Richmond has roared into the spotlight againGreg Baum
May 12, 2011Tiger fans are hoping this era will be different.
DAMIEN Hardwick, a premiership player at two clubs, says he has never heard anything like the roar of Richmond supporters in full and triumphal voice. Hardwick is 38, about the median age of Australia's population, which means that he and half of all football supporters can have few coherent memories of the frisson in Melbourne when the Tigers are up and about. In their football-mature lifetimes, Richmond has made the finals just twice.
In that time, the Tigers have become the club of the eternal false dawn. Partly, it is because every change of coach manifests as the start of a new era, and Richmond has had 12. It also has had eight presidents and eight chief executives, all implicitly promising a new beginning.
Partly, it is because of tantalising glimpses of success. Apart from finals appearances in 1995 and 2001, the Tigers have finished ninth six times, all in a 15-year stretch.
Partly, it is because that virile support also is infamously the most fickle in the competition, dwindling almost to nothing in the dog days, returning with a roar at the first hint of revival. They can inspire, but also blind - or at least deafen - misleading the club and one another. Hence the dawns that never arrive.
Unarguably, Richmond has been its own worst enemy. The capital - money and goodwill - it accumulated winning five premierships in 14 years was frittered away, until the club was a penstroke from extinction.
Kevin Bartlett was appointed and then abandoned as coach, and the rent only recently was repaired. His experience pre-empted many others'.
There were many good players, but few good teams. Matthew Richardson became the most loveable player in the competition in part because you knew that ultimately, his team would not hurt yours; it was a safe affection.
Bad luck struck. Nathan Brown came from the Bulldogs in a show of faith, and Graham Polak from Fremantle, but one broke his leg, and the other was hit by a tram, fatal to both careers.
But so did bad management. From what should have been fertile drafts in 2004 and 2005, only two players remain. Hawthorn exploited those same drafts to build what became within three years a premiership team.
Each new misadventure seemed only salt in the previous wound.
There is another glow on the horizon, and again Richmond people are daring to believe that it is not merely the embers of the bonfire of their last set of hopes.
This one FEELS more substantial. The club has ceased infighting. While whittling away debt, it is increasing spending on the football department and facilities - a $20 million training centre is about to open - the proven way to win.
From accounts, Hardwick has the players' profound respect. Two-thirds of them are new to the club in the past three years. Only three are 100-plus gamers, and the combined experience is less than Gold Coast's.
Not all will survive. But, crucially, remade Richmond has at its heart five of the best players in the competition.
In Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio and the precocious Dustin Martin, it has the makings of a midfield as good as any in the competition. There is also Nathan Foley, a class act too easily overlooked after two invalid years. In Jack Riewoldt, it has football's rarest commodity, a player as good as Nick, but with a true boot.
They are only five, but on them, a team might be founded. Half a dozen years ago, reliable kicking out of the back line was identified as crucial. For too many years, Tiger fans watched despairingly as their team kicked away matches and seasons. Now they're seeing dependability. The recruitment of Shaun Grigg and Bachar Houli is proving astute.
After four rounds, the Tigers were winless and had suffered heavy defeats at the hands of Collingwood and Hawthorn. But they had drawn with St Kilda, run Carlton hard and kicked six goals to two in a quarter against Collingwood. Only against the Hawks in the wet did they succumb meekly.
Since, against modest opposition, they have had three resounding wins. Historically, three in a row has been enough to light the fuse. Abnormally large crowds came for the Brisbane Lions and Fremantle. Yesterday, Richmond's membership stood at 46,202, a record. Even KB is back.
Not everyone is buying. Rhett Bartlett, son of KB and author of a club history, fears this might be another of what he calls ''Brat Farrars'', named after a school textbook in which a young man masquerades as a lost son to inherit a fortune. ''I want to believe that this is real,'' he says, ''but I've experienced so many Brat Farrars before. For me, it is just ingrained not to get overly excited.''
But a more bullish sentiment is ringing down from the stands, and in Hardwick's ears. ''The sleeping giant has awoken,'' says one fan. ''Previously, he has gone back to bed. This time, he's had a shower, got dressed and had breakfast. He won't necessarily leave the house this year. But next year - look out.''
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