Rich Pickings
Michael Gleeson | August 13, 2008
THE surrounds were stiflingly formal but Richard Tambling was unperturbed. He had a story to tell and he would tell it in his way.
It was his own story of a boy who grew up in the shade of a gum tree outside Darwin in a small community of tumbledown houses amid violence and alcohol.
Across from him in Canberra's Parliament House sat some of the most important figures in Australian politics. They listened in respectful silence.
By the time Tambling and his Richmond colleagues departed Canberra, they had received a commitment for $8.75 million in federal money for an indigenous learning centre to be built at Punt Road. The money will also in large part underwrite the $20 million total reconstruction of the club's headquarters, which will elevate Richmond to the elite of AFL club facilities.
"The idea for the centre was (Richmond chief executive) Steven Wright's, but it is fair to say Richard was extremely important in the whole process and securing the federal money," president Gary March said.
When the notion of constructing something for the indigenous community was first conceived, Wright approached Tambling and met an enthusiastic response.
"We wanted to involve the community in the centre as well as the indigenous people. It has worked pretty well with the Federal Government and Kevin Rudd saying sorry … It came out that indigenous people needed a bit of help and they were willing to do that," Tambling said.
"We went to Canberra and it was pretty daunting. A young kid coming from the bush walking into Parliament House, it wasn't anything I thought I would ever do.
"People in suits walking around — luckily, I took a pair of slacks and a T-shirt with me and didn't walk in there in a pair of jeans and a hoodie, which was good for me.
"It was difficult sitting there at the start but to have a background like mine, not many people would guess about anything I have grown up with, so it was easy to talk about because it was really just my life experience … Not many of these people in suits would realise something like this had happened until they saw and heard about it themselves."
Tambling became the club's champion for the cause because he essentially was their cause. Or at least kids such as him.
"We were conscious Richard had lived the experience first-hand and, after speaking to him, he was very eager to be involved," Wright said.
Tambling was brought up in an isolated community called the 15 Mile Camp, about 70 kilometres from Darwin.
"At the time, there were only 12 houses in the community where I grew up. It was all sort of iron and pretty much chicken wire for a house. There was a lot of alcohol and violence, so I grew up in a fairly colourful background," he said.
"I shared some of my experiences with the politicians — the sports minister and Simon Crean and people from Julia Gillard's office and some senators. I just told them the way I grew up and what it meant to me when I had a footballer come to my school when I was 11 years old.
"Even today, I remember it clearly the day the Wakelin boys came up and what that did for us as young kids. They came to my school and (former Fremantle player) Gary Dhurrkay came to my school. Gary … came from a remote community as well, so it gives you that little bit of hope and belief that you can make something of yourself because someone else has done it.
"Coming from an indigenous community, you don't get a look-in the same as a kid from, say, country Victoria in footy terms. The scouts aren't looking at the kids out in the Northern Territory region … because it is so isolated."
Tambling's story resonated with those in Canberra and the money was committed to pay for the learning centre that will be built on the third floor of the new grandstand at Punt Road, which will replace the derelict social club stand.
The football department, squeezed into decaying quarters under the old Jack Dyer Stand, will move into the new facility with expanded gyms, medical rooms, theatrettes and other essentials of a modern football club. The football department's space will increase from 300 square metres to 1000 and a museum will be constructed in the Jack Dyer Stand.
The oval will be widened to the dimensions of Telstra Dome and the new $8.5 million summer training base being built at Craigieburn will have an oval the size of the MCG. Both of these facilities will be constructed at a cost to Richmond of only $2.5 million, while the Federal Government is to contribute $8.75 million, the State Government $6.5 million, the AFL $2 million, local councils $5 million and the Craigieburn property developer $3 million.
"We could build a football facility and get away with spending about $10-12 million and you would have all the footy club needs, but the footy club is more than just the team," Wright said. "We exist to play football and win premierships but we exist because of the community, so it is important we remain connected to the community and give something back to the community. What we are building will help bring something to the community, in particular through the indigenous learning centre."
The centre will seek to run leadership and pre-employment programs for indigenous youth who would be brought to Melbourne as part reward for achievements such as school attendance. The types of programs available and the mechanics of how it would operate are still being worked out in collaboration with the AFL's indigenous programs co-ordinator, Jason Mifsud.
Operation of the program is likely to be out-sourced and sponsored but Richmond would provide the venue and facilities.
"If these kids do come down, it is not about bringing their talents out to make it to the elite level in football," Tambling said. "It could be in anything, not even in sport, it could be girls and boys but if these kids do make it to the elite level in whatever area they want to make it in, it is about personal development as much as bringing their talents to the table.
"It is about getting these kids to have self-belief and to learn a bit and if they don't make it at an elite level, they can go back to their community and become leaders back in their community and be role models in their community.
"Hopefully, I can relate to a few of them and tell them a bit about my background and what I had to go through. It wasn't laid out on the table, you had to take it and most of these kids don't believe they can. Coming from a community, they are shy, they don't have much self-belief and confidence."
Many Tiger faithful remain unsettled at the mention of Tambling's name, aching in the knowledge that there but for the grace of a recruiting choice went Lance "Buddy" Franklin. But while Franklin might be the foundation stone of an era of success at Hawthorn, he may never be as influential to his club as Tambling has already been for Richmond.
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