Richo’s proud achievement
12:02 PM Mon 23 July, 2007
By Jason Phelan
for richmondfc.com.au
HE MEANS so much to Richmond supporters, and the Tiger army would have loved nothing more than to see the great man, Matthew Richardson, saluted with a win in his 250th match, but it just wasn’t to be.
“It would have been nice to walk off the ground a winner, but you can’t always be a winner in a milestone game,” a philosophical Richardson said after the loss to Port Adelaide.
“Plenty of other players have done that as well. Unfortunately, that was just the way it went today.”
The Tiger champion finished the game strongly with four goals but failed to make an impact in the first half, and admitted his big game had been a struggle early.
“I was frustrated with myself in the first half because I couldn’t get into the game, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself in a milestone game,” he said.
“With all the attention on you, the last thing you want to do is walk off the ground embarrassing yourself.
“It was just one of those days. We stayed with them early, it was a pretty free-flowing type of game. They’re a high-scoring, high-intensity side, but it was probably going to be tough for us to sustain that level of play over four quarters, and that’s how it turned out.”
But the result in no way diminished the achievement of the champion full-forward, whose four majors on Sunday edged him past Peter Hudson and Wayne Carey on the all-time goalkickers’ list.
“I’m proud of the milestone and I’m proud that I’ve played at Richmond for my whole career,” Richardson said.
“Obviously I would have liked a little more success over the years, but I can’t change that now. All we can do is look to the future. You never write off your chances that you might play in finals and I’ve still got that hope, and that’s why you butter up for another pre-season.
“I’ve had great support all week from all the Richmond supporters, from everyone around the club, my family and all my friends. It’s quite touching the number of texts and phone calls I got during the week from people I used to play with, and it’s really nice to hear from all those sorts of people.”
With just one win in 16 rounds, 2007 has been one of the toughest of Richo’s 15 years in the yellow-and-black, but he maintains he has no trouble motivating himself for battle each week.
“It’s not hard because that’s what we’re here for, and if you can’t get up for a game of AFL footy I don’t think you should be on a list,” he said.
“Look, obviously it’s a difficult year. What gets me up – and I’m sure it’s what gets the other boys up– is that we can try and get a few wins and get some sort of momentum going into next year and get some games into our young guys.”
So having reached 250 games, is the magical 300 mark on the radar?
“Who knows? ” he said. “I mean, I’m contracted next year so I’m obviously going to play next year, and I’ll be 33 at the end of that contract so who knows what happens.
“I wouldn’t make any outlandish statements, but if I’m still contributing I’d like to still play. But a lot can happen in 12 months.
“The body feels fine. I haven’t missed many games in the past four years and I haven’t had any soft-tissue injuries for three years now, touch wood.
“I feel like I present myself in good condition, so I can keep playing if they want me to.”
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