‘Tommy’s Guns’ - Kevin Bartlett, Francis Bourke, Dick Clay, Michael Green and Royce Hart - are among the most decorated players in Tigerland’s proud, successful history.
The top-quality quintet played pivotal roles in the Richmond sides of 1967, 1969, 1973 and 1974 that swept to premiership glory.
They are all members of the Tigers’ Team of the Century and Hall of Fame, with Bartlett, Bourke and Hart joining Hafey as Club Immortals.
Click here for information about purchasing the limited-edition Tommy’s Guns memorabilia piece
In a special five-part series, celebrating the release of Tommy’s Guns, Tony Greenberg looks at that “One day in September” specialist, Kevin Bartlett . . .
On Grand Final day 1967, Kevin Bartlett was 20 years and 201 days of age. Although he was in just his third season of VFL football, he had already established himself as Richmond’s first rover and one of the best small men in the competition.
The then VFL boasted rovers of the calibre of South Melbourne’s Bob Skilton, Geelong’s Bill Goggin, Essendon’s John Birt, Collingwood’s Wayne Richardson and Carlton’s Adrian Gallagher, but the young Bartlett had the capacity to match it with them all due to his blistering pace, prolific ball-getting ability and uncanny goal sense.
Richmond broke a 24-year premiership drought with its thrilling nine-point victory over Geelong in a classic 1967 Grand Final encounter, and Bartlett, despite his tender football years, managed to maintain the impressively high level of consistency he’d shown right throughout the season.
KB was one of the team’s best, finishing with match stats of 16 kicks, two handballs and, most importantly, three goals, including two crucial ones in the final term - the last of them being the premiership ‘sealer’ for the Tigers after he grabbed the ball from a throw-in, brilliantly backed out of trouble (in inimitable fashion) and snapped truly.
Bartlett subsequently capped a superb season by winning the first of his five Best and Fairests in his wonderful career at Tigerland - a mighty effort from a 20-year-old in a premiership year.
Two years later, when Richmond squared off with arch rival Carlton in the 1969 Grand Final, KB was a mature 22-year-old, playing his 90th league game.
Again, when the heat was turned up, on the most important football day of the year, Bartlett thrived.
He had 26 kicks, didn’t bother the statisticians with any handballs (true to form), took three marks, and booted a key last quarter goal, to be in the top two or three Richmond players on the ground, as the Tigers charged away to a 25-point Grand Final triumph.
Fast-forward to Richmond’s next premiership success in the Hafey era . . . 1973, once again versus Carlton.
The Tigers had been shock losers to their dreaded Navy Blue enemy in the 1972 Grand Final and were hell-bent on revenge in the ’73 premiership decider.
No surprises for guessing who led the relentless Yellow and Black attack that last Saturday in September ’73 . . . that’s right, the wispy-haired little bloke in the No. 29 guernsey - Kevin Charles Bartlett.
KB ran himself into the ground, gathering 27 kicks, (10 of them in an outstanding third-quarter effort) and kicking a goal, to clinch best-on-ground honors in Richmond’s emotion-charged 30-point Grand Final win.
A week later, for the second time, Bartlett would be acclaimed as the Tigers’ Best and Fairest winner in a premiership year.
The following season, it was a case of Richmond against the world, with a series of incidents during the year injecting plenty of extra incentive into the Tigers’ quest for back-to-back flags.
Richmond came up against ‘Cinderella’ team North Melbourne in the 1974 Grand Final, with the entire football world, apart from the Yellow and Black faithful, supporting the Kangaroos in their bid for an inaugural league football premiership.
But Tommy’s Tigers were not going to allow anything to stand in the way of their appointment with football greatness this day and, with the by now 10-season veteran (at age 27) Bartlett in superb form around the packs, they ran away from the Roos.
KB had 24 kicks to yet again be one of Richmond’s elite performers in a Grand Final victory.
And, for the third time, his overall contribution to Tiger premiership success would be recognised, with Jack Dyer Medal honors coming his way in 1974.
