200-game milestone taking time to sink in for Richmond captain Chris Newman Sam Edmund
From: Herald Sun
May 19, 2012 CHRIS Newman's journey to the here and now goes something like this.He was a late bloomer who didn't think he would make it. He never thought he would captain a league side. He certainly didn't think he would play 200 games.
But the bloke from Narre Warren is about to tick off all three because beneath a humble, selfless exterior burns a fierce desire and a passion for a famous club he believes is now truly "knocking on the door".
We see it when he kisses the jumper after a goal, when he throws his mouthguard in disgust at the final siren and we're likely to see it if he pursues a coaching career with which he's starting to dabble.
"I'm not sure if I'm naturally a passionate player or it's just evolved over time through not having the success I would have wanted at this club," Newman told the Herald Sun.
"It builds and it's got to the point with the dummy spit the other week where it's just frustrating because you feel like you're making ground, but at the end of the day, you don't get the win and it counts for nothing. This club's been down for such a long time, I'm just passionate about getting it back to being one of the top-tier sides.
"Since I've been captain, we've had a real focus on playing for the jumper and having pride and respect for the jumper. There's been so many great players to have played for this club and I'm so rapt we're in a position now where we're not giving the jumper away, you've got to earn your spot and the jumper."
Newman, who turned 30 yesterday, played junior football with Adam McPhee and Matthew Boyd in a side that went undefeated for some eight years and won a staggering eight straight flags.
So outrageously dominant was the side that Newman left when he was 16 to "actually experience what it's like to lose". Sitting down this week at Punt Road Oval he laughs at the irony. "I often say I used up all my success as a junior. I'd definitely take it now," he said.
In the TAC Cup with Dandenong Stingrays, he overcame a slow start, but with all the flak Richmond has copped for draft choices gone wrong, Newman would prove a bargain pick at No.55 in 2000.
"I never thought I'd make it and I was a late bloomer in the under-18s. I feel like it was the same thing here (at Richmond)," he said.
"I was introverted and almost afraid to get the footy until my second year when Leon Cameron got hurt and was a late withdrawal and I got an opportunity. I was overawed, no doubt, and there was almost a fear of seeing if I could make the big stage."
He would do exactly that in 2005, playing every game before breaking his leg the following year in a nasty collision with Leon Davis on a wet day at the MCG.
"I really think I was fortunate. If I was going to have a major injury, I know it sounds stupid, but I would have preferred that to a knee," Newman said.
"That was a tough time. Nathan Brown did the same thing the year before and I instantly thought of that because I'd never really had an horrific injury like that before. But it was a clean break which healed quickly and I haven't felt it since."
He would recover brilliantly to thrive off half-back in 2007 and played even better again in 2008. But it was the pre-season of 2009 that catapulted Newman's career.
Then-coach Terry Wallace told him over lunch one afternoon that he was the man to take the captaincy from Kane Johnson and lead the Tigers forward.
"I don't know if I was uncomfortable with it, but because I still had a lot of older players around me at the time it didn't really sit right," he said.
"I felt a little insecure at the start ... when it got announced, I was really uncomfortable around the club. I thought I had to be constantly doing things. I didn't sit still, it was a bizarre feeling."
As it turned out, there wasn't an opportunity to sit still in a whirlwind first 12 months in the captaincy hot seat. There was the recruitment of Ben Cousins and the circus he attracted, and the messy departure of Wallace.
FORMER skipper and current assistant coach Wayne Campbell this week said: "You wouldn't get a more tumultuous 12 months as captain.
"It's just a lot easier to lead a club that's winning than losing, let alone losing a coach halfway through the year. I think he endeared himself to everyone the way he handled it. He was obviously upfront when he had to be, he was there for the players who were obviously hurting and he continued to play really good footy.
"Probably the measure of a captain and if it fits comfortably with them is if they become better players and he certainly has.
"He was a good player and he's become a better player since becoming captain and that doesn't always happen.
"When he first came into the club, if you had said this guy is going to be captain I would have been surprised. He did it the right way, though. When he came in he was quiet, he was respectful, he was diligent and he worked hard and you could tell that he could play."
Coach Damien Hardwick uses the term "spiritual leader".
"He's a guy who I've got enormous time for, even when I was a player at another club and a coach at another club, he's a guy I always thought would be a great fit for wherever I was and he's a guy that sums up what we're about," Hardwick said.
Newman's 200th AFL appearance against Essendon tonight has been somewhat overshadowed by the Dreamtime at the 'G focus, but that's just how he likes it.
The ultra-consistent, but somehow underrated, defender is happy to acknowledge that he ranks among the competition's low-profile leaders.
"That doesn't faze me one bit. I've never really sought any of that attention and nor do I deserve it," he said. "I know my place and know my role within the club and that's what I focus on. I guess I just don't sell newspapers, but that's fine with me."
Walking down the street represents its own challenges.
"I think kids these days are more confident and they'll say whatever they feel. I get a lot of the old: 'You're the worst captain in the AFL' and all that sort of stuff a fair bit. But I've had that ever since I started and I actually think it's quite funny now," he said.
LIKE the other significant moments in his career - making the AFL and becoming captain - the 200-game milestone is taking some time to sink in.
"I didn't really have any emotion until I went to the Tommy Hafey Club function last Friday. Although I wasn't officially a member of the 200 club, just signing the merchandise sitting next to Michael Roach I really felt a little bit uncomfortable in a way," he said.
"It just doesn't really sit well with me. I guess as I get older, the more it will probably sink in and I'll be extremely honoured but, at the moment, I'm not sure how I feel about it."
But he knows exactly how to feel about a Richmond side starting to show real signs of awakening.
"I used to come into these big games really worried about the emotion of the group and how they're going to react to it. This year, more than any, I've kind of sat back," Newman said.
"If it was quiet before a game, I'd think: 'Oh, the boys are a bit off today' or 'I should say something to get them up', but now it's just that calm feeling in the rooms. Everyone knows their role, there's a lot of focus and clarity ... there's no concern the boys won't be able to handle the occasion."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/game-milestone-taking-time-to-sink-in-for-richmond-captain-chris-newman/story-fn8libhb-1226360640335
