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Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. An Ebury Press book Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060 www.randomhouse.com.au First published by Ebury Press in 2010 Copyright © Matthew Richardson Promotions Pty Ltd and Martin Flanagan 2010 The moral right of the authors has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Every effort has been made to identify individual photographers and copyright holders where appropriate, but for some photographs this has not been possible. The publishers would be pleased to hear from any copyright holders who have not been acknowledged. Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.com.au/offices National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry Richardson, Matthew, 1975– Richo / Matthew Richardson, Martin Flanagan. ISBN 978 1 74166 972 5 (hbk). Richardson, Matthew. Australian football players – Australia – Biography. Australian football – Biography. Football players – Australia – Biography. Other Authors/Contributors: Flanagan, Martin, 1955– 796.336092 Lyrics from ‘Walk on Fire’ by Shane Howard, published by Big Heart Music/Mushroom Music, reproduced by kind permission Lyrics from ‘Leaps and Bounds’ and ‘Bradman’ by Paul Kelly, published by Sony/ATV, reproduced by kind permission Jacket design by Luke Causby/Blue Cork Front and back cover photo: Newspix/Michael Klein Typeset in 12.5/17 pt Minion Regular by Post Pre-press, Brisbane, Queensland Printed in Australia by Griffin Press, an accredited ISO AS/NZS 14001:2004 Environmental Management System printer 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Random House Australia uses papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products and made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 4 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 10/09/10 12:28 PM ‘The crowd loves the incident-maker’ Jack Dyer ‘We all have our time Shine for a while We rise and fall To rise and fall To rise again’ Shane Howard, ‘Walk on Fire’ ‘The world used us as an excuse to go mad’ George Harrison, Richo’s favourite Beatle Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 5 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 9/09/10 4:12 PM This Is Not a Normal Footy Book Richo didn’t want a normal footy book. He’s not interested in them and doesn’t read them. In fact, he wasn’t going to do a book at all when I first put the possibility to him. What he warmed to was the idea of doing a book together, me and him, sort of like team-mates. While I did the writing for this book, Richo read it before anyone else and it was his response that mattered most to me. Nathan Buckley once said to me, at the end of a conversation which lasted several years, ‘Footy’s like a tune. Indigenous players never forget that tune, but the rest of us struggle to remember it at times.’ Richo’s relation- ship with music is as deeply felt as his relationship was with footy when he played. His task when he read the book was to tell me if I had ‘it’ – the tune – right for him. He read the manuscript, came to see me and delivered his judgment with 1 Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 1 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 9/09/10 4:12 PM richo the words, ‘yeah, I enjoyed it.’ That’s how we wrote this book together. Richo and I have a few things in common. We share a passion for the larger story of the game, its characters, its low comedy. The comedy you see on television footy shows can be boorish. At its best, football humour is about vanity, and what comic figures it makes of us. Richo is a good expo- nent of this humour. One part of him that is not in this book is his persona in the changerooms. When I asked another Richmond player, Kayne Pettifer, what Richo was like in the changerooms, Pettifer replied, ‘He was the changerooms.’ Richo and I also share the fact that we’re Tasmanian. We believe the best footy jumper ever is the old Tasmanian jumper that was as green as a paddock in winter with a small yellow map of Tassie at its centre in the middle which was a magenta – sometimes blood-red – T. Richo played in that guernsey as a junior, and in Hobart in 1993 he wore it when Tasmania played its last State of Origin game. Richo’s first club was East Devonport. I saw East Devon- port win the 1968 North West Football Union premiership. Their captain-coach, Graeme ‘Gypsy’ Lee, was my first footy hero. Richo’s father, Alan ‘Bull’ Richardson, replaced Gypsy as East Devonport captain-coach. The book will wind through all these matters like the roads wind through the hills up the back of Devonport to Lower Barrington where Darrel ‘the Doc’ Baldock lives. The Doc is said to be the best footballer Tasmania ever produced. When Richo went back to Devon- port after his retirement for a night with the local Richmond supporters, he started his speech by acknowledging the 2 Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 2 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 9/09/10 4:12 PM TISINH S O T A N O RMAL F O OT y B O OK presence in the room of Gypsy and the Doc. He’s that sort of person. This is that sort of book. There are a lot of GR stories in the book. Why? Because GR, the despot who guided the Tigers through their glory years, is a great character in the history of the Richmond Football Club and Richo loves GR stories. ‘That’s what footy is to me,’ he says, ‘the characters, the connections.’ But football purists will not be disappointed – Richo’s career will be discussed by people with informed views. His critics have their say. The voices of doubt will be like the vuvuzelas constantly blow- ing in the background. But other voices, particularly those of respected players like Robert Murphy and Tom Harley, are heard. Team-mates give their views. It’s a serious footy book in that way. In fact, I’ve never written more seriously about a player. I’ve never studied one as closely, never sat and watched replays with one, asking any question I liked about what happened on the field. The media encourages people to think of players as being of a certain type. Richo is of no type. This is a book on footy in which such an individual plays the lead role. 3 Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 3 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 9/09/10 4:12 PM In the Beginning Punt Road Oval, the home of the Richmond Football Club, dates back to 1855. Tom Wills, the figure who burns brightest in the early history of Australian football, played at one time for Richmond. That was in the club’s first incarnation, the one that came into being in 1860. They formed again in 1885. Richo remembers that date because his father, who played for the Tigers, flew over to Melbourne to attend the Rich- mond Football Club centenary dinner in 1985 and brought back a menu signed for his son by all the former Tiger greats. Richo was then a boy of ten living on the north-west coast of Tasmania. I first met Richo at Punt Road – the name by which the Richmond Football Club headquarters are commonly known – at an aftermatch function for Wayne Campbell’s 4 Copyright © Matthew Richardson and Martin Flanagan 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted Richo_3rdPages_RHin any form or by any newmeans, .indd electronic, 4 mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.