Michael Greene will never forget being ushered through the long corridors into the Richmond dressing rooms as a possible recruit for a club that had won the 1980 premiership just months earlier. "This is the greatest football club in Australia," he was told by Tiger players.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A tall, strong student from De La Salle in Malvern, Greene, like many of his age, was caught up in the dream of playing league football, with a style of play in the ruck that had been compared by legendary Tiger administrator Graeme Richmond to that of club champion Mark Lee.
At 19, Michael Greene had attracted the attention of scouts at Richmond, who were looking for young talent to bolster the already-gifted list that had stormed to an 81-point win over Collingwood to claim the 1980 premiership. Greene attended the grand final as a guest of the Tigers, but didn't have the heart to tell club officials he was a Magpie supporter.
Playing in a practice match for De La Salle, Greene was summoned to the side of the oval at half-time by Graeme Richmond.
"Even as a kid I'd been told how tough Graeme Richmond could be. He never backed down and a good mate of mine was working security at one of his pubs," Greene said.
"There was a really heated fight between a woman and a man. The man left and came back half an hour later with a sawn-off shotgun. My mate dived on the barmaid to protect her, but Richmond came downstairs, pushed his way through the bar, grabbed the gun and booted the bloke out.
"But he said to me: 'You've got what it takes. You've got the spring, the size and the bulk to be a very good player. Be at the club next week'," Greene recalled this week.
A week later, Greene was introduced to the likes of Lee, Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke, to name a few.
A month later, Greene was kicking the ball at training and took his eyes off it to look at coach Tony Jewell, resulting in his thumb being injured.
"I should never have looked at the coach, but I did," he said. "The ball struck the top of my thumb and it hurt like crazy but the club doctor said to just strap it up.
"I was working so hard training two nights a week at De La Salle and three nights at Punt Road for Richmond.
"But my thumb wasn't coming right. In the off-season I went to a specialist to have the thumb examined and they saw a lot more damage than we thought.
"A lot of operations and eventually my VFL career was over. But I got an idea of what it takes to play at that level of football. Richmond at the time were a powerful, strong football club where winning was everything."
Greene, who has been through turbulent times in his post-football days, is the son of Brian Greene, better known by his nickname "Toby". And Michael Greene will be watching closely on Saturday as his own son Toby shapes as a Giant obstacle to stopping the Tigers reaching next week's grand final.
Not having the height, nor the bulk of his father, Toby Greene has become one of the most dangerous forwards in the AFL with Greater Western Sydney.
"Proud of him? Of course I am," Greene said. "I'm proud of all my children and Toby's done really well. Mind you he's worked hard and any advice he ever gets he listens to.
"He's grown into a good man. He's managed how to control his temper and what I like about him and his teammates is their loyalty as a group.
"I know they'll probably boo him and boo him on Saturday after his run-in with [Alex] Rance last time they met. What I liked about the incident was his teammates gathered around him and made sure it didn't get out of hand.
"And the same again, in that game against Footscray when his boot connected with another player. This time they moved Toby on and it looked like that controlled aggression was becoming part of his game."
While a pro-Richmond crowd will pack the MCG on Saturday, the father of one of GWS' most important players believes that his strength of mind will keep away any distraction come game time.
