I’ve been a tragic Tigers supporter for over 20 years. In that time, I’ve seen the club go through seven coaches and five finals appearances.
Six of those coaches were in the first 13 years, and three of those finals appearances were in the past four years.
Like most Richmond supporters, I started 2016 full of hope.
A closer call than was necessary against Carlton in Round 1 left me paused, but at least we had the points on the board.
A final-seconds snatch of defeat from the jaws of victory against Collingwood was both heartbreaking and ominous. Perhaps it just comes with being a Richmond supporter in the past thirty-or-so years, but it felt as if with that loss, a dark cloud of doom appeared on the horizon.
The six-game losing streak that followed brought hurricane 2016 right to Tigerland’s front door.
As ever in the eye of the storm, there seemed to be some hope.
Sam Lloyd’s post-siren winner stalled the inevitable momentarily. Fremantle and Essendon, despite not being big scalps in context, both still fell before us.
And as both a Hobart lad, as well as an ever-hopeful tragic, I jumped on one of the last-minute tickets to the game against North Melbourne, subsequently having my heart broken again.
It’s been a tough ride being a Tigers supporter over my lifetime.
Their last premiership was the year before I was born, and since then it’s been a difficult place to be. Our ‘golden era’ in this time netted only two finals appearances, when, as Kris Rhodes pointed out in August, we were “a total of four wins and percentage away from appearing in eight consecutive finals series.”
Though this season has been the toughest that I’ve endured as a Tigers supporter.
Perhaps it was due to starting out with such optimism.
Yet nothing seemed to be going right, and the commentary from inside the walls at Richmond wasn’t promoting hope, either.
To hear Hardwick, early in the season, saying that they were trying a few players in different positions and that a half-step backwards to take two steps forwards might be required, didn’t inspire confidence in the coach. Watching the Tigers fumble around, searching for a game plan was frustrating and aggravating.
Yet as frustrated as I am with the way the Tigers have performed this year, I refuse to look at one season as a measure of the coach.
Damien Hardwick, in seven years, has taken us to three consecutive finals appearances. Yes, our performances in those three games were consistently dismal, but we got there.
It was not a bad decision to renew Hardwick’s contract at the beginning of this year given the momentum that he had gathered.
I have enough faith in what Hardwick has done over the past seven years, to have hope that he can bounce back next year. The current administration has proven capable of moving the club forward, even if this year hasn’t gone the right way on the field.
We won’t go forward again next year if we have an off-season full of upheaval and uncertainty.
The current administration is obviously taking measures to try and turn things around quickly, but that’s not going to happen with a new board, especially a group of people who are throwing around big names like Neil Balme without even having spoken to the man.
So, in the words of the now famous ‘fake tradie’, “I reckon we should just see it through, and stick with the current mob for a while.”
The administrative rebuild that would be required if you overthrow the whole group like ‘Focus on Footy’ want, is going to take a number of years. If Martin Hiscock and his team take over the club, we won’t be returning to the finals in 2017. With Hardwick and the current administration, there’s a chance that we actually can.
So calm down Tiges.
Let’s play out 2017 with a clear intent that a second season of sub-par performance won’t be tolerated.
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