shawry said:
Something i have always wondered was how come Brian Taylor led our goalkicking for hte year in 1982 but then was not named in the 1982 grand final side? I can assume it was injury but am unsure since he did leave a few years later. Always something that has intrgued me.
The Taylor story of "82"!!
This is actually quite an interesting story - no really it is , no sh!te!!
We had Mark Lee, David Cloke, Michael Roach and Brian Taylor - but not in the same team!! We also had Greg Strachen, from the Waverley zone, but that is irrelevant in the BT story!!
Mark Lee broke his wrist pre - season, and in fact Roach missed the first few games too.
When Roach came into the side (about round 3), he was used very effectively in the ruck - doing quite well picking up heaps of possessions.
BT was obviously used at Full Foward and along with Malcolm Blight was neck and neck for the Coleman medal until around mid season (i think about round 12 or 13, BT did his medial ligament - it was against Essendon. He had 58 goals to that stage of the season, about 5 ahead of Blight. From memory, Taylor had missed a game earlier in the season so was averaging about 5 a game. I think Blight might have missed 1 or 2 games as well.
The funny thing was that this was Mark Lee's first game back from injury. So for about half the game we had the big 4 in the one team (Cloke, Roach, Taylor and Lee). - YES we won the game, by about 4 goals.
We actually kept Roach in the Ruck for a few rounds after this, leaving Mark Lee at full foward and Cloke obviously at CHF.
Lee actually did quite well at Full Foward. I remember one game against the Saints, where he kicked 9 goals. Roach in the mean time was picking up his 20 possessions a game plus about 10 marks. Cloke - well he was just smashing people, which was just fantastic!!
Taylor came back towards the end of the season, and picked up where he left off, bagging 4 against the Blues in a loosing side, and then 7 the following week.
But then BT did something really stupid - he got into an argument with the coach Francis Bourke over the fundimental incompatibility between modern cost accounting standards and recent advances in the treatment of fungal infections of the scalp.......... no not really, i just made that bit up!
He got injured again - just a minor injury and missed the second semi final.
Come Grand Final week, we had all 4 big men fit - and the media started questioning whether or not we could get away with playing all 4 big men in the one side against the Blues on Grand Final day.
To make matters worse, it rained all week...............
and the rest is history. BT was left out and we lost.
I also remember that Richmond - although wanting him to stay, did state that they would give him an open clearance if he chose to leave the club.
BT put the decision off for a month or two so the emotion would be taken out of his decision - and ended up staying for a few more seasons.
But yup - we lost Raines, Cloke and Wood.
We also had a couple of good youngsters coming up, that left soon after! Can anyone remember the likes of Michael Nugent (ruckman), Colin Waterson (CHF), Jeff Martin (wing), Wayne Shand (back flank), Freame and Vernon - running players.
We lost Raines, Cloke and Wood over fairly minor pay increases, but spent enough in the courts fighting the Woods to keep their services that the club was financially bled dry.
And can you remember Collingwoods banner when we next met them with both Cloke and Raines in their colours?
"Richmond's luck! Caught in the Woods, without a Cloke and it Raines"!
Gawd i hate them.