Richmond champion Matthew Richardson inducted into AFL Hall of FameMark Robinson
Herald-Sun
June 04, 2014 10:33PMTHERE might’ve been other times when Matthew Richardson was selfish on the field, but he only admits to one.
It was in his final game, his 282nd, and the Tigers were playing Sydney in Sydney.
He had carried hamstring tendinitis for a couple of seasons and it resurfaced in Round 1 of 2009, his final season of 17.
Come Round 6, against the Swans, he snapped the hamstring tendon 10 minutes in.
“The runner kept coming out and asking if I was right, and I knew I wasn’t right, but I also knew I was on 799 goals,’’ he said.
“Roberts-Thompson ran off, I was cooked, there was a turnover, I was standing back on the 50m on my own and got the goal, and then I went off the ground.’’
He laughed that Richo laugh telling that story.
Indeed, if the Hall of Fame was for good blokes, Richo would already be a legend. He’s self-deprecating, warm, traditional, amusing and loves a beer.
“It was all consuming footy and if I didn’t have a few hours after a game to have a beer, it would’ve been mentally too tough,’’ he said. “I remember one year I tried not to drink for the year, but it wasn’t a good year. It did my head in too much.’’
Richardson was from healthy Tasmanian stock. He never saw his dad, Alan ‘’Bull’’ Richardson, play for the Tigers _ dad retired the year his son was born _ but Richo would read and re-read the scrapbooks of newspaper articles collected by his grandmother and mother.
Footy articles and footy books were like school books for Richardson. He would pour over one in particular, for memory called The Book of VFL Finals, and would learn that his old man was named in the best players in 1967 Grand Final.
So, he was always going to be a Tiger.
“I always had a dream to play AFL,’’ he said. ‘’I was Richmond supporter from 1980 onwards, that Grand Final was my first footy memory. Back then you didn’t get much on TV, maybe a game every now and then or highlights on the Winners. But I used to tune in on the radio back in Devonport.
“Even then I used to get upset and crappy if they lost ... there were a few tears back then.’’
As a junior, Richardson was a phenom and several clubs chased him. St Kilda visited him and Collingwood sent him a bag of goodies which included VHS videos of Darren Millane and the 1990 flag. The Pies wanted him to go into the draft, but Richo said no. He kept the Puma tracksuits and videos, nonetheless, and signed with Richmond under father-son.
“I was never, ever not going to sign with Richmond,’’ he said. ‘’I didn’t want to go into the draft, my whole thing about AFL footy was you had to be in Melbourne, this was where it happens.’’
Funnily enough, Richardson would have his own book by the end of his career, an autobiography simply named ‘’Richo’’.
Such was Richardson’s character, if it was in Devonport library, it would be shelved under Adventure, Wellbeing, Mental Health, Sport and Entertainment.
Unquestionably, he was flamboyant and demonstrative. A player whose capabilities and confidence demanded the ball. Most times he would get it for his teammates. The times he did not, well ... his displeasure was for all to see.
Some would say he was tortured footballer. Richardson disagreed.
“I wouldn’t say I was tortured,’’ he said. ‘’I loved footy and I wanted to play until I was Dustin Fletcher’s age. I thought I was. I thought I was bullet proof. But I also thought I was very hard on myself. I set high expectations and a lot of the time I thought that was misunderstood.
“A lot of the time I was shittier on myself more than people around me, but people thought I was crappy on people around me. No doubt my body language was poor towards teammates but a lot of the time my body language was poor towards my own performance more than anything.’’
As a player, Richardson was devastating. He was an 197cm athletic powerhouse who could run and jump and mark and, on his day, you had to wonder if there had ever been a player like him in the history of the game.
In one game in 1996 against Fitzroy, he had 24 kicks, took 21 marks and kicked 7.5. He would kicked 91 goals for the season. In ‘99 against Hawthorn, it was 29 disposals and 18 marks. In 2006 against Essendon, it was 21 kicks, 19 marks and 9.5. In 2008 against the Hawks, it was 29 touches and 21 marks. Freakish doesn’t quite capture it.
Such was his standing, opposition fans loved him, except when he played against their team.
“I sensed football supporters liked me,’’ he said. ‘’But I also sensed plenty didn’t like me, that they thought I was goose the way I carried on.’’
He smiled that Richo smile again.
He had a hell of career, but the same couldn’t be said of his football team. Of his 282 games, just three were finals.
“There’s definitely holes in my career,’’ he said. ‘’I wrote down some personal goals about halfway through my career, when I felt it probably wasn’t going where I wanted it to. Both club and individual. By the end I had ticked off some of the personal ones, but not the main ones, the team ones.
“I don’t regret playing for Richmond, in fact I’m proud of it, but now that I mix with more people from other clubs because of the media job I’m doing and they start talking premierships, like Ling and Harley and Leigh obviously, now Wayne Carey and Lloydy …
“You look around the media boxes and Cam Mooney will be sitting there, Brereton, Voss ... everywhere you look there are premiership players and when conversations start up when you’re interstate and having a beer, I’ve got to check out of the conversation. I feel a bit inferior.’’
Richmond’s best opportunities were in 1995 and 2001. Richardson was injured in ‘95 and made the preliminary final in ‘01.
Mid-90s were fun times. The Tigers had youth and talent. Daffy, Campbell, Knights, Maxfield, Gale and Gale, Bond, Kellaway and Turner remain strong friends. ‘’We had a good team and I reckon we would’ve got better if John Northey (coach) hadn’t left,’’ he said. ‘’Nothing against Wallsy, but we had three years under John and we were building. We went from four wins, to 12 wins to 15 and a half wins, made a prelim ... I still don’t know why he left.’’
Richardson had five coaches: Northey, Robert Walls, Jeff Gieschen, Danny Frawley and Terry Wallace.
On Northey: “He was real pump you up, a motivator, run-through-brick-walls type of thing.’’
On Walls: “He was about the tactics and probably wasn’t into that motivation.’’
On Gieschen: “A motivator. He had everyone playing for each other, us against them. It was a good vibe. I was young, I would’ve done anything for him.’’
On Frawley: “What I loved about Spud was he got out on the tack with you, he was a competitor. Hated losing. Funny as well, a good fella.’’
On Wallace: “Plough liked to be an innovator, different things week in week out. At one point it was a great strength but as footy got more professional he probably needed to be more consistent. But he was a great coach.’’
All of them would speak highly of Richardson, just as Richo talks highly of the game.
“Footy was about competing, giving your best, being with your mates, winning, having some social time, and getting out there and doing it all again the next week,’’ he said.
THE BESTSeen: “Wayne Carey. He could turn a game on its head in the space of five minutes. He sensed the moment and knew when to lift.”
Played with: “For a nine-week period, Nathan Brown played the best footy of anyone I played with. I was shattered for him when he broke the leg. Add Knights and Campbell for consistency.”
P layed against: “The one I enjoyed the most, and I only played on him a handful of times, was Glenn Archer because the ferocious battle he turned it into. If you walked off the ground and got a kick, you knew you had earned it.”
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