Richmond FC

The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers or colloquially the Tiges, is a professional Australian rules football team competing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Founded in 1885 in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, the club competed in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1885 to 1907, winning two premierships. Richmond then joined the Victorian Football League (now known as the AFL) from the 1908 season and has since won 13 premierships, most recently in 2020. But, as of 2025, they are the reigning wooden spoonist, after finishing last on the AFL ladder in 2024.

From 1885 to 1964, Richmond's home ground was the Punt Road Oval, (formerly named Richmond Cricket Ground), which is still utilised as their headquarters, training facility and hosting AFL Women's (AFLW) and reserves matches. Since the 1965 season, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) has been the club's official home ground.

Richmond traditionally wears a black guernsey with a yellow sash. The club song, " We're From Tigerland", is well known for its "yellow and black" refrain.

The club is coached by former Melbourne assistant coach Adem Yze, and is captained by Toby Nankervis. Five Richmond players have been inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame as "Legends" of the sport: Kevin Bartlett, Jack Dyer, Royce Hart, Kevin Sheedy and Ian Stewart

History

Origins and VFA years (1885–1907)

A short-lived football club named Richmond formed in 1860 with Tom Wills, one of the founders of Australian rules football, serving as its inaugural secretary and captain. Wills' cousin H. C. A. Harrison captained Richmond briefly in the early 1860s before moving to Geelong. This club was disbanded in 1871 and has no continuity to the present club. A number of teams formed in Richmond during the game's rapid expansion in the 1870s and early 1880s. However, all played at a junior level and it was considered an anomaly that Richmond, one of Melbourne's most prominent suburbs, did not boast a senior side. The wait ended when the Richmond Football Club was officially formed at the Royal Hotel in Richmond on 20 February 1885. A successful application for immediate admission to the Victorian Football Association (VFA) followed. The club shared the Punt Road Oval with the Richmond Cricket Club, one of the strongest cricket clubs in Australia which had been playing on the ground since 1856.

At first the team wore blue guernseys and caps with yellow and black stripes in the style of the Richmond Cricket Club. The football club soon adopted yellow and black as its official colours. From the 1890s the supporters and players were often referred to as "Richmondites" and, according to ''The Age'' in 1890, ''The Leader'' in 1899 and former club secretary William Maybury the team were occasionally called "Wasps." The moniker by which they are now known, the "Tigers", was first adopted around 1908–10 period through the newspapers ''Punch'' and ''The Richmond Guardian''.

During the late 1880s, Richmond struggled to make an impression in the VFA, and after a promising season in 1888 (when they finished fifth with eleven wins), the club slipped backwards, in the process losing players to more successful sides. As the local economy slipped into severe depression in the early 1890s and the crowds began to dwindle, some of the VFA's strongest clubs began to agitate for a reform of the competition. Richmond was not considered part of this elite group, which usually voted as a ''bloc'' at VFA meetings.

In 1896, Richmond walked off the field in a match against South Melbourne to protest the umpiring, and later in the season, the Tigers had their half-time score annulled against Essendon when it was discovered that they had too many men on the ground. In the closing three weeks of the season, Richmond's cut of the gate takings amounted to just five pounds, and they finished the season with the wooden spoon.

In October 1896, the cabal of six strong clubs broke with the association to form the Victorian Football League (VFL). As a struggling club with a poor following, Richmond was not invited to join the new league. Richmond's performances did not immediately improve in the depleted VFA until the turn of the century.

The Tigers were boosted by a significant country recruit in 1901. George "Mallee" Johnson was an instant sensation and the first true star player at the club. Richmond leapt to third place and then in 1902, with Johnson dominating the ruck, Richmond entered the closing weeks of the season neck and neck with Port Melbourne at the head of the ladder, but Port Melbourne faltered against Williamstown to hand Richmond its first flag. Having missed a potential bonanza from a premiership play-off, the VFA decided to emulate the VFL and introduce a finals series in 1903, a fateful decision for the Tigers. After recruiting the competition's leading goalkicker, Jack Hutchinson, and finishing the season as minor premier, Richmond lost both finals and were runner-up