Mark Robinson: Family and friends share their stories of Jack Riewoldt ahead of his 300th game.
Ahead of his 300th game, Mark Robinson talks to Jack Riewoldt’s wife, parents, friends and teammates to really understand the man behind the milestone - and his journey.
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Mark Robinson talks to the closest people in Jack Riewoldt’s life about his journey from a brash boy in Tasmania to a triple-premiership champion about to play his 300th game for Richmond.
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Carly Riewoldt — wife
We met when we were 16 and everybody uses the same words to describe Jack, such as vivacious, energetic and loud and proud, and I just remember being in the common room area at school and I would know he wasn’t there because it was quiet.
I would look around and think that loud guy is not here.
I started to get to know him when we were at college (the final two years of high school) and our mates were the same and naturally we became friends.
I just loved how he was not afraid to speak his mind, and speak his mind and be wrong.
We would be in class and the teacher would ask a question and sometimes he would speak for the sake of speaking.
We studied English studies together, which is my forte, and he literally wanted to chat about the book, but he didn’t want to read it. And he would not shut up.
One day, one of our mates, Heath, asked me to catch up during a free period.
He asked me to go for a walk and I was so excited because I actually secretly liked Heath. He was one of Jack’s best mates and I thought, ‘Oh my God, he likes me, too’.
Then Heath sat me down and basically said, ‘So, you know Jack, I just want to tell you he’s really smitten with you, what do you think?’
If you could’ve seen the look on my face. I said, ‘I thought I was going to be with you’.
I was pretty hesitant with Jack.
I didn’t really want to go out with Jack officially for quite a long time.
I reckon I made him wait a good year before I said, ‘OK let’s go out’.
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We broke up twice pre being married and I still maintain they were the best decisions we ever made.
Even though they were difficult at the time, I don’t think we would be together now if we hadn’t.
I think sometimes he needs to step back and reflect on things before he really dives in.
I can’t fault him since.
He’s staunchly loyal and terribly kind — to his own detriment sometimes.
As a father, he is tremendous. He’s the absolutely fun dad.
I love that he’s so spontaneous with parenting.
Our daughter Poppy is Jack’s mini. Her highs are high and her lows are low.
We could be in a café and a song comes on, she’ll jump and say, ‘daddy, daddy, let’s dance’. He will not hesitate to stand up and dance with her. It’s amazing.
He still doesn’t care what people think about him as long as he’s making those closest to him happy.
We will sit here after the girls are in bed and think, what a fairytale it’s been.
The magic of Richmond is never lost on us. We’ve grown together and I’m just so happy that he’s happy.
Scott McLaughlin — SuperCars driver, great mate
Initially, I was not the biggest fan of Jack Riewoldt.
I thought he played for frees, and he played for Richmond, and I was your stereotypical fan that knows nothing about a certain player but still had a dislike for them. Man, I was wrong.
I first met Jack at the 2017 Anzac Day footy game at the ’G.
I was in the Fox Footy box with my now-wife Karly.
Jack ended up entering the box and here I was having a yarn with a bloke who I supposedly did not like.
Next thing, we exchanged numbers and I invited him out for a ride in my race car in September at Sandown Raceway.
Throughout the year, we kept in contact and my narrative of him being a flog quickly went out the window.
What I really enjoyed about our relationship was that Jack wasn’t a race driver.
In fact, he knew very little about race driving, like me with footy.
Jack watches the race cars and I watch the footy, the details we do not really get into.
But one thing we both understand very well is competing at the highest level in a nationally recognised sport.
Still to this day, I feel like we both can speak candidly about stuff happening in our careers, without a worry that one of us will let the story slip to a journo.
We have gone through more highs and lows in our sports.
We have both won the lot, but we have also both lost the unlosable.
In 2017, after losing the Supercars championship in the last race, I got a phone call from Jack. He suggested I speak to Emma Murray, a mindfulness coach who works at Richmond.
On his own merit, Jack gave away one of his secret weapons to help me bounce back from the biggest loss of my career.
Working with Emma has changed my life on and off the track and I have Jack to thank for that.
So, whether or not he kicks a bag this week, Jack will do something to influence the game.
I think if you spoke to anyone in Jack’s inner sanctum, you would be hard pressed to find someone that has not been influenced by Jack in some way.
What a bloke, what a champion, what a friend and, for me, what an idiot to have preconceived ideas about who this guy really is.
Lesley and Chris Riewoldt - mum and dad
Jack is the eldest of three boys. He’s a ringleader and an organiser.
His two younger brothers, Harry and Charlie, have been seconded into many an adventure with Jack at the helm.
A loosely organised biathlon involving running a lap of the block, followed by one lap on your bike, came to a sticky end when Jack compromised the transition phase by not donning his bike helmet.
He was escorted home by a friendly policeman.
Always wanting to be involved, Jack played every sport that came his way, from athletics to water polo, cricket to volleyball, soccer to touch football.
He played his first nine holes of golf aged eight, while on a family holiday on the east coast of Tassie.
He soundly beat his dad and has a deep love for the game.
Perhaps golf is where his infatuation for shoes and caps began.
When Jack was about 11, he found the answer to our neighbour’s prolific lemon tree.
He made a lemonade stand. With the lemonade and signage made, he sold the lemonade to passersby out the front of our house.
People still mention the lemonade stand in conversation with me 20 years on.
Jack has had a few entrepreneurial ventures. He even silk screened his own T-shirts and designed his own logo.
My favourite venture was at the primary school fair.
Jack had a stall by himself, where, for the princely sum of $1, he would paint your fingernails. Jack’s reasoning being that painting fingernails meant you could hold girls’ hands — great idea and I’m sure it worked for him.
The observation of Halloween became popular in our neighbourhood at the turn of the century. Lollies and chocolates; what’s not to like?
Jack encouraged all the kids in the neighbourhood to dress up and go trick or treating.
I suppose having a birth date of the October 31 and being named Jack, the Halloween adventure was an obvious one.
Football registered on Jack’s radar when Nick was drafted. Jack was 12-years-old.
He watched closely as Nick plied his trade and, soon, Nick became his idol.
So much so, that Jack in his last year of high school did his work experience at the St Kilda Football Club.
He wanted to be an AFL footballer.
He would practice his kicking by aiming at our front gate.
As he became better, he would increase the distance and the degree of difficulty.
Each attempt commented upon in the time-honoured manner of young boys and girls dreaming of the future.
Always trying to better himself through practice, participation and inclusion of others, it comes as no surprise, and is definitely fitting, that he is playing his 300th game this round and realising his own commentary on his own dream.
Congratulations, Jack. Well earned.
Shane Edwards — Richmond teammate
I remember Jack at draft camp in 2006. Ninety-five per cent of the boys were introverts and he was — and is — the loudest bloke I’ve ever met.
When I flew home and dad picked me up at Adelaide airport, he asked me how did I go at camp.
I said, “You should’ve met this Jack Riewoldt bloke, he was the loudest bloke I’ve ever met and thank God I’ll never have to see him again.”
He was drafted at pick 13 and I was 26, and 15 years later we were designing a Dreamtime jumper together.
There’s never been a non-Indigenous person design a Dreamtime jumper before.
Jack is history-making and it couldn’t be more fitting.
We had trouble with our Indigenous boys over the years, making them feel comfortable and getting them to thrive.
It’s easy for Indigenous boys to feel comfortable with each other, but it’s another thing to have a non-Indigenous boy with a really loud voice, who has been the face of the club 15 years, to be genuinely caring behind closed doors.
It wasn’t until it was decided Jack and myself would design the jumper that it struck me how massive Jack has been in that department. He’s been as big as any indigenous person.
Jack arrived at Richmond in the shadow of Nick, but has absolutely forged his own identity. Now, it’s just the Riewoldts, it’s not Nick and Nick’s cousin. Jack is one of the all-time greats in his own right.
Jack’s one of the most underrated players I’ve played with. I’m happy to say Jack’s the best wet-weather key-position forward that has ever played. I wish there was a highlight reel of his wet-weather goals. He’s chipped and soccered, marked and led, any type of goal you want, and I’ve never seen that from any other key-forward before.
He’s such a competitor. When we were on footy camps, and you were put in Jack’s group, you knew you were about to work your arse off. And if you weren’t in his team, you always knew where he was. He is relentless. And he’ll let you know about it if he wins, and he will go down swinging if he loses.
I don’t think he’s cocky and arrogant, but I reckon he’s as close to it without being it. He’s just so confident. He’s got gusto with everything he says and does. That’ why he’s such a great leader and great player.
Brad Dutton — Clarence teammate
He’s copped some stick over the years, but he’s a super person.
He’s grown up in the public eye and it’s been hard for him, but at his core, he is a terrific person.
I moved to Hobart in 2004 to play footy with Clarence and that’s when I got to know him. His old man and my old man played in a premiership with Clarence in 1984.
And his old man, “Cabbage’’, asked me to look after him.
He was coming through as a young star and was clearly going to be a good player, and he was 15 when he made his debut in 2005.
He was only a kid and I was an old guy playing in the forward line, so I took it upon myself to look after him.
He was a naturally cheeky boy, but he was also very respectful.
A couple of special times were in 2005. We made the finals and he kicked four in a final.
He really exploded in 2006. It was a second semi-final against the arch rival Glenorchy and he kicked a barrel from outside 50 at half-time to put us in front.
In the grand final, he kicked four or five and put on a really big show and ultimately we won the game.
He’s always been a big-game player, even towards other sports.
I play a lot of golf with him when he’s down over Christmas time.
We were playing golf, it might’ve been after they won their first flag, and a heap of people just worked out he was on the golf course.
There was wedding going on so people came out to see him coming up the ninth hole.
He’s 100m out and he said, ‘I’m going to knock this in’.
True story. And he hit this wedge and he’s knocked it in the hole.
You should’ve seen the strut as he walked up there.
The crowd was on the putting green and they loved it.
I felt sorry for the bride and groom because they weren’t the show, that’s for sure.
He’s always had that inner belief. But at his core, he’s still a kid.
While he was under heat at certain points of his career, he’s still a kid who loves to have a kick of the footy.
His enjoyment now is the same was when he was 15. He’s a special bloke.
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