The Castlemaine Football Club, formed in 1859, is arguably the second-oldest football club in Australia, behind only the Melbourne Football Club.
It is a proud club with a proud history of past players and achievements.
Castlemaine is the club where Richmond’s prized No. 1 pick in the 2009 AFL National Draft - Dustin Martin - shone as a then 16-year-old, in 2008.
Castlemaine also is the club which kick-started the playing careers of two of the greatest players in Richmond Football Club history - Percy Bentley and Jack Titus.
Bentley spent a couple of seasons playing for Castlemaine in the early 1920s before moving with his family to Melbourne and joining local Richmond club Burnley Methodists.
From there, Bentley was recruited to Richmond and he made his senior debut with the Tigers in 1925. He would go on to play 263 games and kick 275 goals for Richmond in an outstanding career from 1925-40.
Bentley was one of the truly great players of his era. He was a powerful ruckman and an inspirational on-field leader with excellent tactical nous.
One of Bentley’s clever ploys was leaning against a goalpost when taking a breather up forward. He revealed that it was a signal to Tiger midfielders (or centre-line players as they were known back then) Stan Judkins, Eric Zschech Alan Geddes, to loft the ball into the goal-square. If he was on the forward line and not leaning against the post, they were to kick it to a designated spot between centre half-forward and full-forward.
But Bentley’s football expertise didn’t end there . . . he also possessed the valuable second string of being able to regularly score goals. On six occasions, he kicked five goals in a league game, with his highest tally being seven, against Geelong in Round 6 of the 1937 season.
Bentley was a member of Richmond’s 1932 and 1934 premiership sides and the 1927, 1929, 1933 and 1940 Grand Final teams. He was the Tigers’ captain in 1932-33, before taking over as playing-coach from 1934-40. Leading the club in 168 games from 1932-40, Bentley is the longest-serving captain in Richmond’s history.
William John Titus was recruited from Castlemaine and started his career at Tigerland with the Richmond Cubs (the reserve-grade team). He played at centre half-back, centre half-forward, wing and half-forward, before carving his niche at full-forward.
Titus holds Richmond’s all-time goalkicking record of 970 goals. In 18 seasons, from 1926-44, he was the Club's leading goalkicker 11 times (including nine years in-a-row, from 1934-42), and he set a league record for consecutive games, which stood for more than 60 years.
At the peak of his career, ‘Skinny’ Titus was 5ft 9in (175cm) and weighed a fraction over 10 stone (about 65kg). That, however, didn’t stop him from putting his remarkable stamp on the game as a full-forward.
What Titus lacked in size, he more than made up for in courage, speed and skill. In his playing days, he was constantly buffeted by bigger opponents, but very rarely beaten.
He was the league’s leading goalkicker in 1940 with 100 goals, which was a Club record for 40 years, until Michael Roach kicked 112 in 1980. Another long-standing league record he held was for consecutive games - 204 in all, from 1933-43. That record lasted until Round 9 of the 1996 season, when Melbourne ruckman Jim Stynes played his 205th consecutive game.
Of course, what made Titus’ achievement all the more incredible was the fact he was built like a whippet! But despite being so small of stature for a key forward, Titus had very strong fingers and a great spring for his size, which enabled him to take terrific marks. To cap it all off, he was a deadly accurate kick for goal.
Titus was a pivotal member of the Tigers’ 1932 and 1934 premiership teams, booting six goals in a match-winning ‘34 Grand Final display against South Melbourne. He won the Club's Best and Fairest award in 1941 and is sixth on the AFL’s all-time goalkicking list, with 970 goals.
Here’s hoping Dustin Martin can follow in the illustrious pawprints of those brilliant Castlemaine Tigers of Old . . .
