Two special Tigers
6 July, 2004
Paul Gough
Sportal/exclusive to afl.com.au
It is quite fitting Matthew Rogers will play his 197th and final game of his AFL career against Essendon at the MCG on Saturday.
Rogers, who announced his retirement with Duncan Kellaway on Tuesday, has been given one last chance to farewell the 'Tiger Army" - a privilege the ultra-courageous Kellaway will not have due to severe bruising of the kidney, which would have sidelined him for the rest of the season anyway.
While Kellaway will be remembered as one of the bravest players of the modern era and for his continued ability to shut down the best opposition midfielders, Rogers' career at Richmond, without in any way showing any disrespect to his fine efforts over more than a decade - will be remembered mostly by Tigers' fans for one game.
In fact it is not going too far to say the 30-year-old, who joined the club at the start of the 1994 season from South Australia, gave long-suffering Tiger fans their most memorable moment in the past 22 years, since the club's last finals appearance in 1982.
It came in a thrilling 1995 second semi final when the Tigers took on arch-rivals Essendon before more than 88,000 fans at the MCG.
Richmond was in its first finals series for 13 years and desperate for some September success, after having lost to the Kangaroos the previous week.
And when the Bombers led by five goals late in the third term, it appeared the Tigers were going to go out of their long-awaited return finals series in "straight sets."
But a devastating five goal burst late in the third term saw the Tigers go into the last quarter with a one point lead.
Then for about half of an agonising final quarter neither side was able to kick a goal as the Tigers hung on to a narrow lead before Rogers, in just his second season, wrote his name into Tigers' folklore.
Two terrific marks in the space of a minute were both followed by cool conversions from around 25 metres out and suddenly the Tigers were on their way to their most famous victory of the modern era.
In years to come Rogers would win the Tigers' goalkicking award in 2000, when Matthew Richardson missed nearly all of the season with a serious foot injury, while in later years he also made the transition to that of tagger.
But if you ask any Richmond fan to name their most prominent memory of "Buck" Rogers, then 99.9 percent would name those two glorious goals on that sun-drenched afternoon in September, 1995.
As for Duncan Kellaway his contribution to the Tigers as such that it is almost impossible to highlight just one particular moment of his career.
While his kicking often gave Tiger fans' heart scares so awkward was his style, Kellaway was in many ways the heart and soul of Punt Road over the past decade.
From his memorable battles with Collingwood skipper Nathan Buckley, to name just one of the superstars he quelled over the year, to his ability to emerge unscathed from even the most incredible acts of bravery - Kellaway was a cult figure amongst Richmond supporters.
The first of only 12 goals he would kick in his 180 game career - in an otherwise forgettable last season match against Port Adelaide at the MCG in late 1997 - also provoked scenes of hysteria from Tiger fans such was his popularity.
Unfortunately in later years Kellaway's ferocious style of play would take a huge toll on his body as he suffered two knee re-constructions, then an achilles injury, then a thigh injury which cost him the first half of 2002 while hamstring and foot injuries cost him most of 2003.
But such was Kellaway's devotion to the club that even during these frustrating periods on the sidelines, the qualified physiotherapist would still help out in the treatment of his teammates.
It will be sad Richmond fans won't get one last chance to watch Kellaway throw himself into a contest with no regard for his safety but the greatest tribute one could pay to him is he well and truly deserves his place alongside the other great number threes to have played for Richmond - Roger Dean and Dale Weightman.
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