Dwayne Russell: Richmond offer rest of competition a lesson in style, culture
RICHMOND has become more than just a football story. It has become a brand and culture-creation lesson, by becoming a manufacturer of footballers and an industry-revered style factory.
THE current ridiculously amazing chapter of Richmond’s more-than-century-old story began in early 2010 with some astonishing public honesty.
Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale made an outrageous promise he labelled “3-0-75”.
His plan was to have the Tigers achieve three finals appearances, reduce debt to zero, and hit 75,000 members by the end of 2014.
Like his team at the time, Gale was widely laughed at, not just for being so crazily ambitious, but for publicly tying himself a noose.
At that moment, Richmond was second-last on the ladder, had a $4.5-million debt, boasted only 37,000 members, and had recently appointed a first-year coach, Damien Hardwick.
Gale was never going to be able to deliver. Especially after the Tigers finished second-last again in 2010.
But the Victorian media cut him some slack. Benny was such a nice guy. A star ex-player with an open, affable character who wore his heart on his sleeve. So kicking him in the head for having a public dream was low-hanging fruit.
Richmond is now not only the reigning premier with no debt, but is suddenly the biggest football club in Australia. The Tigers have 101,000 members — more than the capacity of the MCG.
They are about to sign the best free agent in the country, Tom Lynch, for less money than Lynch would have earned had he stayed with the Gold Coast Suns.
And on Thursday night they launched themselves into the box seat to grab back-to-back flags by waltzing into a preliminary final with a rampaging win over Hawthorn.
Richmond has become more than just a football story. It has become a brand and culture-creation lesson, by becoming a footballer manufacturing house, and an industry revered style factory.
The Tigers have taken relentless pressure to a never-before-seen level, and turned it into an art form. Created out of necessity because it didn’t possess a quality second tall target, Richmond developed a forward-half-living, chase-and-tackle machine that through four-quarter adherence to what was once considered a radical game plan, now destroys clubs.
The Crows may never get over it. And I doubt Hawthorn will recover in time to overcome Melbourne next weekend.
The Tigers’ style factory has seemingly made stars out of relative no-names, polished rough gems into icons, and made every recruit they stole from other clubs, better.
Dan Butler, Jack Graham, Brandon Ellis, Jacob Townsend, Nathan Broad and Jason Castagna all emerged from obscurity last season to become premiership players.
Dustin Martin was a wild diamond, Jack Riewoldt a little self-absorbed, Alex Rance struggled with his kicking, Trent Cotchin had leadership and short kick issues, and Dylan Grimes had plateaued through injury.
But all are now industry leaders in their specific on-field art.
Dion Prestia, Toby Nankervis, Shaun Grigg and Josh Caddy have all made Richmond’s recruiters look like geniuses. And the improvement curve of Shane Edwards, Nick Vlastuin, Daniel Rioli, Jack Higgins and Jayden Short has emphasised the almost unbelievable growth and development of Hardwick as a coach, and the value of player belief in a system.
Richmond is not a lucky, alignment-of-the-planets fairytale, like the one-hit wonder Western Bulldogs who’ve come and gone and have already seen their membership and credibility suffer a rapid decline.
The Tigers have actually changed football. They have re-established the fact that culture and success can not only be created in a short space of time, but more importantly can be maintained, and parlayed into the establishment of an iconic long term brand.