Run Richo run
Peter Hanlon | May 3, 2008 | The Age
THEY seek him here, they seek him there, and they find the Richo man
everywhere.
Last Sunday evening, MCG, first minute: Matthew Richardson marks in the forward pocket, goes back and misses. Still first minute: he gets a telling hand to a contest on the opposite wing.
Fifth minute: a saving mark in the back pocket. Sixth minute: ignored on a lead pushing through half-forward. Seventh minute: contests a mark at full-back, follows up and shoots out a relieving handball at centre half-back. Still in the seventh minute: marks in the centre and keeps pushing forward
And on it goes, through 15 kicks, 13 marks, 12 handballs and 96% of game time. In the stands, mouths gape. Hawthorn fans, seeking a distraction from Buddy Franklin's kicking for goal, start watching the Tigers' No. 12. There are cries of wonderment. "Look at Richo go!"
It is three weeks since Terry Wallace chose to "release Richo", snipping the leash that had admittedly only loosely bound him to the half-forward line in the past. The result has been to make possibly the game's most cherished character even more loved. It might also have won him seven or eight Brownlow votes.
And for the ground he has covered, heart on sleeve as ever, it has also posed a question: does Matthew Richardson have the biggest "engine" in football?
Geelong club doctor Chris Bradshaw is an unabashed admirer, having seen enough in his years at Punt Road to imagine the athlete Richo might have been. He likens him to Alberto Juantorena, the legendary Cuban who won the 400/800 metres double at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; like Richardson, Juantorena was a big man with an even bigger stride (a combination that led him to be dubbed el Caballo the Horse).
"Richo was that sort of athlete, probably someone who had enough endurance to run a good 800, but he would have run a fairly decent 400 as well," Bradshaw said.
Tales of a younger Richardson's feats in competitive testing scenarios abound; Bradshaw remembers intervention being required during a beep test.
"He got to a level beyond everyone else, something ridiculous, and he was still going flat out. We had to stop him because we were worried he was going to tear a hammy, he was going that fast. And he still wasn't exhausted. He was the last guy standing."
Richardson wasn't "wired up" during last weekend's game, but wore a GPS monitor the previous two weekends. He ran 16 kilometres against the Western Bulldogs, and 16.5 in his best-on-ground, all-over-the-ground dismantling of Fremantle at Subiaco Oval figures comparable to the game's hardest-running midfielders.
The Tigers weren't divulging this week how many of those metres were traversed through "high-end efforts" at near full capacity but you can be assured it was many. In competitive situations, Richardson has always gone out to use every drop of petrol in his huge tank.
Peter Knights coached him as a 16-year-old, throwing the spindly teen into Devonport's seniors in 1992, when Tasmania's state competition was still strong both of standard and physical presence. Knights sent him to the half-forward line and has not seen anyone of that age come close to matching his athletic feats.
"He had an aerobic capacity better than anyone else," Knights said. "Not only could he run long and hard, he could run very, very quickly. Just his running, jumping, effervescing, his sheer athleticism, it was something to behold."
Peter Schwab remembers being equally gobsmacked the same year, when he first saw Richardson representing Tasmania in a national under-age carnival game at Morwell. He noted, as Knights had, that some skill refinements would be needed, but quietly gave thanks that Richo was bound to Richmond as a father-son selection.
"I remember saying to (senior coach) John Northey, 'You've just got to play him, he's got so much to offer'," recalled Schwab, who was assistant and reserves coach at Punt Road when Richardson's career began.
Like Knights, Schwab noted the only thing that would stop Richo running was Richo, when he would "crack it and walk around for a while"; it has always seemed his head would explode before his heart or lungs. But he never stays still for long, like the day he was dropped back to Schwab, and responded by taking 26 marks.
Matt Hornsby, Richmond's elite performance manager, arrived at the club eight years ago with a head full of second-hand stories about the club's lionheart. None prepared him for a first-hand viewing. "Even knowing he was a really strong runner, it still surprised me," Hornsby said. "Whenever there's a test anything from a 200 metres effort to a four-kilometre run if there's an element of competitiveness either against other people or against the clock, he has an amazing capacity to really push himself physically. I think that's what you see game day."
Modern football training has moved on from the summer days when Ron Barassi would send his North Melbourne charges off through suburban streets, but one old-fashioned testing ground has survived, and is a tangible indicator of Richardson's powers of endurance.
The Tan 3.87 kilometres of crushed gravel and sand circling the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Said Bradshaw: "The first time Matthew came down to Richmond, they just said, 'This is called the Tan, it's about four ks, off you go', and he came back in about 13 minutes 20-something." His best is 13.02, in the very top bracket for footballers.
Bradshaw uses Anthony Koutoufides for comparison both could cover 400 metres swiftly (he remembers Richardson running 50 seconds in flat shoes anchoring a relay at Glen Huntly), and both could bench press significant weight (Richo in the 135-145-kilogram range). Yet Kouta, even pre-Gladiatorial beef, could not match him for endurance, and would take 15½ minutes to get around the Tan.
Another relevant endurance measurement is VO 2 max, a figure arrived at by dividing lung capacity in litres by body weight. Lance Armstrong's was in the high 80s freak territory Rob de Castella's about 83. Richo is in the mid-60s, which Hornsby says is up with the top couple of midfielders in yellow and black.
Making sure Richardson's 195-centimetre frame tips the scales at 103 kilograms has been crucial to maximising his running capacity without losing the muscle mass that helps make him an amazing footballer, as well as athlete. Hornsby says the balance is tricky; Richo loves the workload in pre-season, which builds a platform for the long months ahead.
"The biggest issue I have is pulling the reins because he likes to do things absolutely flat out when he does them. Terry (Wallace) has a good feel for Richo's ability to really push himself game day, and have a reduced training volume through the week.
"Plough's always been of the opinion he needs to be using his strength which is his running capacity for his size to get the most out of his football."
Seeing Richardson, Knights is reminded of afternoons chasing Phil Carman, who he encountered several times when the voluble, multi-clubbed centre half-forward was at his best. "Carman was a nightmare to play on because his aerobic capacity was better than anyone else in the competition at that time," Knights said. "For a two-to-three-year period, he was just extraordinary, he never stopped running. Matty Richardson's been able to do that for 16 years!"
And Richo being Richo, people couldn't be happier for him.
Bradshaw sent him a text message after the Fremantle match, congratulating him on his gut-busting efforts, and last weekend rejoiced in seeing him leading back into the path of a charging Franklin while playing off a wing.
Knights sees a broader upside for the Tigers the impact he surely has on those around him in a developing side.
"To have Richo still running around like that at his age getting the possessions, taking the marks, kicking the goals, the aerobic capacity, the miles he covers he must be such a great role model for them."
Schwab thinks letting Richo's throttle all the way out has opened up the forward line and made Richmond less one-dimensional, while 11 goals in three weeks of freedom show the Tigers are losing nothing in scoring potency.
"At the moment, they've got a win-win situation they've actually created a different player but are still getting a few goals in return."
And you can't be two players in one without a big engine. Maybe the biggest in the game.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/run-richo-run/2008/05/02/1209235160895.html?page=fullpage
