ANDREW DENTON: We’re actually going to start with a piece of footage cause I know that you are a major Richmond Tigers fan and I just want you to look at this and when it’s over tell me which one in this shot are you.
WALEED ALY: Okay.
ANDREW DENTON: Where are you in that shot?
WALEED ALY: Right I know what you’re getting at. The truth is I’m actually not in that shot. But you’re getting at the fact that I have been known to dress up as the Richmond mascot.
ANDREW DENTON: Yes.
WALEED ALY: In the Tiger suit and go round the audience basically kissing babies.
ANDREW DENTON: Yeah, that’s right.
WALEED ALY: Yeah, that I wasn’t that particular mascot.
ANDREW DENTON: But you could have said you were. No one would have known.
WALEED ALY: Would you like to do that again?
ANDREW DENTON: No, no that’s fine. No, do we’ll actually just cut that in later ourselves.
LaughterWALEED ALY: Yeah, yeah, no it was back in 2001, friend of mine had the contract to be the Richmond mascot he had the gig normally but his brother was getting married so he couldn’t go to a match so he calls me up and says, his name’s Jeff. He said he said Wal, I’ve got to go to this wedding. I need you to fill in for me, and I was like well okay, this is the greatest opportunity in my life to wear the Tiger mascot. It’s unreal.
ANDREW DENTON: Cause the Tigers mean all to you.
WALEED ALY: Everything. I mean there is there is nothing without the Tigers, so I said okay. He gave me his instructions. You walk out there; you kiss a few kids; you sign some autographs – sign some autographs? Apparently tigers sign autographs. And …
ANDREW DENTON: What do they write? Rraaa…
WALEED ALY: Yeah, pretty much.
LaughterWALEED ALY: A paw print. and he basically said to me, whatever you do just make sure that you don’t do anything stupid. So I went out there, I said okay, fine. Went out there; I was in the Tiger mascot. It was round two, 2001, Richmond were playing the Bulldogs. He gave me one warning. He said the Bulldog likes a bit of biffo. Now the Bulldog at this time had in one of these enormous suits, huge muscles, really horrible growl on his face, fangs everything, and he was looking at me, doing this. And at that point in in my life, I couldn’t I sort of forgot there’s a human inside it and I bought into the aggressive look. And I thought I’m in a bit of trouble here, so but I can’t let everyone down. There’s 40 000 people out there; I’ve got to put up a tigerish fight. So I did and I go out there and we’re wrestling, and I it hits me about three seconds into this that there’s a reason he likes a bit of biffo and it’s cause he’s really good at it.
LaughterWALEED ALY: So he is killing me. I am just destroyed and eventually after he slammed me about three times, I thought I’ve got to come up with something because the Richmond crowd is going to be distraught the fact that I’m letting the whole club down. This is a proud club, and I thought what I’ll do is next time he comes at me, I’ll duck, I’ll go between his legs, which is you know, it’s a very manly way to fight really, and grab him and try to slam him. And I did. I went between his legs and I grabbed and I pulled as hard as I possibly could and then I heard this roar. And I thought all right. But then I realised looking through the mouth that I’d ripped his head off.
LaughterANDREW DENTON: Lots of upset kiddies there that day.
WALEED ALY: Well, you see you have to understand because when I was going round the ground, I could hear kids debating with each other whether or not I was a real tiger or a person in a suit, so there’s a lot of kids right on the edge of fantasy and reality at that point and I had completely destroyed this for them, and there’s this guy in this huge bulldog suit with this little pea head on top of it, and he was angry and then later on in that game, was one of the all time great brawls between Richmond and the Bulldogs, which resulted in a player being suspended for eight weeks and blood noses and all sorts of things and I like to take credit for setting the mood for those eventual hostilities. I think without my contribution that may not have happened.
ANDREW DENTON: I think that is absolutely wrong. But we’ll go with it.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s2331612.htm
