Collingwood Forever

Players almost always hope for – and most often receive – a bit of leeway from the critics in their early games. But Richard Letcher wasn’t so fortunate.

A product of the local junior club Clarence, Letcher was initially named to make his debut for Collingwood late in 1894. But for reasons unknown he didn’t end up making it onto the park that day, and instead trialled with Fitzroy Juniors during the 1895 pre-season. He didn’t make it there either and instead returned to Clarence, and the Pies grabbed him from there for the Round 7 game against Essendon. After just his second game, one newspaper reported that his performances had been “pleasing” to the Magpies.

But just a few weeks later, the Australasian newspaper quoted a view from ‘inside Collingwood’ that said at least one of the team’s newer men “had proved a very decided failure.” Given that Letcher was the only one of the team’s ‘new men’ to be dropped the following week, it seems reasonable to surmise it was him.

Still, 1895 wasn’t a complete disaster for him. The Argus had said he “shaped very well in close play” after an earlier game, and he did manage seven games in that debut season, playing mostly forward or in the ruck. But his luck ran out in the final game of the season, when he was reported for fighting and rubbed out for the first four weeks of the 1896 season (though he did win an unspecified prize at the club’s smoke night to end the 1895 season).

The interrupted start obviously didn’t help him in what turned out to be a Premiership season for the club. He returned in Round 11, after which the Australasian said: “Letcher was the most deserving, and indeed he played so well that to an outsider it seemed strange he had not been regularly included in the team.” He kicked his only goal for the club that day too. But he was missing the next week, then played only two more senior games for the Magpies before disappearing from the footballing radar. He was eventually cleared to Richmond City in 1900.