star. I became his understudy, waiting for him to have an injury so I’d get a game in the firsts, but of course he never missed a game. So I played two years in the seconds because the Demons had such a powerful side under Ron Barassi.”
In the end Peter’s career as a Demon was cut short because of his pharmacy studies. He says: “[Coach] Norm Smith didn’t like it if you missed training, so I went back to the Old Melburnians who had a good side in the A Grade of the amateur league and did three seasons and won two premierships.”
So it was a good knock from a very handy player, but Peter grows serious as he finishes his history as a player. “For God’s sake don’t make out I was a star,” he says. “Just a bloke who loved his footy and a lifelong Demons’ supporter.”
Recovering from a recent stroke, Peter is currently in a wheelchair, but he says his legs are coming back. “I can use the right one now, but I need the left one back. It’s the one I kick with!”
