Tigers get their wish, but can they step up? Caroline Wilson
The Age
October 31, 2014Rarely have the fortunes of the AFL ridden so hard on the back of one team as they will next season on the once mighty Richmond Football Club.
The Tigers have been handed one of the most commercially generous, supporter-embracing AFL fixtures in memory with Thursday's unveiling of its 2015 calendar, a calendar that quite simply is willing Richmond to succeed.
On every measure but the one that matters most, Richmond must now be seen as a powerhouse football club - a club that plays blockbusters at the MCG more than any other and more Friday night games than any other team.
In one sense it is a fixture that has rewarded the work of Brendon Gale, Peggy O'Neal and her predecessor Gary March, and Daniel Richardson and the man he replaced, Craig Cameron - not to mention coach Damien Hardwick. But never has the club been under so much pressure to perform. It must improve next year.
Privately the AFL has admitted Richmond could prove its Achilles heel in a fixture that has proved the toughest ever for its architect Simon Lethlean, but was unanimously applauded at its unveiling.
The AFL is also vulnerable to Carlton, a bottom-six team in 2014 with its remarkably generous six Friday night games.
Both the competition's governors and broadcasters will be praying the Richmond that shows up next season resembles the club that launched its thrilling streak from round-14, and not the unwatchable dud that sat at 3-10 in June this year.
It is true that Richmond has the capacity to draw big crowds and thrill when it plays attacking football, but it is also true it is the least successful side since the AFL was launched.
It returned to the finals in 2013 but has bowed out in dreadful fashion in successive seasons. That it has been given a draw that should see a record membership and virtually guarantee a seven-figure profit has some rivals scratching their heads.
Gale played down the AFL's fixture fillip. "We've got blockbuster games at the 'G' against traditional rivals, so we're happy with that," said the Tigers' chief. "Once you start to improve, the AFL fixtures things your way.
"When we're playing well we play an attractive style of footy. Clearly we had a disappointing start to the season. We lost confidence and we lost our nerve, we were playing poorly and we were playing ugly.
"We turned it around too late, as it turned out, but we did see our big supporters base return."
But not soon enough for Richmond's financial predictions to be slashed. The Tigers will make a modest profit in 2014 and will boast a salary cap war chest going into 2016, but the AFL has laid down the gauntlet next year to Trent Cotchin and his team.
Never in decades have the Tigers been handed such a golden opportunity to once again become a successful football club.
Once again Richmond features in the season-launching game against its traditional rival Carlton on a Thursday night in an event that has continued to thrive even in the most dismal times for both clubs.
That, along with the seven Friday night prime time appearances - the most of any AFL club. The AFL chiefs at the fixture launch scoffed at suggestions they were punishing Essendon, which by comparison has just two and both of those against North Melbourne.
The Tigers play the so-called big three of Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon twice each and all at the MCG - it's long-time home where it will play 14 of 22 games next season, equalling only Collingwood. At least 15 of its home-and-away games will be televised by Channel Seven.
The AFL chief Gillon McLachlan told Fairfax Media in July that he had listened to the fans and would reshape the 2015 fixture. He admitted on Thursday that the 2014 fixture had been for Channel Seven and Fox Footy, the broadcasters with whom he must now launch negotiations for a new rights deal from 2017.
He has clearly listened to Richmond supporters. More than one-third of the increased 14 Saturday afternoons at the MCG feature the Tigers. They travel to Perth just once and appear thrilled at the chance to make their AFL debut at Hobart's renovated Blundstone Arena, once the home ground of the young Jack Riewoldt.
Not only does Richmond now share ownership of two blockbusters with the season-opener against Carlton and the Essendon Dreamtime at theThe 'G' clash in May, but it has also been given the opportunity to launch a third with the Friday night Anzac eve clash against Melbourne.
Of the two top six teams it has to play twice, only North Melbourne finished in the top four.
Jack Riewoldt will not be the only person to voice his frustration should the Tigers attempt to "copy Hawthorn" next season.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tigers-get-their-wish-but-can-they-step-up-20141030-11ejdj.html
