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Richmond fans are angry, bitter and fed-up after yet another era seems destined to crash and burn without any form of significant success. I know this first hand, because I am one.
The Richmond people I have spoken to throughout 2016 share a similar mindset, a hopeless malaise of disenchantment and frustration.
The more prominent Tiger supporters at the top end of town have also felt this way, with several types of board challenges coming to light since the start of August.
Joe Russo and Leon Davies, among others, made headlines last month in trying to orchestrate a boardroom challenge, sick of the “Richmond rollercoaster”. This challenge burned brightly for a week in the media, but faded away before any meaningful proposal was put forward.
Simon Wallace, a 42-year-old lawyer, was the next voice, appealing to the broken-hearted Tiger generation to which he belongs – either too young or not born yet the last time Richmond had sustained on-field relevance, let alone tasted premiership success.
Wallace, like myself, grew up knowing only ridicule and misery as a young Tiger, and his presentation for candidacy to the Richmond board, a 12,000-word prospectus on the opportunities and challenges facing the club, is passionate and engaging, where his football savviness and sly wit shines through.
Yesterday saw a formal, seven-person ticket for the Richmond board put together, led by cardiologist Martin Hiscock, and including two former Tiger captains and premiership players, Bryan Wood and Bruce Monteath.
Their plan, found at the Focus on Footy website, is – like that of Simon Wallace – based on a frustration about the football department, and the apparent lack of direction and accountability within.
The current Richmond board, led by president Peggy O’Neal, have flat-batted away these challenges. O’Neal speaks smoothly, but with an aloofness and ‘we know best’ attitude that betrays an insular mindset.
This is not a board that embraces challenge, but defies it. (Click to Tweet)
The Focus on Footy ticket made a misstep yesterday, in featuring Neil Balme’s name so prominently, despite having yet to speak to him. He will be sounded out to fill a proposed CEO of football position, the idea behind which is justified, but to put a name forward without a commitment left them open to accusations of amateurism.
Balme is a Richmond premiership hero and widely lauded throughout the AFL as one of the most astute football minds in the business. But if he doesn’t agree to join this ticket, then they will be forced to publicly acknowledge that whoever does fill the position isn’t their first choice.
The current Richmond board may also approach Balme, and in fact would be negligent if they did not. If Balme accepts a position offered by O’Neal and Gale, then the Focus on Footy ticket will lose both face and appeal, not to mention all momentum.
The Focus on Footy ticket also left themselves open to criticism by stating that they want Damien Hardwick to see out his contract, Brendon Gale to continue as CEO, and General Manager of Football Dan Richardson to also continue on. The ticket was having an each-way play in that regard.
The ticket also appears to lack a modern voice, based on the faces of those presented at yesterday’s press conference, a problem also facing the current board. The board’s latest nominee, 1980 premiership player Emmett Dunne, will hardly rectify that situation given he is 60 years old.
A football club’s era is always defined by their coach, whether that is as long and successful as Essendon’s under Kevin Sheedy, or as short and failed as Melbourne’s under Mark Neeld.
The Damien Hardwick era has had several different personalities – effort-based as a poor and developing side in 2010-11, followed by the attacking flair of 2012-13 and then the conservative ball movement of 2014-15. 2016 will go down as the annus horribilis of his tenure.
Hardwick’s side has no consistent on-field identity. He has left no identifiable imprint.
The current board have put Richmond in a stronger off-field position than they were, based largely on the goodwill and belief of Tiger fans that the football club was on the road to premiership contention. Wins and losses are the only thing they really care about, and rightly so.
That belief has now wavered, and hope does not spring eternal. Richmond people will turn away in their droves if the on-field slop of 2016 is served up again next year.
The Richmond board has both challenges and challengers. How they respond to them all will either set the Tigers up for success, or detonate and leave nothing but debris.