After the fastest rise of any player in VFL/AFL history, Dean's career bridged two eras with the Tigers: the battling years when the club farewelled their old Punt Road Oval, and the beginning of their glory days which began with a move to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Commencing the year in the fourths, Dean was quickly promoted to the thirds (under 19s) to play half a season under ex-Melbourne premiership player Len Dockett.
A neat, skilful and determined player who could mark well for a small man, Dean was versatile enough to play in defence or attack and occasionally rove.
Whenever he sensed an opportunity to stage for a free kick, Dean was not averse to diving on the ground or melodramatically throwing his body around, as if the victim of an illegal tackle.
On 31 August 1963, two weeks before the finals were due to start, the Tigers played the dominant Melbourne team at Richmond's Punt Road Oval.
At this point in Dean's career, the publicity generated by the Barassi case equalled any that Richmond received for its playing performances - the club was the competition's chopping block.
However, an ambitious plan to move Richmond's home games to the neighbouring Melbourne Cricket Ground, overhaul the administration and spend big money on a recruiting campaign, really got underway in 1964.
In the Grand Final, Dean gathered seventeen possessions and took a courageous mark in the dying minutes of the game, slamming into a point post as he hung grimly to the ball.
Dean's excellent finals performances helped win him the position of club captain the following year, following the retirement of Freddy Swift.
The Tigers disappointed by missing the finals in his first year at the helm but made amends in 1969 when, aged 29, Dean achieved his greatest individual honour by captaining the premiership side.
Dean led Richmond into the finals for a second time in 1971, a season when he became the seventh player to pass two hundred games in yellow and black.
After the year ended in a defeat to St Kilda in the preliminary final, Dean handed the club captaincy to the brilliant young Tasmanian, Royce Hart.
The senior team then won the flag to duly complete a clean sweep, an achievement unimaginable when Dean had joined the club as teenager.