Ben Nason mirrors Richmond's new breed who like its wicked song Malcolm Conn
The Australian
June 04, 2010 A DAY after flying from Adelaide to celebrate his 21st birthday, Ben Nason's family will have prime seats under the Etihad Stadium roof tonight to watch the Richmond midfielder continue his impressive debut season against St Kilda.
It has been a big week for Nason and his family. Last Saturday they turned up to Adelaide's AAMI Stadium en masse to watch the former local boy in action as Richmond won its first game for the season, against Port Adelaide, in atrocious conditions.
With his flowing blond dreadlocks, Nason was a beacon in the gloom, a metaphor perhaps for the young players at Richmond who are rebuilding a gutted club from the ground up.
"It was the best, playing at home (in Adelaide) with all my friends and family there. I've always hated Port Power," he said, continuing the rivalry of a former Adelaide Crows supporter.
Nason was one of a number of Richmond players who got to sing the club's famous victory song for the first time as it rung out with gusto after nine consecutive losses.
"I knew the words," he laughed. "I've always known the words to the Richmond song. I always thought it was the best song in the AFL. It's a wicked song. It was great to hear."
After a terrible start, Richmond has been competitive over the past month and should have beaten Hawthorn a fortnight ago, losing by three points, but tonight against St Kilda will be a difficult step up in class.
Such was the competition in that Hawthorn game Hawks captain Sam Mitchell was fined $900 for pulling Nason's extravagant hair during a wrestle.
"I couldn't believe he grabbed it," Nason said. "I was so angry. He only pulled it because, you can't see it in the vision, but when we were setting up our zone he was running in front of me and I dropped him when he wasn't watching so he got up and pulled my hair."
As part of Richmond's new breed, Nason has played every game this season, when he did not think he would play a senior game at all in 2010 after being drafted a lowly 71 last year.
Rewind a year and Nason was an obscure reserves player in the SANFL who had already been rejected by one local club and completely ignored by AFL teams.
Nason's break came when he was one of the best for an under-20s team which played a practice match against the South Australian under-18s before they went off to the national carnival he never had the chance to play in.
A few letters arrived from AFL clubs and Richmond spoke to Nason four days before last year's draft, but he still didn't believe he would be picked.
"I wasn't confident at all. I went to a mate's place to watch it because I didn't think I would get drafted," Nason said. "They got to about pick 67 and teams were already passing.
"There was an interview on the TV and you could faintly hear the names in the background and they were popping up on the bottom of the screen.
"When mine was called I could hear it as clear as anything and I said to my mate, 'they called my name'. He said, 'no they didn't'.
"I was trying to convince him and my name came up on the bottom of the screen. I couldn't believe it. My mate gave me a hug and everyone was calling me. Mum couldn't get through.
"I went straight home and mum was crying."
She'll be sitting proudly in the plush seats tonight.
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