Francis Bourke, or St Francis as he’s affectionately known, is one of the most revered figures in the history of the Richmond Football Club (and VFL/AFL football for that matter).

 

So, when the 300-game, five-time Tiger premiership player and Grand Final coach offers an opinion about the player he admired most during his long, successful stint at Punt Road, you sit up and take notice.

 

Bourke tells of his admiration for another embodiment of the Tigerland spirit – 1969 premiership captain Roger Dean – in the recently published book ‘The Tigers – a Century of League Football’.

 

“. . . the player I admired most was Roger Dean. He had such an impact as a player, Bourke said.

 

“I was aware growing up that Roger was a bit of a cheeky sort of player, and that Ron Barassi got rubbed out for belting him in the last game of the year (1963???) and missed the finals. 

 

“When I got to Richmond, I saw just how good he was. In my first year, he played back pocket and I also saw how small he was. But Roger could mark with the big blokes – he was strong for his size.

 

As a back pocket player, his racket was cutting across the leads of the full-forward and taking his run. I can remember in 1967 he took a spectacular mark just jumping on someone’s back. 

 

“. . . he was only 5ft 8in (173cm) and genuinely tough. Now, he was tough by any definition. In the 1969 Grand Final, Roger was running down the ground bouncing the ball, heading towards our goal, and Kevin Hall, who is 6ft 3in (191cm) and about 14 stone (90kg), was coming at him. And Roger got his kick away so late that Hall was always going to collide with him, so that we got a penalty kick down the ground – wow, that’s real tough.

 

“And he continued on longer than the others of that era. Paddy Guinane had retired after 1968, Fred Swift had gone after 1967, ‘Patto’ went to coach North Adelaide in 1970, ‘Bull’ Richardson had gone to South Melbourne, Crowe retired, but Roger was actually still a good player. Captain of 1969, he played until 1972 and went out captain of Richmond’s seconds premiership team.

 

“He got full marks from me for doing that, so this just added to all the reasons why I like Roger and admire him. For Roger, it was ‘win at all costs’ and it was his own costs, too.”

 

Dean, who played 245 games with Richmond from 1957-73, was a member of the 1967 premiership side and captained the Club from 1968-71 (including the ’69 premiership), provided the book’s author, Rhett Bartlett, with an interesting insight into what motivated him during his playing days.

 

“Francis (Bourke) was probably similar to myself in some way, we probably hated the thought of getting beaten,” Dean said.   

 

“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 . . .

 

“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.”