The man described by legendary Richmond power-broker, Graeme Richmond, as “pound for pound” the best player he saw in his time at Tigerland, turns 70 on Friday (April 30).

Roger Dean’s 70th birthday is an appropriate time to reflect on a player who, throughout 17 seasons of league football with Richmond, epitomised the Tiger spirit.

Dean was born and bred in Richmond and, as a youngster, idolised the Tigers’ dual Brownlow Medallist Roy Wright.

His Tigerland career began when, as a 15-year-old, he tried out with the Club’s fourths.
He would go on to become a member of the fourths premiership side that year (1956).

In 1957, Dean completed the most meteoric rise in the history of league football . . .

After starting the season in the fourths, Dean quickly gained promotion to the Club’s thirds (under 19s).  A series of impressive performances there saw Dean step up to the reserves team.  Then, with one round of the home-and-away season remaining, the 17-year-old was given a taste of senior league football by the Richmond selectors.  He was picked in the senior team for the final game of the season, against league leader Melbourne at the MCG.  It was a fairly inauspicious debut by Dean, however, with the Tigers being beaten by eight goals.

The following few seasons were frustrating ones for Dean, as he struggled to cement himself as a senior regular at Richmond.  And, when he did get a senior opportunity, the struggling Tigers invariably were convincingly beaten.  In fact, in his first 24 games of league football, he played in just two wins, along with a draw and a staggering 21 losses!

It wasn’t until 1961 that Dean finally established himself at Tigerland.  Initially, he made his name as a half-forward, winning the Club’s Leading Goalkicker award in 1964 (with 23 goals).  He then had a successful stint in the back pocket, minding the opposition’s resting rovers - and making life hell for them, with his tough, uncompromising style of play, before returning to the forward line for the final part of his career.  In between, he also was used occasionally as a wingman, centreman, rover, half-back, ruck-rover and, even, full-forward.  

Although only 175cm and 73kg, Dean was a ‘pocket dynamo’.  He was a strong, vigorous, versatile performer, whose win-at-all-costs attitude made him an inspirational leader.

In the book “Richmond F.C.  The Tigers:  A Century Of League Football”, Dean told author Rhett Bartlett what motivated him on the field of battle . . .

“Even in the early stages, when we were second last or last, it could be the last game of the year and we could be 15 goals down and I still wanted to get another kick.  It was pride.  I never ever wanted to be beaten; even if we were beaten, I still wanted to get another kick.

“Someone said at a function I was at one day, ‘It must be fantastic playing around Royce Hart, Francis Bourke and Kevin Sheedy, and must give you a lot of inspiration playing alongside them.’  I said no.  I’ve always felt if you need someone else to give you inspiration to play there’s something wrong with you.  It should be just your own pride.  Every time I went onto the field I wanted to be best on the ground.  I didn’t care about anybody else, I couldn’t control them.  I wanted to be best on the ground because I didn’t want to be beaten.  If I could play well that meant it could help the side anyway.

“Tough is going for the ball at all costs at all times . . .

“First and foremost I felt I was a team man . . . It was always in me, when someone was there to handball to, I always handballed.  Kevin Bartlett once said to me, ‘I always tried to get close to you when you went in to get the ball, because I always knew the handball was coming out.’  It was in me, I always felt I had to play a team game, and that’s what it is, a team game.”

Dean had played in just 30 wins in his first 103 games of league football, at a strike rate of 29% up until the end of the 1965 season when a bloke by the name of Tommy Hafey took the reins as the Tigers’ coach.

Hafey’s arrival signalled the start of the greatest era in Richmond’s history.  After finishing an unlucky fifth, with 13 wins and a draw from 18 games in Hafey’s debut season as coach (1966), the Tigers broke a 24-year premiership drought in 1967, defeating Geelong by nine points in a Grand Final classic.

At 27, Dean was one of the veterans of that ’67 premiership side, yet, like first-year players such as Royce Hart and Francis Bourke, he had no finals experience going into that September campaign.

Throughout the vast majority of his first decade at the Club, a finals appearance was something he could only dream of, as he sat up in the stands watching players from the league’s power clubs - Melbourne, Collingwood, Essendon and Geelong - strut their stuff in September.

That all changed, in a mighty big way for Dean, with Tommy Hafey at the Tigers’ helm.

In the last eight years of his playing career, Dean played in 142 games, for 103 wins, one draw and 38 losses.  His winning strike-rate in that time was a remarkable 72.5%, which was a massive improvement on the 29% in the first nine years of his career.

Given Dean’s many qualities as a player and person, it was only natural that he would succeed Fred Swift as Richmond’s captain in 1968.  He went on to captain the Tigers in 76 matches from 1968-71, including the 1969 Grand Final triumph over arch-rival Carlton.

Dean handed the captaincy baton to Royce Hart in 1972, but continued to provide Richmond with great value.  He had kicked 24 goals up to Round 19 of the ’72 season, when he suffered a broken leg in a match against Hawthorn at Glenferrie Oval, which meant he missed the Tigers’ finals campaign (runner-up to Carlton).

After playing in the reserves’ 1973 premiership side (the same day as Richmond won the seniors and under 19s Grand Final), Dean announced his retirement from football.

Not surprisingly, when the Tigers announced their Team of the Century in 1999, the name Roger Dean was read out, as a half-forward flanker, with a then 24-year-old Matthew Richardson on the other flank, and Royce Hart at centre half-forward.

Dean also was one of the original inductees in the Club’s Hall of Fame, and he’s been a Life Member since 1964.

Happy 70th Birthday to a true Tiger great . . .