Notwithstanding the many exemplary football attributes that Matthew Richardson possessed, it was his huge appetite for the contest, and his genuine love of the Tigers, which enabled him to have such an impact at the game’s highest level.
Bull Richardson, who passed away earlier this year, had spent a decade playing for Richmond (1959-69), was a valuable member of their drought-breaking premiership 1967 side in his ruck-rover role, and a popular figure at Punt Road.
When his VFL career finished, Bull moved to Tasmania, taking over as captain-coach of East Devonport and later serving as its president.
Matthew Richardson’s first football memory is aged five, when Bull and his mates were watching Richmond’s glorious 1980 Grand Final triumph over Collingwood on television in their Devonport home.
In the ensuing years, young Matthew would enthusiastically listen to Bull’s Tiger tales.
He became hooked on the Yellow and Black, aspiring to one day follow in his father’s footsteps at Punt Road.
By his late teens, Matthew Richardson was, indeed, attracting the attention of the Tiger talent scouts, as well as those at Richmond’s traditional rival, Collingwood, following some brilliant performances while playing for Devonport under the coaching guidance of former Hawthorn champion Peter Knights.
“He was like a young horse that just wanted to run and jump, that just wanted to go . . . He was so far ahead of anyone else down there. He could run faster, he could run longer. He could jump higher, he was a better mark,”
Knights said in Martin Flanagan’s book, ‘Richo’.
At just 16 years of age, Richardson had been selected to make his debut for Devonport’s senior side.
In his second game of senior football, he was forced from the field in the second quarter with bruised ribs. Up to that stage of the match, he had taken a staggering total of 17 marks!
Although Collingwood persisted in its attempts to woo young Richardson, Richmond, inevitably won the race to secure his talented services.
The Tigers offered him a four-year contract, which he was only too happy to sign.
Richardson was subsequently taken by Richmond as a father-son selection in the 1992 National Draft and the rest, as they say, is history – glorious history at that!
He made his senior league debut in Round 7 of the 1993 season against St Kilda at Waverley Park.
The then 18-year-old lined up on his future coach at Tigerland, Danny Frawley, and showed plenty of promise, picking up 20 disposals, taking nine marks and kicking a goal in Richmond’s 32-point win.
Richardson would go on to carve out a superb 282-game career over 17 seasons with Richmond, winning the Club’s leading goalkicker award on a record 13 occasions, capturing the Jack Dyer Medal in 2007, and being named on the half-forward flank in the Tigers’ Team of the Century in 1999.
He sits in second place on Richmond’s all-time goalkicking list (behind Jack Titus) with 800 goals. And, no player in league football history has kicked more goals at the home of football, the MCG, than Richardson, with 464.
But the man known affectionately and simply as ‘Richo’, meant so much more to Richmond, and the Tiger Army who idolised him, than impressive statistics and football achievements.
In many respects, he was the glue that held Tigerland together when the going was at its toughest.
An entire generation of Richmond supporters had their emotional attachment to the Club strengthened by Richo. He provided them with a real purpose to their Yellow and Black barracking.
Richo was their hero. They loved the way he combined such vitality, determination and passion with his abundance of natural talent.
The fact he wore his heart on his sleeve every time he stepped out on the field of battle for Richmond, made him even more endearing to them.
It’s doubtful any player in Richmond’s history has shared more of an emotional connection with the Tiger faithful than Matthew Richardson.
He loved Richmond as much as they did, and they, in turn, followed his lead to commit to the Tigers.
Richo is a significant reason why Richmond today has 70,000 members, despite not having experienced sustained success for many years.
He gave Tiger fans enormous enjoyment over the best part of two decades, through his amazing gut-running, sheer athleticism, spectacular marking, electrifying goalkicking exploits and enormous courage.
He overcame a knee reconstruction early in his career, a serious foot injury, broken cheekbones, and a variety of other injuries, to do what he did best – inspire the Tigers.
For season after season, regardless of how Richmond was performing, Richo supplied the supporters with sufficient incentive to turn up to watch them play. If the team was badly beaten, they could still revel in Richo’s fantastic on-field feats.
He was an entertainment and excitement machine, who, towards the end of his league career, was embraced by the entire football world, as evidenced on Brownlow Medal night in 2008, with the overwhelmingly positive reaction to him polling so well to finish third, just two votes behind the winner, Adam Cooney.
Although it’s been just over six years now since Matthew Richardson played the last of his 282 games for Richmond, he remains a much-loved, revered figure at Tigerland.
And, he will go down in the Club’s history as one of the greatest Tigers of them all.
Born: 19/3/1975
Height: 197cm
Playing weight: 103kg
Recruited to Richmond from: Devonport
Playing position: Full-forward
Guernsey number at Richmond: No. 12
Games at Richmond (1993-2009): 282
Goals at Richmond: 800
Honors at Richmond: Member of the Tigers’ Team of the Century; 13-time winner of the Club’s leading goalkicker award in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; Jack Dyer Medal winner in 2007; Club life membership in 2007
