IT was the four-line letter that effectively killed off Richmond’s persistent but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get Essendon goalkicking great John Coleman to the Tigers.

As the two teams prepare to do battle on Saturday night a letter has emerged — from underneath the floorboards of Coleman’s house, where he lived until his death in 1973 — that sealed the deal for him to go to the Bombers.

It was written in the pre-season of 1949, just before he committed to the Bombers, when the Tigers were circling and Coleman’s brother, Albert, was training at Punt Rd.

Coleman was the hottest thing in football. He had kicked 296 goals in 31 games for Hastings at an average of 9.55 a game and every club except Geelong and North Melbourne wanted his signature.

In his book Coleman: The Untold Story of an AFL Legend, Doug Ackerly revealed how Richmond went harder than anyone to lure the young goalkicker, then aged 20. The emergence of the letter since the book’s publication highlighted how the Tigers were trumped.

Club secretary Maurie Fleming and captain Jack Dyer watched Coleman play on several occasions and the night before the 1948 VFL semi-final they met him at the Tyabb Post Office and put 500 pounds on the table for him to sit out for one year.

Coleman had signed a “Form Four” with Essendon the year before, but had not been cleared by Hastings.

The Bombers, too, had been visiting Coleman and sent a deputation headed by captain-coach Dick Reynolds and selector Harry Hunter. They had lunch with Coleman and his parents at the Hastings naval base.

Coleman told them he would play in the first practice match of 1949 but couldn’t, although he did travel to Melbourne and was in a photo with Reynolds for The Argus and trained with the Bombers.

He was yet to be tied to any club officially, and boarding with a friend in Kew, was in Richmond’s zone, but then the zones were changed by the VFL in March, 1949.

With that avenue shut, Richmond lured Coleman’s brother Albert to Punt Rd, where he trained with the Tigers and played in a practice match for them. Coleman even ran laps with his brother at the ground.

All looked lost for the Tigers when Coleman played a practice match for Essendon and applied to Hastings for a clearance to the Bombers.

That came just after Coleman received a letter, signed by Essendon secretary Bill Cookson, that guaranteed he would play every game for the Bombers in the 1949 season.

If he wasn’t already locked in, that sealed the deal and marked the beginning of a legendary career in black and red, not yellow and black.

”COLEMAN — The Untold story of an AFL Legend” — by Doug Ackley, available now.