Win or loss, a Tiger
The Age
April 15, 2006
This is the story of a true believer. I met him last year after a discussion I had with Robert Manne for Radio National. He was in his 30s, thick-set, an organiser with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.
He said his name was Andy Richards and, in a way consistent with his forthright manner, he said: "I want to go to the footy with you."
As it turns out, we haven't got there yet but we have exchanged the occasional email relating either to footy or the Federal Government's IR changes.
Then, last Friday week, out of the blue, he rang to say he was driving to Punt Road. He wanted to know whether I thought he should buy a Richmond membership, there being the small matter of the Tiges' 115-point drubbing in the opening round to consider.
I said he should. He said he would, and I thought no more about it. Then coming home from something else on the train last Friday night. I heard the Tiges were level with 15 minutes to go and I wanted them to get home for the sake of the Tiger fan who showed faith and renewed his membership. How precious would that have been? A Richmond story with a happy ending!
Of course, the Tigers lost, and we were back in the real world - a familiar feeling for Richmond fans - but I rang him nonetheless to see if he regretted becoming what he calls, with a certain ironic humour, "an entry-level investor in the Terry Wallace experiment". Not at all, he replied.
When had he decided his investment was worthwhile, I asked. His first answer was when he realised St Kilda didn't have a ruckman. "If they can't ruck, how good are they really?" By way of an omen, he found himself sitting next to Richmond ruckman Troy Simmonds' old primary school teacher. "He was always going to be good," she said, and last weekend, in Andy Richards' opinion, he was.
I was surprised to learn Richards wasn't born to the game. From Longreach in Queensland, he played first-class rugby union as a prop in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. Comparing the two games, he describes Australian football as being "more like life".
"Footy's a 360-degrees game. Rugby's trench warfare. Everything comes at you from straight on. In footy, the threat - and the opportunity - can come from anywhere."
He sees a lot of life in footy. The new IR laws, in his view, represent a game with no umpire or tribunal. His job, seeking to oppose those changes, is "pretty stressful". "A lot of things will have to go right for us to win."
But last weekend, when he got to the Dome, bought his first overpriced beer and sat down, he realised he was relaxed. A few seats away a mad old Tigers fan was yelling, "Carn Tigers. Them Sainters aren't as good as they think they are."
Richards has been to the footy in every state. He describes the home crowds at Lions and Swans matches as gentrified. "They're basically people looking for an alternative to rugby league." In Adelaide, crowds are "unbelievably one-eyed". In Perth, support for the Dockers and the Eagles divides roughly on class lines.
Coming to Melbourne, he looked forward to going to footy matches that everyone went to. Then he started searching for a team to follow. In the end, he went with Wallace to the Tiges. He had seen The Year of the Dogs, the film of Wallace's ground-breaking first year with the Bulldogs.
As an old rugby coach, he was particularly taken with a statement made by Wallace after an early loss when the team had led by eight goals at half-time: "If I see one person get a pat on the back after that, I'll spew." He had spoken similarly to rugby teams.
When Wallace went to Richmond, he thought "this could be an interesting experiment". He also liked what he knew about the suburb, the history of its early politics that remind him of the Queensland in which he grew up under Joh Bjelke-Petersen. His girlfriend follows the Kangaroos. He watched them for a while, but says he found the experience as exciting as watching paint dry. What the Tigers give their supporters, he says, is drama.
He summarises a Tigers match as follows. Quarter one: Richo catches nothing. Quarter two: Richo catches everything. Quarter three: see quarter one. Quarter four: for the first half of quarter four, see quarter one.
Then Richo catches a kick-out on the half-back line, runs up the field, bounces three times and kicks to an open player 15 metres in front of goal. Ideally, the Tigers win, "but win or lose, you get value for money".
After last weekend's match, he went home and emailed his mates to get a group together to watch Richmond play Carlton. "When things come good," he said, "I want to be able to say I believed in the Tigers and Terry Wallace."
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/14/1144521503495.html
