The running joke that divided the Richmond change roomsBy Andrew Slevison
SEN
30 April 2020Scott Turner was forced to embrace the number 41 during his nine-year career at Richmond.
The defender played all 144 of his games for the Tigers wearing the high digits. To some it may have been a burden to carry but he never thought about upgrading purely because he was so content.
In the early 1990s, the Tigers had the likes of Wayne Campbell (changed from no.46 to no.9), Matthew Richardson (no.12) and Nick Daffy (changed from no.44 to no.10) occupying the sunny side of the street while he and his more rough-edged teammates took a back seat.
Turner admits the ‘divide’ in the change rooms at Punt Road helped him stick with the original choice he made.
“I rocked up to the Tigers and there weren’t many vacant ones (numbers),” he said on SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“There were a couple of low ones and you try and get the low ones but in the end, the better players got the lower numbers.
“I was happy to take 41. Back in those days with the locker areas, it was a bit of a rectangle. You’d call (numbers) 1 to 15 ‘Toorak’ and you’d call the 35 to 50 ‘Broadmeadows’. That was a bit of a running joke inside the club.
“You’d have your Campbells and your Richos and Daffys on one side and your other boys on the other side, sort of living it low.”
He added: “There was always a few party tricks going on in the locker room.”
The former full-back also recalled some of the hairdos that were getting around, current CEO included, which coincided with the hard days experienced at Tigerland during the Save Our Skins campaign.
“I did grow the mullet in the 90s just to keep up with the boys,” Turner reminisced.
“You had Cambo, Richo and Daffy having hair comps. The Gale brothers (Brendon and Michael) growing their hair in ponytails. It was the go back in those days.
“Richmond was the builders and labourers club, just doing it hard back in the 90s.
“You look at us now and we are surviving well and the success is there.
“The early years there was Save Our Skins. I was bringing home tins to put in the local pubs in Ararat, rattling the tins at traffic lights to save us.
“And now you are sitting back watching them win Grand Finals. It’s so surreal I suppose.
“I’ve taken the young fella, who is now 20, to the footy and he loves the Tigers winning and hopefully we see some more.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/04/30/the-running-joke-that-divided-the-richmond-change-rooms/
