AAP
By Roger Vaughan
May 13, 2014, 8:49 am


Richmond have announced that their four-time premiership coach Tom Hafey has died of cancer aged 82.
AAP Richmond have announced that their four-time premiership coach Tom Hafey has died of cancer aged 82.

Hard work, discipline, dedication, persistence, honesty, loyalty, integrity, good health and vitality.

With those words, Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale helped capture why so many people are mourning the death of AFL coaching legend Tom Hafey.

A day after rugby league lost Immortal Reg Gasnier, Hafey's beloved Tigers announced that he had succumbed to complications from surgery for a brain tumour.

Hafey was 82.

Almost to the end, the man admired in Melbourne as "T-Shirt Tommy" maintained a punishing pre-dawn fitness ritual that would have exhausted people many years his junior.

As a long-time ABC Radio football commentator after his coaching career, he was famous for hating play that he dismissed as "finessing'".

He was a rare figure in AFL history - to some extent for his coaching greatness but also because Hafey inspired such widespread affection and respect.

Hafey became an unofficial ambassador for Australian football and healthy living.

When asked how he was, Hafey's reply was usually "sensational - and getting better".

Fellow four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy, who played under Hafey at Richmond, was among many AFL figures who went on Twitter to pay their respects.

"Tommy Hafey was one of the most inspirational people you will ever meet. Not just for Richmond FC but the many people he crossed paths with," Sheedy said.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said Hafey had a profound influence in his coaching career at Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong and Sydney.

"Tom championed fitness, teamwork, morale and dedication, and lived those ideals to the fullest with his personal creed of five Ds that 'Desire plus Dedication plus Discipline plus Determination equals your Destination'," Demetriou said.

The man who never smoke or drank - but loved dancing - had a profound influence that spread well beyond football.

Former Test cricketer Dean Jones called him a mentor and Hafey has had a similar role with current Olympic track cyclist Shane Perkins.

After a modest playing career with Richmond in the 1950s, Hafey quickly showed his coaching ability by guiding Victorian country team Shepparton to three premierships.

The Tigers were watching and brought him back to Punt Rd in 1966 to coach them.

Under Hafey and famous club secretary Graeme Richmond, the "Eat `Em Alive" Tigers enjoyed their golden era.

They ended a 24-year premiership drought with the 1967 flag and also went top in `69, `73 and `74.

It is also part of club legend that Hafey's falling out with Graeme Richmond and subsequent resignation in 1976 was the genesis of their current premiership drought, which is 32 years old.

Hafey's football legend continued at Collingwood, where he was the first non-Magpies figure to coach them.

He took the `Pies from bottom in `76 to the drawn `77 grand final with North Melbourne.

But Hafey could not overcome the notorious "Colliwobbles" taking them to five grand finals in total from `77-82 without success.

Hafey ended his AFL coaching career with a stint at Geelong and finally a term under flamboyant owner Geoffrey Edelsten in the mid-1980s at Sydney.

His overall AFL coaching career was 522 games - the fifth-most - with a formidable winning ratio of 65 per cent.

While his simple game style and focus on fitness was successful, Hafey also lost his players several times and was criticised for not being sophisticated enough as a coach.

Nevertheless, Hafey was an inaugural 1996 inductee to the AFL Hall Of Fame.

The moment his time with the Swans ended, Hafey returned to his true AFL love - Richmond.

He was named their coach of the century and is one of five official club immortals.

Only Jack Dyer is a bigger figure in Richmond's history.

Former Richmond stars Matthew Richardson and Neil Balme and current captain Trent Cotchin were among those to pay tribute.

"It's just unbelievable that he's gone, because he's just an icon of Richmond and a terrific inspiration to so many people," Richardson told 3AW.

The Tigers will honour Hafey during Saturday's game against Melbourne at the MCG.

Hafey had surgery to have a brain tumour removed in March, but was forced to return to hospital late last month because of complications and he did not recover.

He is survived by Maureen, his wife of nearly 60 years, children Rhonda, Karen and Jo, and their extended family.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...-to-tom-hafey/


Another Australian sporting great that will be dearly missed, RIP old boy!