One team more than the other seven in the AFL finals carries an earth-moving scriptMichelangelo Rucci,
Rucci’s RIP,
The Advertiser
4 SeptemberCONFUSED as to whether the Earth moved or not on Saturday morning?
This is how Brendon Gale felt on September 16, 1995 as the sun was setting over Melbourne. He and his Richmond team-mates were at the MCG in the old, battered race leading to their changerooms as someone decided there should be the fifth rendition of “Oh, we’re from Tigerland” while the scoreboard acknowledged Richmond had qualified for its first preliminary final since 1975 - a step away from its first grand final since 1982.
As every long-suffering Richmond fan will tell you, that grand final drought has not ended - and is the longest in the AFL today.
That fascinating day in 1995, the Tigers made an extraordinary comeback - from a five-goal deficit at half-time - to beat Kevin Sheedy’s Essendon in the semi-finals. Gale was just at that point in the race - where the players turn to go underground - when the Richmond fans rising to the top deck of the old Olympic Stand belted out “YELLOW AND BLACK” so that it reverberated off the cracked concrete walls .
“The ground moved,” recalls Gale, now the Richmond Football Club chief executive.
It was indicative of the power of a fan base that seems to enjoy a masochistic journey in football. It is, pardon the stereotypecasting, the biggest bandwagon in Australian sport as Richmond today reflects on the biggest home-crowd average this season (55,958) and the third-largest membership count (72,669).
Imagine what would happen at the MCG on Friday night if Richmond wins its first AFL final since September 15, 2001. Imagine if the Tigers - the long-failing Tigers - make it to the grand final. Imagine if they win the premiership - their first since 1980 and 11th since joining the VFL in 1908.
Of the eight finalists starting this month’s enthralling journey to the last Saturday in September at the MCG (assuming the North Koreans do not put the AFL grand final at risk by making the Earth truly move) there is no more intriguing story than Richmond.
Minor premier Adelaide clearly has its own story after all the Crows have overcome since the death of Phil Walsh two years ago. Sydney has history to create after its 0-6 start to the home-and-away season - and losing last year’s grand final to the Western Bulldogs.
But Richmond is the incredible story that seems in delay after all of last year’s miracles in sport from Leicester City, the Cronulla Sharks and the Chicago Cubs.
There is that backdrop of Richmond’s three consecutive elimination final losses in 2013-14-15 - including the defeat to a ninth-ranked Carlton called to replace Essendon in the 2013 final series; and that first AFL final at Adelaide Oval in 2014 when Richmond captain Trent Cotchin passed up having first use of the whistling northerly despite winning the toss.
There is the much-questioned faith shown by the Richmond board in coach Damien Hardwick after last year’s fall from the top eight (while clearing out his coaching panel). It should not be forgotten there was a rebel group with a “Focus on Footy” campaign to unseat president Peggy O’Neal and her board during the off-season.
There are the incredibly loyal Richmond fans who would make the images at Fenway Park in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox ended their cursed run to baseball World Series crown fall away for the most-emotional month in sport. Legendary Richmond stalwart Kevin Barlett insists it is “Tiger Time”.
Thank heavens the MCG was rebuilt - with reinforced concrete for the 2006 Commonwealth Games - to ensure the ground does not move should the MCC put We’re from Tigerland on endless rotation at the end of a Richmond win in the grand final.
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