Punters back Richo for Brownlow Medal
Jake Niall | May 6, 2008 | The Age
AFTER six rounds, Matthew Richardson was assessed as a 100-1 chance to win the Brownlow. One game later, TAB Sportsbet has him equal-third favourite for the medal at $9.
The plunge on the beloved Richo has been astonishing, and invites the question: Can this freakish 33-year-old Tiger, freed from the constraints of his forward 50-metre cage, become the game's oldest — and probably most popular — Brownlow medallist in history?
His former teammate, Bulldogs assistant coach Wayne Campbell, reckons Richo is a "massive chance" if he continues in his revamped role. "He polls very well," said Campbell.
Richardson has had four outstanding games in 2008 and should be polling votes in each of those games. Sportsbet believes he has "eight or nine votes" at this stage; in a more optimistic scenario, he could have 11 or 12.
Many within the game, including his coach Terry Wallace, reckon he has never been more productive or influential.
He leads the competition in marks and in his specialty, the contested mark. He is winning more of the ball than ever before, while still exceeding his career goal averages (3.43 this year).
If key forwards don't win what has become a "midfielder's medal", then some judges note that Richardson's prospects have been enhanced by the inspired decision to play him in what might henceforth be called "the Richo role".
And it is a role, not a position. Since round four, when Wallace unleashed his massive aerobic capacity on a hapless Fremantle, starting him as a 195-centimetre, 104-kilogram wingman, Richardson has not failed to gather 19 or more possessions or kick at least three goals in any game. Richardson is understood to have covered about 17 kilometres — Brent Harvey-like territory — in his 27-disposal, four-goal display against Hawthorn, when he ran back to obstruct Buddy Franklin and then sprinted forward to provide the Tigers with their only viable tall target.
He is playing more like a basketball centre, sprinting from one rim to the other, than a conventional midfielder. Just as Alexander the Great stationed himself where the battle was most intense, Richo goes to where he's needed most. He is gathering almost 20% of his ball in the defensive 50-metre arc, more touches in the middle and still kicking goals.
"We just play him where we feel that he is having a bigger impact on the game," Wallace explained, after his 22 touches and five goals failed to get the Tigers over St Kilda. "Even in the third quarter we moved him up onto the wing to get our momentum back going back our way. That's how much impact he is having on it." This high-possession and higher-impact role, presumably, will make him more appealing to the umpires.
"He's a definite chance," said Richardson's old coach, Danny Frawley. "He's going to be in the umpire's eye a whole lot more."
Frawley said the game's quickened pace of the past 18 months — wherein rapid ball movement (and constant running) has countered flooding — has aided Richo. Finally, the times suit him, and his package of size, athleticism and stamina.
It is remarkable that the game has moved in a more accommodating direction for a 33-year-old in his 16th season. As Campbell said, Richardson has emerged with a hyper-athletic style, despite receiving the kind of battering that Wayne Carey and Dermott Brereton endured in their shorter careers.
He's played only one finals series in 15 frustrating years, and should the planets continue to align, a Brownlow would be an irresistible bookend to the Richo story.
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