In an effort to reinvigorate the team, Richmond recruited a number of highly considered young players, including Ron Branton, Frank Dunin and Brian Davie.

[3][5] After the appointment of Alan McDonald as coach, Hafey was often relegated to the bench as Ken Ward played in the back pocket.

After the 1959 season, Hafey left the city of Richmond, taking a job as playing coach of Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley area of northern Victoria.

[6] On his return to Richmond, Hafey found the team had acquired a number of young, high quality players.

Although he acknowledged the ideas and tactical approach of Len Smith (who remained at the club as a selector and consultant), Hafey opted for what became his trademark style: kick the ball long and quickly into the forward line.

In his first two years, the team lost only seven games, and Hafey had gone from an unknown coach in the bush to the toast of the football world.

Australian football, after two decades of defensive-based play, was about to enter an era of high scoring, aided by rule changes, new tactics and better standards of fitness.

A number of incidents during the 1973 Grand Final – the Windy Hill brawl, the attempted recruitment of John Pitura from South Melbourne, and a poor reaction to Kevin Bartlett's failure to win the Brownlow medal – all focussed negative attention on the club.

A raft of player departures made for a poor 1976 season, with the Tigers finishing seventh, Hafey's worst ever result.

[2] Collingwood had lost eleven of their last thirteen finals matches, many by slender margins, leading to the press to say the team was afflicted with a "disease" called the "Colliwobbles".

The resulting disharmony in the Magpie huddle allowed the Blues to dominate the fourth quarter and win the game.

[3][12] During the 1985 season, the VFL had sold the Sydney Swans to controversial medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten to create the first privately owned club.

Franchising, club licensing, player drafts and salary caps were all concepts that the VFL was attempting to import into Australian football at a time of financial crisis.

Edelsten quickly signed numerous star players away from Melbourne clubs by offering large contracts.

[3][6][13] Hafey's teams usually tackled hard, shepherded, persisted, smothered and backed each other up, aspects of the game now called "one-percenters".

[citation needed] Hafey strongly believed in leaving players in their designated position, even if they were losing to their opponent, which attracted criticism when the team lost.

By contrast, virtually all players are rotated in modern play as the coach seeks match-ups favourable to the team.

[citation needed] Hafey was prepared to back his players and build their confidence, contributing to a strong team spirit.

He focussed on the team's camaraderie, in many cases becoming intimately involved with the lives of his charges and he sought to mix with them in social situations even though he was a teetotaller and non-smoker.

In his radio commentary, he rarely employed the jargon of the modern coach and believed that football is a simple game that had been over-complicated, that motivation comes from within and fitness is the basis for success.

Hafey fashioned a career as a self-styled "ambassador" for the game and a strident advocate for physical fitness in the wider society.

[6] A particular interest was the current plight of Australian football clubs in rural areas, who he believed have been neglected by the AFL since the competition was fully professionalised in the 1990s.

Hafey's passion for fitness was legendary; every morning he woke up at 5:20 and went for an 8 km run, followed by 250 push-ups and a swim in Port Phillip Bay, and when he got home he did 700 crunches and sit-ups.

[16] An inaugural inductee to the Australian Football Hall of Fame 1996, Hafey was named coach of Richmond's team of the century in 1998.

[20] At VFL/AFL level, these include premiership coaches Tony Jewell (at Richmond), Kevin Sheedy (at Essendon) and Mick Malthouse (at Footscray, West Coast, Collingwood and Carlton), as well as Kevin Bartlett, Royce Hart, Francis Bourke, Paul Sproule, Mike Patterson, Mick Erwin (who replaced Hafey when he was sacked by Collingwood), Neil Balme, John Northey, Ian Stewart, and Barry Richardson.

In addition, a number of his former players had important careers coaching at lower levels of the game, such as Merv Keane and Kevin Morris.