As the supporters are part of the fabric of the club we've stuck by through thin and thin so we don't need to rebuild our soul. Caro being a tad overdramatic.
IMO it's more about moving the club into the modern era of professionalism and the 21st century. Still not there yet but we're trying not to run the club like we did in the past eating our own, making decisions out of panic and always looking for the quick fix.
The people running richmond today, for the most part dont understand what it means to be Richmond. how many of them grew up in Richmond when Richmond was a poor suburb and not a yuppy suburb, how many of our players understand how hard it is to get some real success in life by working hard for it, how many people at Richmond today are capable of attaining victory and success from the depths of adversity. Im just taking a guess, but I dont actually reckon theres alot of people at Richmond today who actually know what it means to be Richmond. I grew up in Richmond, when alot of people considered Richmond a hole, there were alot of poor families, the environment in parts of Richmond werent great, but people survived and worked hard and succeeded, and we had a football club of which we could be proud. We were working class Yellow & Black - and we had people at Richmond who were hard nosed leaders like Ray Dunn who knew how to succeed and beat the establishment and the toffs from Carlton et al. The sooner Richmond people and players understand what it means to be Richmond, the quicker we will have success.
Different era now Ramps. Even if the people running the club were all born in old Richmond, the players are drafted from all over the country and are paid six figure salaries. Most supporters have never lived in Richmond either. I haven't but I still luv my Tiges as does everyone here. It's the passion of our supporters for the club that has kept us alive.
We've had many "Richmond people" in charge of the club over the past 25 years and it's made no difference to the self-imploding culture we had. In fact it could be argued that the culture that made the 60s and 70s so successful caused our eventual downfall in the 80s onwards as the times changed and we as a club didn't move with them.
The job for those off-field is to create an environment for success. One of stability and direction. To provide, maintain and update the best possible people, environment, facilities and resources so that the footy dept can build a talented team and get the best out of the them, and the players can get the best out of themselves and forge a team first mentality that thrives on winning.
Having said all that, even KB has said in the past that back then under Hafey they played for Tommy and it wouldn't have mattered what the club was called. They likewise had to restore Richmond back to a power after two decades in the wilderness.
