One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on October 10, 2010, 02:33:08 PM
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JR#8 posted this on BigFooty........
Matthew Richardson, known as Richo, retired in 2009 as the most popular player in the AFL. Why was that?
The careers of other great players like Nathan Buckley and Michael Voss amount to a sort of sporting perfection. Richo's career didn't. He was fallible. His kicking was flawed and he had an inability to hide his feelings on the ground but in other respects he was extraordinarily gifted. He was one of the best marks in the competition and it is said he could have run for Australia.
His father, Alan Bull Richardson, played in Richmond's 1967 premiership team, a pivotal result in the history of the club. On his mother's side, he is descended from a black American sailor who arrived in Sydney in 1840.
The average AFL career lasts three years. Richo's lasted 17 seasons. In that time, the general public got to appreciate his great bravery and his passion for both the game and his club. They also learned that, off the field, he was a humble, polite man who was always last on to the team bus because he was signing autographs.
Richo , the book, is essentially an account of the last two years of his football life with flashbacks that trace the outline of his long career.
In the process, the author, Martin Flanagan, discovers a man who is worldly and much-travelled, who has a deep love of music and who thinks and uses words in a novel way. Richo is an Australian original. The book climaxes with the 2008 season when Richo, in what was seen as a prelude to his delisting, was taken from the key forward position he had dominated for nearly two decades and put on a wing. At age 33, he responded by almost winning the Brownlow medal.
Information:
By: Flanagan, Richardson
Imprint: William Heinemann Australia
Country of Publication: Australia
ISBN: 9781741669725
ISBN 10: 1741669723
Publication Date: November 2010
Audience: General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: October 26
Richo will be doing signing's of his book on the following dates:
October 26th - Richmond Football Club Punt Road Oval Yarra Park Richmond VIC 3121 10.00am
October 26th - Devonport Football Club James Street Devonport TAS 7310 6.00pm
October 27th - Birchalls Launceston 118-122 Brisbane St Launceston TAS 7250 11.00am
October 27th - Burnie Football Club 7.30am
October 27th - Book City Eastlands Lower Level Eastlands Shopping Centre Hobart TAS 7000 4.30pm
October 28th - Dymocks Hobart Shops 206/207 Centrepoint Hobart TAS 7000 12.30pm
October 29th - Target City Store 236 Bourke St Melbourne VIC 3000 12.00pm
October 29th -BIG W Eastland 171 - 175 Maroondah Hwy Ringwood VIC 3134 6pm
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766693
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(https://assets.clubsonline.com.au/assets/console/shopproducts/images/thumbnail/Richo%20Book%20180.jpg)
Book - RICHO Member Price
SPECIAL MEMBER PRICE ONLY $45.95
THE FIRST 500 COPIES ORDERED WILL COME SIGNED BY RICHO!
SPECIFY MEMBER NUMBER IN THE COMMENTS SECTION PLEASE.
Orders without member number will not be fulfilled
Pre Order your copy today for delivery in Early November
https://www.clubsonline.com.au/shop/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_product_listing&categoryid=541&title=%3Cu%3E%3Cb%3E%20richo%20merchandise%20%3Cb%3E%3Cu%3E&orgid=1751 (https://www.clubsonline.com.au/shop/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_product_listing&categoryid=541&title=%3Cu%3E%3Cb%3E%20richo%20merchandise%20%3Cb%3E%3Cu%3E&orgid=1751)
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Anyone got a pen for Richo to sign a few of his new books .... ;D
(http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg145/scaled.php?tn=0&server=145&filename=ubzh.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640)
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Here's the audio of Richo on SEN this morning chatting about his book and career (courtesy of BF)
http://www.mediafire.com/?8r8m12yeefd8001 (http://www.mediafire.com/?8r8m12yeefd8001)
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Anyone read it yet?
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Interesting that Richo said he had hammy issues for 6 weeks leading up to it eventually ripping from the bone. So it went from him feeling like he could play for another 5 years after 2008 to retirement just like that. Add in playing Foley with a bad ankle and it really was great injury management by us going into 2009 :P.
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Does anyone know if we can collect it from the club?
All i know is i received an email saying i would be getting an autographed book but no details on when its available.
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Does anyone know if we can collect it from the club?
All i know is i received an email saying i would be getting an autographed book but no details on when its available.
Early Nov is when the pre-ordered ones will be delivered according to the RFC site
https://www.clubsonline.com.au/shop/index.cfm?fuseaction=Display_Product&ProductID=16534&OrgID=1751
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Richo on 3aw now talking about the book.
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He's still single so no future F/S on the way yet.
Interesting Richo said he played his best football on the emotional edge which he was criticised for yet now days footballers are expected to be fairly robotic fitting within structures.
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He's still single so no future F/S on the way yet.
Interesting Richo said he played his best football on the emotional edge which he was criticised for yet now days footballers are expected to be fairly robotic fitting within structures.
Put him into STUD!
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Richo appreciation society keeps growing
* From: AAP
* October 26, 2010 4:05PM
AS BEFITS an AFL superstar in footy-mad Melbourne, Matthew Richardson is familiar with being compared to other greats of the game.
But it's probably fair to assume he hasn't been stacked up too often against former prime minster Bob Hawke, another Australian who knows a thing or two about the trappings of fame.
In the newly-released biography Richo, co-author Martin Flanagan makes the astute observation that the man popularly known as Richo has benefited from what he calls the Hawke effect.
"If you're going to have a long career in the public eye, showing your worst side early on is a good idea," Flanagan writes.
"Richo had done that and, as with Bob Hawke, the Australian public decided they didn't really mind - in Richo's case that he could be ill-tempered on the field.
"The emotion of it was more complex than they were aware but that didn't matter in so far as his public life was concerned."
The truth was that when Richo got mad on the footy field, it was only because he cared so much.
He cared about winning, he cared about trying his very best all the time and he cared about Richmond, the club he had supported all his life and for whom his father won a premiership in 1967.
In an age where elite sport was becoming more and more about business, Richardson's passion, not to mention his spectacular marking, gut-busting running and at-times idiosyncratic goalkicking, resonated with the fans in the stands.
And not just those wearing yellow and black.
Of course, the big fella could play a bit as well.
He is a member of Richmond's Team of the Century, won 13 club goalkicking awards and was the Tigers' best-and-fairest winner in 2007.
Then there was his third-placed finish in the 2008 Brownlow Medal count, when seemingly every non-partisan viewer at Crown casino and watching on TV around Australia was willing him to win.
That Richardson came up just short, finishing two votes behind winner Adam Cooney, was somehow symptomatic of a 282-game, 800-goal career where the Tigers were beaten far more often than not.
The fact he took the loss in good grace surprised nobody.
Away from the field of battle, it's hard to imagine a sportsman handling the potential downside of fame as well as Richardson.
"Obviously, if you play Australian Rules football in Australia, particularly in Melbourne, there are going to be a lot of people who recognise you and know who you are, but I've never found that to be a problem," he said.
"I reckon I lead a pretty normal, everyday life, like all of my mates who don't play footy.
"I do all the things they do and it's never really bothered me.
"For instance, I've been going to music festivals and concerts for years. It's something I've always loved outside football and I've never had a problem.
"People love to see you there and see you have something in common with them, that you love the same bands.
"I've never had an issue with it at all."
Once it became clear he had a rare talent, the son of Alan "Bull" Richardson was always destined to play for Richmond.
Never mind that his 17-year career from 1993-2009 coincided with the lowest period in the club's proud history.
For much of that time, Richardson was just about the only good reason to watch the Tigers.
"Looking back, if I'd played one or two years somewhere else at the end I wouldn't have felt a part of that club and I would have felt a bit funny going back to my original club," he said.
"It was always my goal to be a one-club player, because of my history and my dad being there. Being a supporter of the club I never really imagined playing for anyone else.
"So it is something I'm proud of, even though I didn't have much team success."
Richo the book details many other aspects of his career, including the injuries and the friendships forged on and off the field.
There is plenty about the importance of a close-knit family and what it was like growing up in Tasmania.
What the biography doesn't do is get bogged down in mind-numbing detail about statistics and who did what in which games.
And there's definitely no searing criticism of any former coaches, teammates or opponents.
"I don't find any value digging up any animosities. I don't see what would be gained by doing that," he said.
"There wasn't going to be any controversy. I wasn't going to bag anyone or dig up any dirt.
"That was deliberate.
"I wouldn't have done the book if that was what was wanted."
That says plenty about the reasons for Richardson's enduring popularity among those who know him well and the countless others who have met him only in passing.
Richo by Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan. Published by Random House Australia. RRP $49.95.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad-application/richo-appreciation-society-keeps-growing/story-fn6bn7f4-1225943813746
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They showed Richo tonight on Ch 7 news visiting that baby Tiger supporter in hospital who was born 17 weeks premature the size of a small doll and is now full-size, healthy and well and ready to go home with mum and dad. Great stuff all round :thumbsup
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Richo for PM! :thumbsup
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Richo is signing his book at BigW QV in Melbourne from 7pm tonight
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Richo.
What a man.
But seriously, when the stuff is he gonna start breeding?
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most likely never
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Richo has never changed... thankfully
Martin Flanagan
October 30, 2010
JUST after the bushfires of February 2009 I was phoned and asked by a publisher if I wanted to write a book on Richo. It was a gloomy period. In my 25 years in Victoria, I'd seen rivers disappear and lakes evaporate; now the place was exploding.
By contrast, the idea of writing a book on Richo sounded like fun. I contacted him and asked him what he thought. "I'm honoured that you would ask," he said, "but I don't really have a story." I must admit I was taken by that reply.
When the publisher first rang me, she said brightly, "We want 80-100,000 words on Richo". I said, "He's not Winston Churchill." That's what Richo understood from the start.
Books are big things. It takes a lot to fill them. After we'd been working for a while, he told me he'd been nervous when we began. Why? I asked. "Because I couldn't see how anything in my life was worth writing a book about - so what were you going to write about?" That's where Richo's smart. His modesty and his intelligence amount to the same way of seeing the world.
When we started we knew the book was about him as a player.
We also knew we had certain things in common. One was that we both appreciate the history of the game.
He sees himself as being part of a much bigger story that includes the history of the Richmond Football Club.
On Thursday in Hobart, Richo met John Smeaton, son of George Smeaton.
Jack Dyer said the dark-skinned Smeaton, known as "The Brown Bomber" - a name he inherited from American boxer Joe Louis - was the toughest player he played with.
On Wednesday, we went back to the Devonport Football Club, where Richo played his first senior footy, to launch our book together. His mate Foo was there. They played footy against one another at high school. His mates from that time are still his mates.
Of his two "best mates", one, Simon Lucas, he has known since birth.
He met the other, Ben "Harro" Harrison (who played 150-odd AFL games with Carlton, Richmond and the Dogs), when he was five.
Harro will tell you Richo hasn't changed since he was a kid. Indeed, you can argue Richo played his best footy in the AFL when they finally let him play as a kid and do what he did in the mini-league. Run everywhere.
Richo's into music. Benny Gale says growing up on the north-west coast of Tasmania in the 1970s that's all there was - footy and music.
I said to Richo, "Books are like songs. I'll write it, you read it and tell me if I've got the right tune." That was the deal. That and the fact that we weren't interested in cheap disclosures or manufacturing false controversies.
He's not interested in that stuff; it's just not part of him. The further we went, the more I relied on his judgments. His responses are unerringly honest and he has that most elementary of wisdoms - he knows who he is and who he's not.
To begin with, we just talked footy and he told me the story of his career as he remembered it. He doesn't remember much. He described whole seasons in a sentence. I spoke to former teammates. There were remarkably few stories. The one most commonly told was the day coach Robert Walls caught young Richo looking out the window at the Nylex tower when he was sternly instructing the team.
The Nylex tower is the one Paul Kelly sings about in Leaps and Bounds.
It's the four grey silos with a flashing sign on top that gives the temperature and the time. Walls believed Richo was reading the time to see how much longer he had to endure the coach's harangue.
Benny Gale says, "The thing you have to understand about Wallsie is that he can use words." His sprays were not just spittle and profanity. They were verbal demolitions. That was early in Richo's career when coaches were trying to break him like you break young horses. They failed.
The most remarkable thing to me about Richo as a person is his absence of illusions about himself.
No one will surprise Matthew Richardson by telling him he's an ordinary person. It's like saying a hut is a hut or a tree is a tree. His favourite Beatle is George Harrison, the sane one. He's also good with people in that he makes an effort with them.
My favourite photo of him is not in the book. It was sent to me after it was printed by Tony and Daniela Ruberto. It's of their small son Marcus and Richo sitting on a couch. Both are smiling at the camera. Seven weeks later - and nine weeks after he was diagnosed - Marcus died of a brainstem tumour. According to his parents, his "one and only wish" was to meet Richo. Why do people identify with Richo? Because he's a good bloke, plain and simple.
On Thursday, in Hobart, when we did an interview with ABC radio they threw open the lines, and his grade two teacher from Our Lady of Lourdes Convent in Devonport rang in and said how he mixed paints for her and was always punctual.
After that, he went off to yet another signing and we met at the airport a few hours later. He was all signed out but he told me the highpoint of his week. A woman who had read the book appeared at one of the signings and presented him with a tea towel imprinted with an image of the Nylex Tower.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/richo-has-never-changed-thankfully-20101029-177kg.html
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I'm one of the 500 lucky ones :thumbsup
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I'm one of the 500 lucky ones :thumbsup
x2
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Don't know if theres a thread on this but I got this book as a Chrissy Present today from my brother and his family today. Great book, already read 60 pages, a very good read and highly recommended for anyone who hasn't read the book.
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I've merged your thread with this one Ramps :).
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I got the book for xmas too. Haven't started it though.
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I got the book for xmas too. Haven't started it though.
Me too, and Cuzy's as well! I was going to start a "what tiger pressies did we get thread?"
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I got the book for xmas too. Haven't started it though.
Me too, and Cuzy's as well! I was going to start a "what tiger pressies did we get thread?"
Got the Cuz book too.
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I was ecstatic to get the Richo book for Christmas.(I dropped enough hints)
Was faced with a very boring Christmas afternoon at the "inlaws" so I read 3/4 of the book.
Good read....great pics.
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i gotta be honest I've just started the Cuz book and have found it far more interesting that Richo's. I reckon Flannigan approached it in a kinda borign way...I wanna know balls and all type stuff behind the locker room door, not what Harro thinks of him or cambo...dare I say it but I'm glad I got it on special for half price
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I got both a while back as my cuzzy designed the covers. I've only read the Cho book so far, light read but entertaining.
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Read the Richo book, thought it was pretty good. Have the Cuz one but haven't started it yet
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Does Richo's book cover the Brad Pearce thing?
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Does Richo's book cover the Brad Pearce thing?
umm, no, fill us in ::)
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Does Richo's book cover the Brad Pearce thing?
umm, no, fill us in ::)
Well, I am sure most of you remember, but back in the 90s they were shacked up together and the word was they were pretty close. i wondered if the book covered that??
By the way i saw it for 25 bucks somewhere the other day in a New years Sale.