Prima donna, drama queen and football’s Jana Pittman ... Everything Richmond’s Jack Riewoldt is not.
Sam Edmund
Herald Sun
February 28, 2014 6:58PM
Is Jack Riewoldt a victim of tall poppy syndrome?
JACK Riewoldt loosely leans over his ball on the seventh tee at California’s world-famous Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The Pacific Ocean waves pound the surrounding cliffs as he prepares to attack the green on the windy par 3.
He makes good contact, his ball sailing towards a pin surrounded by six bunkers.
To the amazement of at least two witnesses, the ball bounces several times before diving into the hole. It’s a phenomenal feat — a hole-in-one on one of the most beautiful and challenging courses on the planet.
It’s a shot that elevates Riewoldt into elite golf company, with American great Tom Weiskopf acing the same hole way back in the 1982 US Open.
Unfortunately for Jack, he is staring at a giant projector screen some 13,000km from the real Pebble Beach on an X-Golf simulator at Malvern’s House of Golf.
Welcome to Riewoldt’s sanctuary; a place where he can escape the ever-increasing public glare. Sadly, escaping is something he has felt the need to do a bit of lately.
After falling out of Richmond’s leadership group, a self-imposed media ban has again drawn down the magnifying glass on a character who polarises opinion like few others.
Those who know him insist you couldn’t find a more genuine bloke; one who cares enormously for his teammates, is generous to his friends and lives and plays with passion. Passion — it’s a word you hear a lot when asking about Riewoldt.
Many who don’t know him use words like “prima donna”, “drama queen” and “football’s Jana Pittman” to discuss the matchwinning forward.
How the court of public opinion can be so dramatically different from that shared by Riewoldt’s inner circle is a mystery. But speak to enough people and you realise Riewoldt may be the most harshly judged and misunderstood man in football.
Everyone knows Riewoldt the footballer — two Coleman medals, an All-Australian, best-and-fairest and his club’s leading goalkicker in each of the past four years.
Riewoldt the person is a golf fanatic who plays off a handicap of four. He loves his hometown Hobart Hurricanes, the NFL, basketball, horse racing and just about any other sport out there.
He is more partial to a good red than a beer and he’s a keen Triple J listener. His support comes in no stronger form than childhood sweetheart Carly Ziegler, with the couple together since high school.
But on breakfast radio last month, Riewoldt appeared on his Gold FM slot to announce he was taking a vow of silence, upset at the reaction to him falling out of Richmond’s leadership group at the expense of Troy Chaplin.
“I won’t be doing any media at all, I’m sacking The Footy Show, I’m not doing Gold,” Riewoldt declared.
“Something I’ve really struggled with ... is really how I’ve been portrayed in the media. I’ve taken it upon myself to make my own decision that if I can’t be portrayed the way I want to be portrayed, then I’ll give it a miss.
“He (Chaplin) didn’t get the recognition he deserved from the media and from the outside world, so that was the thing that sort of cut me a little bit deep.”
The announcement sparked more ridicule for a player who has previously been criticised for his on-field body language.
Former player turned commentator Dwayne Russell didn’t hold back.
“Has Jack assessed this one bang on and do we get it wrong in the media? ... Or is this just another move from a drama queen and is Jack football’s new Jana Pittman?” Russell asked on 3AW.
“Can anything normal happen with Jack? It’s always a drama. Everything is bigger than it needs to be.”
To those who call Riewoldt a friend, his anger over the media’s oversight of Chaplin wasn’t a hollow statement. They say his care for his teammates is as sincere as it is genuine.
Shane Tuck shared a Tigers changeroom with Riewoldt for seven years. Asked who the real Riewoldt was, Tuck didn’t hesitate.
“We were on a pre-season camp and there were eight blokes in a room and I was as crook as a dog. I got some sort of virus up in Cairns and I woke up through the night spewing and I spewed all over my bed,” Tuck recalled.
“Jack was the only one who got up and helped me and we got down to the bathroom which was outside, 50m away. He sat with me during the night and got me something to eat and drink.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone to help me. How many blokes are willing to clean your spew up? He does have genuine care for his teammates and people misconstrue it because he’s a highly competitive person. I’ve seen him with kids, at clinics, at hospitals visiting people with cancer and people don’t put that in the papers sometimes.”
Former Tiger Sam Lonergan played in Tasmanian state teams with Riewoldt before both graduated to the AFL.
“He was the same back then and he has always been a very caring person. When he plays people just see a different thing,” Lonergan said.
“Sometimes when you’ve got that profile, people only see one thing. Jack is a rag character. He’s a good person, but he’s personality is very open and confident and that can be misinterpreted.”
But it’s the passion, seemingly hardwired into Riewoldt, that has caused him trouble inside the fence.
His excellent career has been pot-holed by look-away-now moments, from berating teammates to arguing with club officials.
Last year commentator Mark Maclure savaged Riewoldt for his body language.
“Jack Riewoldt, fair dinkum. What a prima donna. It’s about time he actually stood up himself and did something,” Maclure said.
“It has to be fixed by his peers. That’s his biggest problem. Are they strong enough to control him? He is totally in control of that club. (Brett) Deledio and (Trent) Cotchin have to handle this bloke. They have to change this guy and they have to make him one of them, because at the moment he’s not.’’
Maclure wouldn’t comment this week, but said his comments were based on years of watching Riewoldt closely.
Analyst and former Richmond assistant coach David King said Riewoldt’s emotional nature wasn’t suited to leadership.
“He doesn’t hide anything, he wears it on his sleeve and you can see how he’s feeling at all times,” King said.
“For those who know him they understand that’s Jack and they take it for what it is. In terms of being a leader that doesn’t go hand in hand. He’s not a rogue, but I can understand why he’s not in the leadership group.”
One of his Tassie mates, Brett Geappen, puts it like this: “He can rub blokes up the wrong way, but he’s so passionate it’s ridiculous.
“I reckon it’s his biggest strength. He’s like an 18-year-old kid in an AFL club in the sense that he’s so passionate and so bubbly. I’m obviously not with him at Richmond, but the blokes in that inner circle would know how passionate and keen he is. “
Richard Mulligan, the chief executive of the Clarence Football Club at which Riewoldt’s star started to rise, described it as “straight out passion”.
“He’s not an offensive person, but he pushes the envelope in a lot of ways. As a kid he was always the practical joker and if there was someone who was going to have one more drink than perhaps they should ...,” Mulligan said.
“But he wasn’t a bad kid, he was just a very spirited, happy, confident young man and I think half the trouble is he’s so confident a lot of people think it’s arrogance.”
Perhaps, when the gaze of the football world falls upon him, it’s a case of passion mistaken for petulance.
He cares what people think. Some say perhaps too much. Insiders say he was hurt when he didn’t make Mike Sheahan’s top 50 and in the wake of Maclure’s criticism he contacted the commentator and asked to catch up for a chat. Certainly, the obsession with him being “dumped” from the leadership group affected him.
Nick Dastey has chatted to Riewoldt often enough at the Long Island Golf Club he manages to be left angry when he hears Riewoldt talked of as a destructive diva.
“To be honest, it frustrates me so I can’t imagine how much it frustrates him. I couldn’t imagine any of those comments being further from the truth,” Dastey said.
“I would hate to be him in that situation because every time you read it, see it, or sitting in the car hearing it, he must just think, ‘Gee, that’s not the way I am. How does it come across like that?’”
You get the impression long-time Richmond coterie member Brian McCue could talk uninterrupted for an hour about Riewoldt’s qualities.
“This is one of the nicest people ... nothing is ever too much,” McCue said.
“The Jack I see people writing about is not the Jack I know. Yes, his body language isn’t great at times, but it’s born out of passion and you know if he mucked up he’d spend the whole week apologising.”
Riewoldt’s media ban appears to extend to the social variety. His 50,000 Twitter followers haven’t heard from him since February 11.
His profile photo is of a bunch of mates having a laugh. Jack is at the very back — you have to look closely to find him. It’s not the sort of photo you would associate with a self-obsessed “prima donna”.
But the last word has to go to one of his best mates. Few know Riewoldt better than Mitch McPherson after the pair met in their early teens.
McPherson lost his 18-year-old brother Ty to suicide last January and launched not-for-profit organisation “Stay ChatTY”. McPherson and a group of friends recently ran 328km from Burnie to Hobart to raise awareness for youth suicide.
Who was waiting for them at the finish line? Riewoldt, who despite being in the middle of pre-season, flew down to show support.
“He was happy to speak to the news down here and pose for photos, sign autographs and then he came to the function as well. His generosity is amazing in all sorts of ways,” McPherson said.
“He’s a great fella and a good friend and he was one of the first people to call me when we lost Ty and he was down at the funeral. The other night at the function he put money on the bar and he didn’t want me to say anything either.
“He’s not a show pony. We speak about that criticism of him all the time, us boys down here. He’s just not that sort of person.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/prima-donna-drama-queen-and-footballs-jana-pittman-everything-richmonds-jack-riewoldt-is-not/story-fni5f9jb-1226841171483
