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Former Richmond president Ian Wilson has died at the age of 91.
The Tigers were one of the powerhouses of the league, then known as the VFL, when Wilson was at the helm from 1974-85.
Former Richmond president Ian Wilson in 2010.Credit: Paul Rovere
They won a flag in his first year in charge under the coaching of the great Tom Hafey, the second of back-to-back premierships for the club, and also made finals in 1975 and 1977 before saluting again in 1980 under coach Tony Jewell.
The Tigers made the decider again in 1982, this time with Francis Bourke as coach, but lost narrowly to Carlton.
Wilson and Alan Schwab during the Tigers’ glory days.
Wilson was also a passionate supporter of the Sorrento Sharks Football Club, where he bought a table at the start of every season, including 2025.
The flag at Sorrento Golf Club, where Wilson had been a member since 1963, was flown at half-mast on Friday.
Wilson had been vice president at Richmond for two years before being elected president unopposed after the 1973 season.
The Age reported at the time: “Within minutes of his election, Mr Wilson promised continuing joy for Richmond supporters, a hard time for the Victorian Football League and criticised the Richmond Cricket Club”.
In a 1974 interview with The Herald ahead of that season’s grand final, Wilson said:
“I know a lot of people feel we have brought Richmond to where they are today in a very ruthless fashion – particularly in the way we have taken players from other clubs.
“But I like to think of it as a determination to reward those unbelievably loyal supporters who put up with the 23 years we spent languishing at the bottom of the ladder.
“We are not ashamed of single-mindedly fighting for success – that’s our job.”
Richmond went on to win the decider by 41 points.
Wilson’s daughter Caroline Wilson was the first woman to report on the game full-time, and was this masthead’s chief football writer from 1999-2017.
In 2017, she wrote that, in a move reminiscent of those powerful Tigers of old, her father had advised the club in grand final week to stuff the AFL and wear their proper jumper – they were required to wear a yellow away guernsey – and pay the fine later.
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“‘What could the AFL realistically do,’ reasoned dad, had the team ignored head office once they ran onto the MCG,” Caroline wrote.
She also recalled Sunday celebrations at the Wilson house after a premiership, “particularly with the larger-than-life rogues’ gallery that adorned led by Whale Roberts, Robbie McGhie and later the exuberant Peter Welsh, whose growl punctuated the 1980 party”.
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