At last Tigers fans have a reason to roarMatt Cunningham
Herald-Sun
August 24, 2014 IT’S a rite of passage that gets played out thousands of times every year in Victoria. A Richmond-mad father, still holding on to the glory days of the 1970s, buys his newborn son or daughter their first Tigers jumper, scarf and membership.
It’s a tradition for which the Richmond Football Club can be eternally grateful, for without it the Tigers would probably have fewer supporters than GWS. It’s also a tradition that’s inflicted decades of pain on a generation of Tiger fans who know of Francis Bourke only because they saw his son, David, take a screamer against Essendon in the opening round of the 1996 season. It’s a tradition I wish I could use as an excuse for my decision to support the AFL’s longest-suffering club, but in this case my old man deserves none of the blame.
I became a Richmond supporter in 1983 when a box of hand-me-down clothes from some family friends arrived that included a long-sleeved knitted Tigers guernsey that fitted my five-year-old frame like a glove. The Tigers had been a VFL powerhouse for the past 15 years; they’d played in the previous year’s Grand Final and had won their last flag just three years earlier. The future looked bright. Who could have foreseen the pain that would follow?
It’s now more than three decades since Richmond played in a Grand Final. Since 1982 the Tigers have made the finals only three times and have managed just two September wins.
A victory against St Kilda today will mark Richmond’s longest winning streak since 1980.
It’s that winning streak that has the usual critics throwing around the same old jokes that have been doing the rounds for decades. “Fair-weathered friends” and “bandwagons” often get bandied around as hype around a Richmond resurgence begins to grow.
But surely Tiger fans are the most resilient fans of all. Is there another group of supporters who would have stayed true watching their team finish ninth six times between 1994 and 2008? Would Collingwood fans have kept the faith if their club had decided to draft Richard Tambling instead of Buddy Franklin? Would Essendon fans have kept turning up if they’d lost a final — after leading by 26 points at half-time — to a club that finished ninth?
To be a Richmond supporter is to believe that the worst possible outcome is always possible, no matter how good the situation may seem. It’s to believe a game can be lost when you’re 16 points up with a little over a minute to play, as happened against the Gold Coast in 2012, when we played what Paul Roos described as “the worst 50 seconds of football in history”.
It’s to believe the same thing could happen again two weeks later, when Brock McLean’s long kick into Carlton’s forward line accidentally dribbled through for a goal in the dying seconds to hand us another seemingly impossible defeat.
It’s the reason we won’t be surprised if our winning streak ends at the hands of bottom-placed St Kilda on Sunday, ending the dreams of another season.
Rather than push us away, this pain seems to make Richmond supporters more fanatical. It’s like we suffer from a weird masochistic personality disorder, deriving some strange pleasure from the suffering it brings. We’ve become the subject of mirth among our friends who tend to smirk and shake their heads, disbelieving that anyone could endure the torment our club has caused us but still remain loyal.
Those closer to us have more sympathy for our plight. My dad — a Hawthorn supporter — took me to Richmond’s 1995 semi-final against Essendon when Matthew Knights inspired the Tigers to their most famous win in our generation’s memory. He must have sensed a joy his club could not deliver as he’s barracked for the Tigers ever since.
My wife — a Carlton fan — soon realised the mood of our entire household would be dictated by the Tigers’ performance. She’s now a Tiger fan too, a decision she no doubt regretted as we sat in silence through the last quarter of last year’s elimination final, watching a loss we somehow knew was coming. As for our kids, well, they’ve been appropriately brainwashed from birth. If the next 30 years turn out to be as painful as the last, at least they’ll have someone to blame.
matt.cunningham@news.com.auFOUR REASONS TO WEEP1. 2012 v G Coast in CairnsKarmichael Hunt kicks the winner after the siren after Richmond produced what Paul Roos called “the worst 50 seconds of football” in the game’s history.
2. 2012 v CarltonBrock McLean’s long kick in the dying seconds fell over the pack and dribbled through for a goal, the Tigers’ third loss in a row by less than a goal.
3. 2009 v CarltonIt was supposed to be the year of the Tiger, but it all came crashing down in Round 1, the Blues winning by 83 points. Coach Terry Wallace was sacked before the year was out.
4. 1990 v Nth MelbourneCoach Kevin Bartlett called the 141-point loss “the worst performance I’ve ever seen by a Richmond team”.
Go to heraldsun.com.au for more Tiger tormenthttp://www.news.com.au/national/at-last-tigers-fans-have-a-reason-to-roar/story-e6frfkp9-1227034368863
