Richmond fans...I'm glad I'm not those guysSimon White
WA today
April 3, 2012Fellas - and maybe ladies - I'm sure you all know the guy I'm talking about.
He's the one lumping two screaming kids around the shopping centre. His clothes are crumpled, the bags under his eyes betray his lack of sleep and, to top it all off, his wife is berating him for some perceived wrongdoing in a really annoying voice.
In short, he's the bloke you look at and say "Jeez, I'm glad I'm not that guy".
He's also a Richmond fan. Not necessarily literally but certainly figuratively. Because no team makes you say "I wouldn't want to be one of their supporters" like the boys in yellow-and-black.
Don't get me wrong, I've always had a soft spot for the Tigers.
They have (by some margin) the best club song in the competition. Matthew Richardson was the most likeable superstar of the last 20 years. One of my best mates from primary school, Sweens, is a lifelong Richmond man.
But it's telling that Sweens also works on coping mechanisms to deal with Tiger disappointments. This year it's convincing himself that Richmond will lose every game, meaning any win will be a bonus.
As a Fremantle supporter, I can't say what it's been like to be a Richmond fan for the past 20 years, but I can have bit of a guess.
The Dockers have played six finals (for two wins) since entering the competition in 1995 - the same record that Richmond has since losing the 1982 grand final.
The big difference, however, is that Fremantle has never won anything, while Richmond - between 1967 and the end of 1982 - played in 27 finals, made seven grand finals and won five premierships.
So you take a club with that record of success, factor in 30 barren years and then throw in, by way of just a few examples, the following:
* Taking Richard Lounder (four games) and Anthony Banik (49) with the No. 1 picks of the 1987 and 1989 drafts. OK, so drafting wasn't the comparatively exact science it is now but Graham Wright went at No. 3 in 1987 and Peter Matera, Gavin Wanganeen and Ben Allan went inside the first 14 picks in 1989.
* Selecting Richard Tambling instead of Lance Franklin in the 2004 draft. No further explanation required.
* Nathan Brown (then on Brownlow Medal pace) and Mark Coughlan (fairest-and-best aged 21) suffering serious injuries and never being the same players again.
* Richardson missing the best part of three full seasons through injury and still finishing his career with 282 games and 800 goals - but only three finals.
* The AFL scheduling blockbuster Thursday night season-openers against a traditional rival (Carlton), the past four of which you've lost by an average of more than 50 points in front of a national audience.
But I'm thinking - and again this is merely a guess from an outsider looking on - that the hardest thing of all about being a Tigers fan is going into each winter hoping this one will be different.
And then realising that it might not be.
I got sucked into the Richmond hope this year. I looked at team built around Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Nathan Foley, Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt and thought "they might actually be quite good" (without considering who their teammates might be).
I tipped the Tigers against Carlton last week. Craziest of all, I wrote that they were my "gut feel" selection to make the eight.
By the end of last Thursday night, the main feeling I had in my gut was an empty one - for Sweens and all the rest of the Richmond mob.
I should have spoken to Sweens before I wrote or tipped anything. As he let me know me on Monday, the bottom six players in Richmond's team aren't necessarily all that much chop (watching the Carlton game, I at least answered the question of "whatever happened to Brad Miller?").
Then again, as Sweens also pointed out, the Tigers got within a goal of a top-four contender in the last quarter. If Martin had converted a set shot six minutes into the final term, the margin would have been back to just a point.
Ah hell, here I go again. If...could...would...should.
And I note that the Tigers have an extra day's break headed into their clash with Collingwood on Saturday. Perhaps the Pies will be bruised and battered from their epic clash with Hawthorn last week. Maybe that upset I tipped is still to come.
If it's this hard for me - a neutral - then imagine how tough it is on Richmond fans.
They get to sing a darn good song occasionally but, for the moment, I'm glad I'm not one of those guys.
http://www.watoday.com.au/afl/blogs/white-or-wrong/richmond-fansim-glad-im-not-those-guys-20120402-1w8ap.html#ixzz1qwqFuTnQ
