Richardson: The power of perception
21 July 2007 Herald Sun
Glenn Archer
Glenn Archer: I thought we wouldn't talk too much about the 250 games. Matthew Richardson: There's been a bit about that already.
I reckon we just talk about general stuff. You're 32 - I Googled you for my research. Yeah, 32 in March this year. There's a couple of other Matthew Richardsons out there (Google) too, I think.
Is there? There's a golfer in America or something. He probably came up as well.
A bit of eBay stuff in there. Oh yeah, the people that come down to training and have us sign jumpers all the time. It's shocking.
Do you think that's got worse? I reckon a lot of people at training now don't even support the team they're there for. They're just down there to put it on eBay. You've got to say, 'Who do I make it out to?'.
When I Googled you, I saw that you wanted to be an accountant. Well, I'll tell you how long that lasted. I was in Year 9 or 10 and I went down to the local accounting place in Devonport for some work experience. Within the first half-hour I'd worked out that I wasn't going to be an accountant. Very boring people and very boring jobs that they had me doing.
There were also some photos on some websites showing off the old ponytail. It's not an accountant's look. A shocking, shocking look, the ponytail, but at the time I thought it looked pretty good. It got pulled by a few opponents a couple of times, too, so it wasn't worth it.
When I used to play on you - I played on you a couple of times - David King used to get into you a fair bit. Yeah, he did.
He got into you a lot, actually. And now he's your assistant coach. I must admit when I first heard that Kingy was coming down, I thought straight away back to the days when we used to play against him. But he's so enthusiastic about what he does down at our club and once you see someone in another light, when they're not on the ground, it's totally different, so he's been great. Although he was the forward line coach for 12 months and one day he was trying to give me tips on how to take a contested mark and I thought, 'Hang on, Kingy, this isn't your strength area'.
Let's talk about perceptions of blokes on the field. The average punter that goes to the footy probably looks at you on the ground and that's what they think you're like all the time. That's what they expect you to be like. I can get fired up on the ground and get a bit passionate about my footy, and they probably think that's what I'm like all the time off the ground. It's obviously not the case.
One thing has always got me about the media, they focus a lot on your negatives. Does that annoy you? Yeah, it does, I did a press conference the other day with (coach) Terry (Wallace) and all the media outlets were there and always the first questions are on the goalkicking and the second question's always your body language. And I think surely there's a lot of other areas in the game that I do well that they could focus on. But I guess from an early age they sort of focused in on those two areas. It doesn't matter if I kick straight for five, six or seven weeks in a row, and I have one game where I miss three or four goals, it's like I've been kicking badly for the whole seven weeks. Or I might play with a lot of control in my emotions for six or seven weeks and I have one game when I get a bit fired up, and it's like, 'He's been doing it every week'. You learn to live with that. Sometimes you wish they'd look at your positives more than your negatives. I shouldn't make it sound like that. Obviously a lot of people write a lot of good stuff as well. But they are the first two things people think about.
You've kicked a lot of goals - 700 odd? Up around there.
You can't be too bad a kick. It's funny though. You look at my percentage and it can be 60 per cent and another guy's will be 61 per cent, but he's seen as being a good kick and I'm 60 per cent and I'm a shocking kick. It's a funny game. Fine line.
Perception again. Yeah, fine line. I'm not trying to say I'm Peter McKenna here, though. I'll admit I need to improve, but it can be a very fine line between being good and bad, it seems.
Wayne Carey was saying, and I don't reckon Wayne gives out too many compliments unless they're warranted, and he was saying Matthew Richardson is a champion player. And a couple of blokes disagreed with him. What does a bloke have to do? I think the problem is because I haven't played in a lot of successful teams, that's where the statement probably comes up and because I haven't played finals footy. I must admit when Wayne Carey went into bat for me I was happy with that because he's one of the greatest of all time. If he thinks I'm all right then I'm pretty happy with that.
Let's talk about today's footy. How you go full time, the meetings? I think the best way to sum it up is I'm probably happy it's the last years of my career. If I was starting now as an 18-year-old I don't know if I could last 15 years. It would drive me insane. There's probably too many meetings and I reckon we over-analyse footy now. I don't think it's as hard as we try to make out sometimes.
What about the new generation, like the under-18s now. How would you compare them to when you came in? I reckon when I first came in you got told to do something and you just went out and tried to do it. But now you try and tell young guys to do something and they ask you why they've got to do it. That's probably the best way of comparing the two. Although I'm sure my first coaches might disagree if I said I did exactly what I was told.
It's a different generation and the generations are only going to get worse because it's the cuddle generation now. We cuddle our kids so tight, we don't really let them off the leash that often. Yeah, I think back when you first started the coaches used to ride you a lot more. You'd get abused a lot more and if you couldn't handle it, you wouldn't survive.
How's your Dad going? Good. Lives in Doncaster now. He came back from Tassie about 10 years ago. He enjoys the footy, he loves it and gets there every week. He's going well.
Does he talk to you much about your footy? Doesn't say a lot, Dad. I've got to ask him. He doesn't tell me anything. Often I'll ask him about when he was playing. I'll ask him about players he played with. But he's never been a preacher, telling me how to play. He's always just pretty positive and encouraging. One thing he can't get a handle on is every week the team printed in the paper - back-pocket Bowden, full-back Thursfield . . . He'll say why is such and such playing half-forward flank and I'll say, 'Dad, don't believe how it's lined up in the paper, it doesn't happen any more'. Back in his day, what was in the paper was where you played. He just can't get a handle on that. It's funny.
What do you reckon you'll do after footy? Do you think you'll stay involved? I reckon I'd like to have some sort of involvement in footy. You do it for this long you can hardly imagine not doing something. But I don't see myself as being a coach or up in the coach's box. I reckon I'd like to be around a footy club doing something, helping out in some capacity. I'd definitely go and watch the footy. I'll go and support Richmond, definitely. I'll enjoy that, I reckon. Just going in the outer with a few mates.
You don't have kids yet? Not yet, that might fill up my time a bit more . . .
It makes it hard. I don't watch any footy now. At Saturday morning training you walk in and they're all talking about the game they watched last night. I have to ask who won. Yeah.
Which makes it hard when you go out on the field after a game when you go to shake everyone's hand you don't know the names. That's one thing I've noticed . . . years ago you'd know every single player. Now sometimes you've got to ask someone who it is. If you're not following it religiously you can lose track of it pretty quickly.
Do you get down to the Prince of Wales, watch a few bands? Yeah, not as much as I'd like. I like getting out and watching a bit of live music. We seem to be playing on Sunday all the time this year. It just gives you no real social time, you can't go out to a pub and watch a band on a Thursday or Friday night. Or if you did and you went and had a bottle of water someone would ring the club and say you were out drinking.
You're drinking a bottle of water and they'd say you were taking drugs. Yeah, it's pretty hard now.
How do you reckon the drugs issue is going after the Cousins thing? With the policy they've brought in in the last two years - if anyone was thinking of doing it now, you'd be pretty stupid. I have noticed the drug testers have been at the club a lot more often. You know on a Monday or a Tuesday, so if that's not a deterrent then I don't know what is. I reckon the new policy and all the publicity has woken guys up to realise that if you were thinking of experimenting then it wouldn't be the time to be doing it.
I was real worried about 12 months ago. You would have heard the same stories. Well, you do - just the footy grapevine, the rumours. You do hear things, but in the last 18 months I haven't been hearing hardly anything. So hopefully than means the policy is working.
I wrote an article a couple of years ago about how emotional the game is after you got in trouble for sticking your finger up to the crowd. That cost me five grand. I won't do it again.
I was just going to make a point about being a role model . . . Yeah, it's not a good look. Obviously if kids see me sticking my finger up, they think it's all right to do it too . . . they're going to follow whatever you do. No doubt we are role models whether we like it or not. Kids want to follow what we're doing so we have to be careful. I felt like a clown when I looked at it.
It's very hard to turn off that switch. It happens in a 100th of a second when you lose it. I've seen psychologists, I've seen priests and everything to try to control my temper. And the only thing I think that's worked for me is maturity. That's what's worked for me. I've spoken to people about trying to keep my emotions in check and it's exactly as you say, as you get older you mellow out a bit more.
Now I see blokes pushing and shoving . . . it's a waste of time. I've got to try to save my energy for trying to get the ball. I remember I had a wrestle with Fraser Gehrig one day on the wing and for the next 10 minutes neither of us could move. A wrestle takes more out of you than running. And it costs you too much money now. The fines are a bit out of whack, I reckon.
How many times have you been up to the tribunal? I've never been suspended for striking or anything like that. But a few melees and wrestling.
And your injuries? I think in the last 14 years I've had 14 operations. But in saying that I haven't missed much footy in the last four or five years. The most I've missed in any year is three or four games. I've got my body pretty much in check.
It shows how many games you missed - 100 probably, so really you should be up around 350 games. I reckon I've missed between 60 and 70. So I'd be up around where you are and Ricciuto, Neitzy started about the same time. I'd like to think I've still got a few years left. I aim to get up around 300. We'll see what happens.
You don't look like you're getting any slower. Oh, I think I am a bit. I think back when I played on you I was probably running to the wrong positions a lot of the time. You learn to run a bit smarter.
Have you looked at your contested marks compared to 10 years ago? They've definitely dropped back. I reckon 10 years ago you'd take 70 or 80 a year if you had a good year, and now I reckon if you take 40 you've had a good year. Footy's changed a lot since then. There's not as many marking contests now, one-on-one anyway. I feel like I can go a whole quarter and not be in a real genuine one-on-one chance.
Back to life after footy. What sort of jobs will you do? I've got the share in the Lounge Room down in Docklands, a restaurant bar. It's pretty hard work, hospitality, I don't know if that's my go. I'm not sure, really. Media, I don't know. I guess you wait and see what sort of opportunities arise when you're getting towards the end.
What about footy trips. Are footy trips pretty big at the Tigers? They used to be. That's another thing that's gone out of footy, which is disappointing. We didn't get to go on one last year. I think just because of the environment now where they get worried about blokes getting into trouble. So they're a dying thing. It used to be a good chance to really get to know guys. You'd really bond with blokes.
At least it's not dying at the Kangaroos. Footy trips and premierships, that's what we play for. It's disappointing that they're going by the wayside.
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