I was having tea room banter with a workmate (doesn’t really watch footy but supports it bartending the masses at Richmond Club Hotel) and we came up with this theory that similar to high school swimming and athletic carnivals, Richmond is the yellow house of the AFL and hence why the unjustified hate.
We both were yellow house in high school and we were reminiscing on the abuse you get from red or blue house and then now and again yellow house have the cattle to finish on top and everyone gets super salty.