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Riewoldt confirmed on Fox Footy the act was a deliberate way to ensure the moment was purely about Ablett.
“I spoke to Danger and just said, look, we’d really like to do this,” he said on AFL 360.
“To be honest the medal idea came from when Dustin did it in 2017. He didn’t wear his Norm Smith around when all of us had our premiership medals on and he didn’t want to be the only one out with two medals.
“This isn’t a moment for us, we paused our celebrations, this was actually about respecting and honouring a champion of the game. I’d hate for Gary to look back on those images and see all of us standing there with the spoils of victory, and take the shine away from what has arguably been the greatest career in AFL history.
“A small gesture but we’ve had some correspondence with Geelong and they really appreciate it. As Dustin said in his speech, he’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game and he deserves the respect. We were happy to give that to him and to send him the love.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/richmond-players-made-extraordinary-gesture-in-gary-ablett-farewell-tribute/news-story/cd1cebd9c08c9cf7fddab7a1278bce06