Richo future decided at end of year
Dan Silkstone | June 11, 2009
AT A function for Richmond past players yesterday, the AFL's oldest current gladiator, Matthew Richardson, suggested he might not yet be ready to join their number.
With talk of a cleanout of senior Tigers at Punt Road next year and the departure this week of former captain Kane Johnson, Richardson's future is set to be a hot topic for the remainder of the season.
Despite Richardson's advancing years and a hamstring injury that has kept him out since round six, support is strong at Tigerland for the big man to go on. Club president Gary March said on radio last weekend that he hoped Richardson would continue in 2010.
But the man himself said yesterday he would not make a decision until year's end.
"I've been trying to focus on getting over the injury first and foremost," 34-year-old Richardson said. "At the end of the year we'll sit down and make decisions … who's to say that I'm even going to get over this injury?
"I hope that I will and I'm confident that I will but these are all decisions. Whatever decision is made it will be about the best interests of the footy club. It won't be about me."
Richardson said Terry Wallace's resignation had offered the club a new start. "No one wanted to end up in this situation mid-year, where we are changing coaches," he said. "But we have to move on and be realistic … I'm confident Jade (Rawlings) will do a good job."
After surgery last month, the big Tiger's rehabilitation is proceeding ahead of schedule. "I'm hoping to get out there by the end of the year and do my bit," he said.
Richardson has resumed jogging and will return to full sprinting within the next three weeks. Between two and three weeks of full training would then be needed before a match-day return.
"I reckon I'm ahead of schedule with my rehab and, realistically, I've got a month of football in me before the end of the year," he said.
Richardson admitted the appointment of his 31-year-old brother-in-law as interim coach had been an interesting development but expressed confidence his personal relationship with Rawlings would be easily managed. "He has done a good job at Coburg and has the respect of the senior players." he said. "I think everyone is comfortable with the decision."
Asked about Rawlings' coaching style, Richardson nominated team discipline as a focus. "It's a team game and he'll really coach that way … keep things simple; there's no point re-inventing the wheel halfway through the year."
And is Rawlings capable of taking to task a brother-in-law who is three years older and vastly more decorated as a player? "Jade was the forward-line coach last year … I was treated just like everyone else," Richardson said. "Just because he's married to my sister, that's his private life, but his job is to coach and he coached me like he coached everyone else. If I deserve a bake he gives it to me. We're all big enough men to know where each other stands."
Missing with injury while the Tigers' season imploded has been a frustration but Richardson said the thought of getting back this year was keeping him going. He was out there yesterday morning, in the cold and rain, jogging laps of the oval and feeling "pretty ordinary".
In such circumstances a man's passion for the playing life could wane. Not his. "I'm still motivated," he said. "I want to try and get over this injury and get back playing. Whether I play next year, who knows? It's not about me, it's about the footy club. I've had a great time and whatever happens, happens."
Past players' association chief Mike Perry described Richardson as an "absolute icon of the club" and said he hoped the big man would play another year.
"You're a player for five minutes but you are a former player forever," Perry said. He was talking about the importance of keeping yesterday's heroes around but it could also have served as a reminder to the man next to him of the fleeting nature of a football career.
Perry said the Tigers had an exciting chance to renew the club's on-field team. "I think Jade is a good choice," he said. "Matthew's going to have to take orders from his younger brother-in-law. I don't know how he's going to handle that."
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