An authentic story about Richmond by a real Tigers supporter should contain an apocalyptical bible quote. Not one of those wishy-washy, later-book God quotes either, something barbaric and cruel from God’s earlier period.
At the very least something like Mick Molloy’s line about supporting Richmond being a viking life; one with pain and death here on Earth, with a reward of Valhalla only for a select handful.
In that spirit how about, “the sins of the father will be passed to the son”?
Mention Richmond in the late 1990s to a Tigers fan and watch the blood drain from their faces, their jaw clenched, as they sink to the ground, before hugging their knees to their chests and begin to slowly rock back and forth.
Mention the names Robert Walls, Jeff Gieschen and Danny Frawley to someone with an ‘Eat ’em alive’ tattoo and an odd number of teeth, and you will be asked outside to learn the true meaning of pressure.
There is, however, a quiet little secret that history hides from us. Richmond was good between 1994 and 2001.
In 1995 and 2001 there were 15-win seasons.
In 1994 and 1998 they missed the finals despite 12 wins (two of the five times since the league moved to a final seven or final eight that 12 wins have not been good enough).
Even the 11 and ten-win seasons in 1997 and 1998 only saw Richmond miss the eight by half a game each year.
Over this period, the Tigers were a total of four wins and percentage away from appearing in eight consecutive finals series. Not a premiership threat, but earning some respect.
Of course, they only made two finals series, giving rise to the ‘Ninthmond’ punchline.
It should be no surprise. Joel Bowden, Wayne Campbell, Matthew Knights, Matthew Richardson, Leon Cameron, Paul Broderick. It was a good team.
One name not on that list, someone who retired in 2001, was current CEO Brendan Gale.
This is where we get to that bible misquote.
Since CEO Gale is surely shaped by his experience at Richmond as a player, if we could ask him what lessons he learnt from playing in that era, what would he say?
Poorly resourced club, hamstrung by debt, with low-grade facilities. No revenue or professionalism in marketing, media or membership. A recruiting department consisting of one man and his half-blind labradoolde. A board driven by ego, not results. Player power gone wild. A coaching merry-go-round. A clattering clammer of ex-players running the club from barstools via microphones. Shambolic administration and old-school-tie hiring practices?
Is it any wonder these are the things Gale has targeted?
However, has his history made him too conservative? Too fixated on stability at all costs? Too determined to balance the books and never fire anyone?
Having seen his playing career blighted by boards staging coups and sacking coaches, is he petrified to see it happen again? Would someone who had played in a more successful club been more confident to make a call on Damien Hardwick, his assistants or other senior staff?
Can Gale see past Mal Brown chasing John Northey out of the club under the promise of delivering Kevin Sheedy, only to see Walls retire in tears midseason to be replaced by the people-power-pope Gieschen, only to see him chased out by the players and another failed attempt to get Sheedy?
And then Frawley – charming, goofy, inept Frawley – who changed his messages more often than a hoon driver changes lane.
Gale must feel that there was football respectability within his grasp as a player. Even if the planets had aligned and there had been a single competent employee in a single corner office at Richmond he might have even had a premiership medal. Instead.. well, instead.
The mooted board challenge is a farce.
Caroline Wilson channelling Game of Thrones to invent ‘old Richmond families’, as though they were lords with banners and she was Daenerys is contemptible and comic. I expect a horde of House Mandie pikemen carrying a sigil of a Tiger drowned in tears down Punt Rd.
The board is there to attend to the tedium of managing the money. Selling memberships. Mismanaging gaming venues and monopolising the best seats in the stadium for people who have never owned a duffle coat. Their main skill is kowtowing to head office and begging for money.
The only meaningful thing they do is appoint the CEO and the coach.
This board challenge is not about the board. It is not about having a football person on the board. It is not about whether they are competent at raising money and balancing the books, because they unquestionably are.
It is entirely about whether Hardwick should have been given a two-year guaranteed extension, and whether Gale has assembled a competent football department to support them.
The Gale-Hardwick factions will say that the club has had one down year after three good ones, and patience and stability and a calm hand on the tiller is what is required.
The opposition will argue that the three good years weren’t much good, this current year is not an outlier, and that Hardwick needs to go. Their challenge is entirely about securing the right to appoint the coach.
At the centre of it all is Brendan Gale, looking into his bathroom mirror surely asking himself the searching question: “am I so petrified of visiting the sins of my era onto the current one, that I have become incapable of making any decisions at all?”
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