Jack Dyer

John Raymond Dyer Sr. OAM (15 November 1913 – 23 August 2003), nicknamed Captain Blood, was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) between 1931 and 1949.

One of the game's most prominent players, he was one of 12 inaugural "Legends" inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

He later turned to coaching and work in the media as a popular broadcaster and journalist.

Dyer was born in Oakleigh, now a south-eastern suburb of Melbourne, but grew up in the small farming hamlet of Yarra Junction on the Yarra River, approximately 60 km east of the city.

His parents, Ben and Nellie, were of Irish descent.

The second of three children, Dyer had an elder brother, Vin, and a younger sister, Eileen.

Dyer first played football at the Yarra Junction primary school.

For his secondary education, Dyer was sent by his parents to St Ignatius in Richmond.

He boarded in the city with an aunt.

One of the brothers running the school offered Dyer a sporting scholarship to De La Salle College, Malvern.

After leaving school with several sporting trophies, Dyer played with St Ignatius on Saturdays and with Richmond Hill Old Boys in a mid-week competition.

Dyer's desire was to play for Richmond in the VFL as he admired one of the Tigers' players, George Rudolph.

In 1930, Dyer won the Metropolitan League's award for the best player at the age of 16.

Richmond officials had not yet attempted to sign him, and Dyer applied for a clearance to play with the Tigers' main rival, Collingwood.

The Richmond officials wanted to see him in action before any decision was made and Dyer was in training with Richmond for the start of the 1931 season.

Richmond's coach 'Checker' Hughes pitting Dyer against veteran Joe Murdoch in a practice session.

Dyer hardly touched the ball and was disheartened about his prospects until Hughes consoled him by explaining the pairing with Murdoch was a trial of courage, not skill.

Hughes selected him for his debut in just the second game of the season, against North Melbourne.

Dyer was made a reserve while the team achieved a VFL record score of 30.19 (199) in one of the biggest wins in VFL/AFL history.

Hughes left Dyer on the bench.

It was the height of the Great Depression and the going rate for the players was 3 pounds per match, but Richmond only paid half that for unused reserves, so Hughes saved the club thirty shillings on the day.

Dyer got another couple of chances and showed some form, but by mid-season found himself in the seconds team, with players who were not quite league standard, but wanted to stay on at the club and earn an extra few shillings per week to support their families.

At one point, Dyer walked away from Richmond for a few weeks and returned to suburban football.

Club secretary Percy Page persuaded him back by promising to clear any recalcitrant players.

In the run up to the finals, with Richmond sitting second on the ladder, ruckman Percy Bentley went down with an injury that ended his season.

Hughes included Dyer in the Tigers' team for the second semi final against Geelong.

Playing mainly up forward, the unknown Dyer played a successful game, kicking three goals.

In the Grand Final a fortnight later, again against Geelong, Geelong used their player and coach "Bull" Coghlan playing on Dyer.

Coghlan played roughly against Dyer; Dyer had only four touches for the day and admitted many years later to being intimidated.

In 1932, partnering Bentley in the ruck, Dyer played successfully in the first half of the season before suffering a serious knee injury that put him out for the rest of the year.

In ten matches, Dyer received 12 Brownlow medal votes for four best afield performances.

He was chosen for Victoria after fewer than a dozen league matches.

On Grand Final day, Dyer was back in reserve as his teammates won Richmond's third premiership after several finals failures.

Dyer did reappear in 1933, wearing a dirty knee bandage.

In his own phrase, Dyer was unable to "turn off" or "pull up" and he sometimes collected a teammate if his timing was out.

In the Grand Final against South Melbourne, Richmond lost by eight goals, but Dyer achieved thirty touches.

In the following year's Grand Final, the Tigers won in a rematch with the Swans.

Richmond's successfully used a ruck combination of Bentley, Dyer and rover Ray Martin.

The number of on-field incidents grew and after a particularly difficult game during 1935, newspaper cartoonist John Ludlow in The Age drew a picture of Dyer as a pirate and a journalist nicknamed him 'Captain Blood', after the Errol Flynn film Captain Blood.

Initially, Dyer was angry at the connotation and the implied slur on his sportsmanship.