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Tom Hafey

Tom Hafey is best known as “the coach who could make good out of a bad bunch”. He proved this by his appointment as coach of the Richmond Football Club in 1996 at the age of 34.

It was not all smooth sailing during his coaching career and he was criticized for his trademark “kick the ball long and quickly into the forward line” style and also when he introduced a third training night during the week. This criticism was soon squashed when Richmond became known as the fittest team in the league. He led Richmond to four premierships during his coaching time with the Tigers.

Tom not only coached great players, but he also produced great coaches whom he trained such as Kevin Sheedy, Mick Malthouse, Kevin Bartlett and Francis Bourke.

Tom Hafey was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He was also named the coach of Richmond’s Team of the Century in 1998. The Tom Hafey Club, a networking group, was set up by Richmond in 2003 in honour of his sporting achievements at the club.

Fitness is still a big part of Tom’s daily routine. At the age of 87, he still gets up at 5.20am every morning and runs for 8km. He then goes for a swim in Port Phillip Bay and on his return home, he does 700 sit ups.