No repeats, vows Richo | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
  • IMPORTANT // Please look after your loved ones, yourself and be kind to others. If you are feeling that the world is too hard to handle there is always help - I implore you not to hesitate in contacting one of these wonderful organisations Lifeline and Beyond Blue ... and I'm sure reaching out to our PRE community we will find a way to help. T.

No repeats, vows Richo

A

admin

Guest
No repeats, vows Richo
By Linda Pearce
March 23 2003

For one awful week last July, it seemed that every time Matthew Richardson watched TV, he saw himself. But it was not Richo taking a big mark, or Richo charging upfield like an oversized gazelle, or even Richo hobbling off injured, again; rather, the scenes were of Richardson berating his teammates in the infamous dummy-spit game against Carlton.

Matthew Knights had misdirected a pass. David Rodan had fumbled a handball in the goal square. Yet if both Tigers were very publicly reminded of their inadequacies by their frustrated, frustrating - and later, remorseful - teammate, then Richardson has had a far harder time living down that regrettable Friday night at the MCG.

Despite his understandable desire to move on, the subject was always destined to linger far beyond the term of a one-game VFL penance with Coburg. Although the last, and worst, lapse in Richardson's attitude was never going to be enough to sever ties that bind club and player, the incident was clearly the low point of a season gratefully left behind.

"I was embarrassed by the footage of that night, which got played over and over again," Richardson admitted. "Obviously it doesn't look good and it's not good for the team, but I wasn't embarrassed playing for Coburg; I had a good day out there and the players were fantastic, and it was a good experience.

"I wouldn't change that, and I think I learnt something out of it. I think it can be a turning point for me. I mean, time will tell. It's something that probably needed to happen, I guess. I don't like to look back on it and dwell on it too much, but at my age and experience now, I guess you wouldn't like anything like that to happen again."

As has applied to much of his 10-year career, Richardson's season was one of almost ridiculous extremes. He missed eight of the first 11 rounds with hamstring injuries, and returned for what he describes as "a couple of ordinary games" before the Carlton debacle and subsequent demotion.

And then, the other Richo emerged. The brilliant, matchwinning, super-athletic forward who attracts as many admirers as his alter ego collects critics. He took 57 marks and kicked 22 goals in the last six rounds, which not coincidentally produced three of the Tigers' seven wins for the season. He finished second in the best and fairest, and led the club scoring for the seventh time.

"I guess after (being dropped) it could have gone two ways, and if it had have gone the other way, it would have really topped off a pretty poor year for myself," Richardson said. "The most pleasing thing was the last six or seven weeks, and finishing off OK made me feel pretty positive about this year. So hopefully that carries forward."

That hope is common at Tigerland, for although former chief executive Mark Brayshaw announced during last year's contract negotiations that Richardson was no longer one of the club's two best players, surely not even Darren Gaspar - with Brad Ottens one of the chosen two - would claim to be more important. Not to performance, or to morale.
 
At last weekend's family day, for example, the line for Richardson's autograph was easily the longest for any player, and he scribbled patiently away until the last one was done. "Is a paradox the right word for it? I'm not too sure," said Richmond football manager, and former assistant coach, Greg Hutchison.

"He's the first to put his hand up, and he'll spend more time than any other player doing things for the Richmond footy club, and yet you often see things on the field that don't really mirror that behaviour off the field.

"But he is making a conscious effort to be better on the field and on the training track after that (Carlton) incident. His leadership around the place, while it's always been good, has actually stepped up a little bit as well.

"He's been fairly forthright in the way that he's handled things, and the way that he's said things to the playing group at times, and when he's doing that he then realises that his behaviour on the field has to mirror what he's saying off the field, so he's made a conscious effort to try to do that."

Now, as if Richardson's form was not already crucial enough, the injured Ottens will miss a large chunk of the season, so it is just as well that the few pre-season training sessions Richardson missed were at the behest of fitness co-ordinator Noel Duncan, keen to pace the injury-prone forward through to Friday night's opening-round appointment with Collingwood at the MCG.

For Richardson, the pre-season has been as good as any of recent times. His priority has been to get his body right, and his next focus will be on keeping the ball in the forward line, trying to do more at ground level and thus not rely so heavily on his marking.

Hutchison also believes he has noticed a slight tempering of what was once a weekly ambition to dominate. "I think Richo understands now that his peers don't require him to kick eight goals and be best on the ground every time."

This year will be the first of four under the new contract terms Richardson signed in October, which substantially reduces the estimated $600-$700,000-a-year fee he commanded previously. The current deal is heavily incentive- and performance-based, meaning no play, less pay. Given that Richardson has missed an average of at least six games a season since his 1993 debut, it could be a costly change.

But not, he insists, one that bothers him. "I still feel confident in my ability to perform, and I'm happy with the way my new contract's structured. I think players should have to earn their money by performing well, so I've got no problems with that, and obviously as you get older I would hope that there'd be players coming through Richmond that would be challenging the senior players. If that didn't happen, we wouldn't be going anywhere."

Nor did Richardson get close to cleaning out his locker when Carlton, in particular, came knocking at the end of last season. Just as it is inconceivable that the son of 1967 premiership player Alan Richardson would ever be permitted to switch guernseys - "I know the coach would not have let him go," said Hutchison - he admits to considering a new home only fleetingly.

"Obviously you have moments where you might sort of think about it for a couple of seconds but that didn't last very long at all," he said. "That would have been just a passing thought, but it never even got to the point where I seriously considered it. I was just happy in the end that everything worked out with Richmond. It's pretty special to me that I could play here for my whole career, and I'm glad that it's going to happen."
 
When you have the likes of Dudcan, Fudgers, Fling and co streaming down the field with the ball in their hands its is inevitable that Richo or any gun forward for that matter will loose their cool.
 
When you have the likes of Dudcan, Fudgers, Fling and co streaming down the field with the ball in their hands its is inevitable that Richo or any gun forward for that matter will loose their cool.
broken record
 
I for one hope that there is a repeat.........of those last 6 rounds.........but for 22 weeks of the year insteady of just 6 or so.

Bring it on Richo and lets start off with a bag against the wobbles. 10 would be a nice figure to start with just to warm up.