MELANIE WHELAN: Richmond boasts St Patrick's College AFL ties with Hopper

Jacob Hopper's long-touted move to Richmond from Greater Western Sydney became official early last week in the AFL trade period. Just as he settled into Tigerland, the club was spruiking its penchant for signing up St Patrick's College footballers.

The former Paddy's football captain - who in 2015 led St Pat's to its fifth premier schoolboy title - becomes the 20^th Paddy's boy to join the ambush of Tigers at Punt Road.

Of course, the roll call does not include St Pat's export Danny Frawley, who went on to captain St Kilda under the old Victorian Football League country zoning system but later coached the Tigers in 113 AFL games between 200 and 2004. This included a preliminary final in 2001.

While St Pat's impressive football legacy is much-heralded in Ballarat, boasting almost 120 students to reach the game's highest ranks, this can sometimes get lost in the often more vocal jockeying for publicity from Melbourne's elite private school ranks.

But you cannot argue with St Pat's six-consecutive Sun Shield titles to 2015, including five won on the MCG, emphatically confirming St Pat's as the state's best boys' football school.

This success, and continued strength, has not been based on a few stars in the mix but a team ethos built on a parochial legacy.

"...Right from juniors the guys that held a first XVIII jumper were like the rock stars of the school," then-North Melbourne captain Drew Petrie wrote for The Courier in 2011. At the time, Petrie confirmed his St Pat's footy jumper still hung in his wardrobe as a much-coveted, prized possession.

Petrie was best on ground under lights in the 1999 Shield final, his first taste of playing on the MCG.

His argument still stands that such success was about more than St Pats but a deep-seated school football pride in Ballarat driven by rivalries Ballarat Clarendon College, Ballarat High School and Ballarat Grammar.

This has been backed for three decades now with Greater Western Victoria AFL talent pathway.

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We can also see a similar school pride show through the growing AFLW ranks, more lately in Loreto College draftees. Early on Mount Clear College's female football program produced the likes of now veteran Kaitlyn Ashmore and Adelaide Crows premiership player Sally Riley.

St Pat's Tiger ties date back to 1930s star full-back Maurie Sheahan, who is one of five Tiger premiership players from the school along with Shaun Grigg and Dan Butler (2017). Daniel Rioli (2017, 2019, 2020) sits alongside fellow alumnus Barry Richardson (1967, 1969, 1974) as triple Tiger premiership players.

Maybe it is such school pride that appeals to the parochial nature of the Richmond Football Club. But there is a strong Ballarat Tiger flavour when you also consider the likes of 1980 premiership Tiger Michael Malthouse.

Now it is time for Hopper, who hails from NSW Riverina town Leeton, to reunite with Paddy's teammate Rioli and build on a decorated legacy.

Ray Ball: 12 games, 1969-70.

Dan Butler: 45 games, 2015-19. Member of the 2017 premiership team.

Tristan Cartledge: two games, 2008.

Frank Dimattina: 42 games, 1964-68.

Sid Dockendorff: 13 games, 1932-33.

Frank Drum: two games, 1950.

Matthew Francis: 19 games, 1990-95.

Josh Gibcus: 18 games, 2022.

Shaun Grigg: 171 games, 2011-18. Member of the 2017 premiership team.

Gerry Hayes: 16 games, 1936-37.

Kevin Hogan: 15 games, 1952-53.

Frank Howard: eight games, 1943, 1948.

Basil Moloney: 21 games, 1961-63.

Barry Richardson: 125 games, 1965-74. Member of the 1967, 1969 and 1974 premiership teams.

Daniel Rioli: 137 games, 2016-22. Member of the 2017, 2019 and 2020 premiership teams.

John Sheahan: 17 games, 1962, 1965-66.

Maurie Sheahan: 121 games, 1929-36. Member of the 1932 and 1934 premiership teams.

Tom Simpson: 126 games, 1956-63.

Ian Slockwitch: two games, 1961.

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