I read this last night in this week's Inside Footy - From the Bladder
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Tigers $2 million blackhole identified
by STAFF REPORTERS
Richmond has identified the reason it is running at a $2 million dollar loss, revealing that the result is due to a player payment error.
President Clinton Casey said the problem stemmed from payments made to key forward Matthew Richardson, who had received multiple pay checks over the past year.
"The problem was caused by confusion over how many Matthew Richardsons we actually have at Richmond," Casey said. "I understood that we had two players called Matthew Richardson, perhaps more, but it turns out there's only one of them."
Casey said that the belief was propagated by Richardson's own performance. "You could have Richo show up one week and kick ten goals, then come back the next week and fail to hit the broad side of a barn. We were under the impression that the Matthew Richardson who showed up that week couldn't possibly be the same player who was on the field in the previous round. Somehow, that resulted in two salaries being paid.
"However, further investigation showed that the mistake had been made a number of times, with separate salaries being paid out for Richo the inspirational leader, Richo the temperamental genius, and Richo the whinger.
"As hard to believe as it may seem, all these different guys you see playing for us each week are, in fact, just the one person - Matthew Richardson."
Casey said that now the problem had been identified, the club's finances would improve dramatically. "This is great news, because it means we can pay both our Brad Ottenses the money they deserve," he said.
http://www.thebladder.com.au/content/news/displayContent.asp?CID=2633&EID=257
