Richmond in the finals is sure to make September that more interesting says Alastair LynchAlastair Lynch,
The Courier-Mail
3 September 2017IT should be a time of great celebration for Richmond.
Certainly most non-Richmond supporters are thrilled to see the Tigers in September.
I’ve always felt the competition is better when Richmond are rolling and it seems fitting that the best and closest season in modern history features the Tigers on the prowl.
Richmond have broken an all-time membership record of 73,515 this year and topped the AFL for home attendances with 615,542 fans, an impressive average of 55,958 per game, spinning the turnstiles at the MCG to watch them play.
They have just warded off the richest offer in football history from North Melbourne to retain favourite son Dustin Martin.
Martin is the raging Brownlow favourite and Alex Rance the All-Australian captain.
And they have secured a top four berth and the all important double chance.
The Tigers are flying. Yet the army is restless.
Anyone who knows a Richmond supporter will know what I’m talking about.
They are passionate, the equal of any fans in the competition. But they more than any other fans suffer from a sense of impending doom.
The average Tiger fan although excited by the opportunity seems to have in the back of their mind, each win is a step closer to the next catastrophe.
Much of my family back in Tassie are true Richmond fanatics. My uncle, struggles to watch them live or sit through an entire game on TV. It is just too stressful.
Instead he’s happier to watch the replay after he knows the result.
History has made him that way.
The last time they won in September was the 2001 semi-final against Carlton. The Brisbane Lions knocked them over the following week in the preliminary final on the way to our first premiership.
That was current CEO and my former housemate Brendon Gale’s last game for the club and a whole generation of Tigers have come and gone since then without winning a final.
Not that they haven’t had their chances. The three-peat of elimination final losses between 2013 and ‘15 have added to the sense of dread Tigers fans face.
In 2012 Jack Riewoldt won the Coleman Medal, Trent Cotchin was retrospectively awarded the Brownlow Medal (in a tie with Sam Mitchell) and the Tigers thrashed eventual grand finalists Sydney and Hawthorn during the home and away season – yet they didn’t make the top eight.
It could only happen to Richmond.
Their history of spectacular and continued stumbles prompted Aussie comedian Wil Anderson to coin the term “Richmondy” this year.
It gathered plenty of traction – especially after a five-point Round 7 loss to the Bulldogs when the Tigers fell victim to the deliberate out of bounds rule. Or again the following week when the Tigers lost by two points courtesy of an after-the-siren goal from Docker David Mundy.
And it will go viral again if the Tigers lose one, let alone god forbid two finals, in the coming weeks.
I for one hope they don’t. Grand Final week would be at a whole new level and to see the Tiger army march to the ‘G on the last Saturday of September would be a sight to behold. And who could imagine, what if they won.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-in-the-finals-is-sure-to-make-september-that-more-interesting-says-alastair-lynch/news-story/aa94d7475c1089a40a9703e8ddbe5449
