Wayward Richo still the king
The Age
April 29, 2006
THE press box at the new MCG looks down on the backs of supporters, so making possible a crude study of the popularity of guernseys. Categorically, it can be said that the most common number on Richmond backs is still the No. 12 that for 14 years has belonged to Matthew Richardson.
Last night, he showed why, for all his faults and foibles, no one has yet replaced him in supporters' affections. He showed why it is that though he sometimes breaks Tiger hearts, he still rules them.
"Richo" kicked three goals and had a significant part in at least half a dozen others. But he also missed six times, and at least twice failed to make the distance when that famously erratic kicking style malfunctioned. So he both led and characterised Richmond on the night: dominant, inefficient, but ultimately victorious.
Richardson figured in five of the Tigers' first seven goals, kicking two, and making others with a snappy handball, two acts of desperation and by winning a free kick in the goal square that became an advantage goal for Nathan Foley. Richo, being Richo, also wasted half a dozen other chances with shonky kicking. But this was not a night on which precise kicking, in the field or at goal, was a feature.
Between times, Richardson, chased, harassed, waved, urged, gestured, rejoiced. His philosophy was simply to make every contest he thought he could, even if it meant throwing himself at the ball from improbable positions. Such an attitude served Wayne Carey well. At 31, Richardson is still remarkably athletic. He is an old dog, but with all the friskiness of a puppy, and sometimes the innocence, too.
By midway through the second quarter, Carlton coach Denis Pagan decided to cut his losses and repatriated Lance Whitnall from the forward line to stand Richardson. Poor Whitnall; last Friday night, it was Trent Croad for a while, before he became a forward again. Whitnall's redeployment paid Peter, but robbed Paul; the Blues managed only four more goals for the match.
Richardson, sensibly, sought to run Whitnall ragged, leading him on long, lung-busting gallops to the ground's vast spaces. This was a night on which Richo thought of no cause as lost; sprinting 30 metres to spoil, 50 to smother, 70 to mark and search out a teammate on the other side of the ground. So were more goals made.
When the play did not evolve as it seemed to Richo it must, he threw up his hands in exasperation. There have been times when this did not go down well at Tigerland, since it was seen as some sort of breach of team solidarity. Once, it cost him his place for a week.
Now, though, Richmond fans see that in these moments, he is not a traitor, but one of them, anxious to the point of neurotic for his team to succeed, thinking of every missed chance as one that can never be recovered. More than any other footballer, he wears his heart on his sleeve. He has flaws and fallibilities, but lack of devotion to the cause is not one.
Against the prevailing trend this season, this game was open and free-flowing, almost without flooding. Perhaps the MCG is too big for a flood to work. Perhaps teams such as these, seeking a way up the ladder, must sometimes play to see what they can create, rather than what they can simply deny their opponents.
Last night, it was as if neither set of forwards could believe the space and time they found. Attack after carefully crafted attack faltered in the last 50 metres, and more particularly in the moment when it came to kicking for goal.
Efficiency in midfield became profligacy in attack. It looked almost as if the configuration of floodlights at the MCG caused players to misjudge distance and space. Marking, too, was problematic. Both teams were repeatedly guilty of misdirected kicks and spilled marks, often under little pressure. It meant that Richmond, though plainly the better team, could never break the match open and Carlton could never make good the margin.
For Richo, 17 kicks, 12 marks and three goals was a typical night's work. At the final siren, he raised his arms, then reached for his knees. Again, he had given his all for the Tigers.
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