In the heart of chaos, courage will prevail
Martin Flanagan | April 4, 2009
And, while I am prognosticating, I reckon Richmond will do OK today against Geelong. The Tigers always rally after their collisions with destiny. I had resolved not to write about Richmond's season-opener in this column but it's a bit like seeing the film Australia and not expressing an opinion. The first game of the year was operatic in the range and scale of emotions it evoked.
Kevin Sheedy had told the Richmond faithful they had the team to win a flag. This was like Moses returning to the wandering Israelites after hearing the voice of God on Mount Sinai. The first moments of the match were what is called a dream start, the ball sweeping forward and being marked by Matthew Richardson. But "Richo" did something no other footballer has ever done, certainly not with a new ball. He'd got it to reverse swing. At that moment you knew something deeply strange and distressing might be about to happen. By the fourth quarter, the hamstring of the club's star recruit, Ben Cousins, had gone.
I rang a Richmond supporter I know who spends every winter saying how poor the footy is this year and every summer saying he can't wait for the footy to start again. He had been to the game. It took him time to find language appropriate to the occasion. His acerbic account ended with him travelling home on a tram and hearing one Richmond supporter say: "You have to remember Cotchin was out tonight." (My informant went on, disbelief in his voice: "Cotchin's 18! He's only played 15 games! We'd just been thrashed by 83 points …")
I did speak to one positive Richmond supporter this week. His name is Shekhar Kamat. Years ago, I interviewed an Indian guru who came to Melbourne. Shekhar was with the guru and read what I wrote. Following my writing, he arrived at the sports pages and started ringing me, wanting to know what I saw in footy. I told him to watch James Hird. Shekhar became a force in the office tipping competition and adopted Richmond as his team after he engaged some Richmond supporters on a tram and found them to be "good, down-to-earth people".
Shekhar's positivity is iron-clad. Three years ago, he sat in Federation Square with a length of cloth upon which he got 8000 people to write messages of goodwill to the people of Iraq. The banner was eventually taken to the United Nations building in New York.
After the February bushfires, Shekhar got 4000 people to write messages on a length of cloth to those who lost homes and loved ones. He will be at the country music festival at Whittlesea footy ground today, his banner beside him, spreading goodwill. I asked him his message for Richmond today. He said Durga, the Indian female deity, rides a tiger because it is the symbol of courage. "The Tigers must play like tigers. And if the supporters are positive with the team and send them their good wishes, the team will be uplifted."
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