Who will fill Richo's boots?
richmondfc.com.au
By Tony Greenberg 1:32 PM Wed 13 May, 2009
For just the third time since 1993, a player other than Matthew Richardson will win the Michael Roach Medal, for being Richmond’s leading goalkicker, in ’09.
With ‘Richo’ sidelined for at least the next 10-12 weeks with a severe hamstring injury, his amazing sequence of eight consecutive Michael Roach Medals will be broken.
You have to go all the way back to 2000 to find another winner of Richmond’s Leading Goalkicker Award. In that year, Richardson suffered a serious foot injury in Round 3, which kept him out of action for the rest of the season. It was Matthew Rogers, who stepped up to the plate in Richo’s absence, kicking 37 goals and taking the Roach Medal home.
Five years earlier (1995), with Richo recuperating from a total knee reconstruction after crashing into the SCG fence during the Round 9 clash with the Swans, it was Nick Daffy, who took out Leading Goalkicker honors at Punt Road, steering through 45 majors as the Tigers climbed into the preliminary final.
Richardson has won Richmond’s Leading Goalkicker award an incredible 13 times (in 15 full seasons), which places him in second place on an elite AFL goalkicking list.
Only champion Collingwood spearhead Gordon Coventry has won more Leading Goalkicker awards at the one club. Coventry did it 16 times (in-a-row) with the Magpies from 1922-37.
Tony Lockett achieved the feat 10 times at St Kilda and then a further five times with the Sydney Swans, while Doug Wade did it on 11 occasions at Geelong and then three times with North Melbourne.
So, as Richo rests and recovers from his hamstring woes, who, at Tigerland, is going to claim the Club’s goalkicking crown in ’09?
Well, after seven rounds of the season, Matthew Richardson is equal goalkicking leader, on nine goals, along with Mitch Morton, while Jack Riewoldt is in third place on seven. Then follows Nathan Brown and ’09 debutant Andrew Collins, who have both kicked five goals.
Clearly, the Tigers’ goalkicking race will be wide open, with Richo watching from up in the stands...
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