White knight the Tigers' latest weapon Matt Windley
Herald Sun
April 09, 2011 FOOTBALLERS love finding ways to give a bit of grief to their teammates. That's how it is at Richmond, where Tigers have enjoyed ribbing speedster Matt White . . . for his lightning sprints to the bench whenever he is dragged.
"The boys used to give me so much for it," White laughed. "I wasn't getting much game time, so I had to get my fitness in somehow.
"I'd literally be on the ground for about two minutes and then the runner would come to me. I wouldn't have a chance to get into the play.
"So I'd just think, 'Stuff it, I need to get some sort of exercise into me', so I'd just run off the ground quickly."
While he might have taken the scalps of Carlton's Chris Yarran and St Kilda's Leigh Montagna in the first two rounds, White, 22, has played 72 AFL games and enjoys a life mostly out of the spotlight.
So who is Matt White?
"I'm just me," he said. "A bloke from Sunbury who loves his footy and is on the improve. I love a joke . . . a bit of fun, at somebody else's expense of course, but there's not much to me."
An avid Tigers supporter as a youngster, White wore Matthew Richardson's No.12 on his back during training sessions for junior footy club Sunbury.
Not surprisingly he also juggled a budding athletics career, winning state 400m titles at 14 and 15 and selection in several Victorian cross-country teams.
But footy was his main love and, after being picked up by TAC Cup club Calder Cannons, athletics fell by the wayside.
Almost drafted by Collingwood as a 17-year-old, White said he was "devastated" when his name wasn't called out on the morning of the 2005 draft.
But after accepting an invitation to take out his frustrations on some cricketers that afternoon, White returned home to a message from then Richmond football manager Greg Miller asking him come down to Punt Rd and earn selection in the rookie draft. He was taken with pick No.5 in the pre-season draft.
"I look back and it was bloody disappointing not to be drafted, but I reap the benefits now. I'm one of only two blokes here from the 2006 draft period -- myself and Angus Graham, who was rookied, are the only two left. It's crazy how it works out.
"It's all been a bit of a blur . . . It's funny now, you turn around to all these new 18 and 19-year-olds and they ask, 'How long have you been here', because they don't know me either. I tell them it's my sixth year at the club and they don't believe me. I'm old."
White kicked a goal on debut against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval in 2006 and played mainly as a forward for his first 70 AFL games. But the Tigers' coaching staff has changed all that.
"I came back after Christmas and, all of a sudden, I think they've gone, 'Oh crap, we need someone to tag because we want Jacko (Daniel Jackson) to play more as an inside midfielder'.
"They just said to me, 'We want you to tag (Chris) Yarran in Round 1'. I thought it sounded like a great challenge. And watching vision from the previous four weeks showed me how he set up Carlton amazingly, and he showed it again on the weekend against Gold Coast, where he played a ripper of a game.
"But to be able to shut him down to four possessions - and two of those he picked up on (debutant) Brad Helbig, I'm saying - was amazing.
After nullifying Yarran, White drew the ire of tens of thousands of SuperCoach players by keeping his opponent to just 32 points.
"Even a lot of my mates were filthy," he said. But it's part of footy. I'm happy to be hated for a while."
White says he is revelling in the unglamorous role.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/white-knight-the-tigers-latest-weapon/story-e6frf9jf-1226036336397
