Ronald Arthur Richards (11 May 1928 – 20 September 2013) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er, who played in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). Recruited from Collingwood Technical School, as was his brother Lou, Ron Richards enjoyed a productive VFL career with Collingwood. He starred on a wing in the 1953

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

defeat of

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

, but he could also rove, and was known to be a fierce tackler in the backlines. He left the club to captain-coach the Metropolitan League's East Hawthorn, his team won the first 32 games he coached, including the 1957 premiership. He returned to Collingwood as coach of the under-19s in 1964. He would later coach the reserves and the seniors for two games. Richards served on the committee for many years. Richards died following illness in 2013, aged 85.

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* * Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Collingwood Football Club players Collingwood Football Club Premiership players Collingwood Football Club coaches Australian people of Greek descent 1928 births 2013 deaths One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players People from Collingwood, Victoria {{AFL-bio-1920s-stub