Mark Robinson: Jack Riewoldt’s remarkable transformation from ‘me’ to ‘us’ football
Jack Riewoldt has long list of footy accomplishments, but may be one of our most underrated and under-appreciated modern-day football champions according to Mark Robinson.
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Jack Riewoldt has entered rare air.
The boy from Hobart with the strawberry blond hair — who just might not be the best player in his extended family — has sauntered past two of the greatest names in Australian rules history.
Against Hawthorn in round 9, Riewoldt became Richmond’s second most capped player, edging past Jack Dyer’s 311 games.
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Only Kevin Bartlett, arguably Richmond’s greatest player, is ahead of him on 403 games.
Against Collingwood in round 8, Riewoldt eclipsed one of the game’s greatest players, Wayne Carey, on the all-time goal kicking list.
Carey kicked 727 goals in 272 games. Riewoldt has 731 goals in 312 games.
And despite those two notifications on his personal account, Riewoldt somehow remains the most underrated and under-appreciated modern-day champion in the game.
Hell, he might even be better than his cousin Nick.
What defines 33-year-old Riewoldt is not that he surpassed Dyer and Carey, it was the fact that he didn’t even know.
At one time in his career, Riewoldt was a “look at me” kind of guy, and he probably counted every game he played and knew every goal he kicked.
As one of the Tiger kings, he’s now a “look at us” player.
“I only knew I passed Jack Dyer because someone said it to me,” Riewoldt said.
He knew his 300th game was coming, of course, and he knew he had kicked 700-odd goals, and that was about it.
“The only person I knew I had passed was ‘Roo’ (cousin Nick) because heaps of people made a big song and dance about it,” he said with laugh.
The transformation of Riewoldt from “me” to “us” has been “profound’’, according to Carey.
The champion North Melbourne skipper and key forward, who was notoriously unselfish as a player, likened Riewoldt to Tigers captain Trent Cotchin.
“When Trent Cotchin was winning best and fairests and Brownlows, and Jack was winning Coleman Medals, it was about them,’’ Carey said.
“When the penny dropped and they realised the team is better with their influence being more a team player ... the team had a breakout year.
“I think Jack’s been a better player in the past six years than what he was when he was winning Colemans.
“He creates, he’s team orientated, he has an incredible footy brain which I never knew when he was just at full-forward and then you realised, once he moved from full-forward and up the ground and was able to create a bit more, this bloke could really play footy.
“I thought it (his transformation) was quite profound.
“I went from not being a massive fan in terms of him being a stay-at-home full-forward who just kicked goals to a player who could still kick five or six goals but have an influence and set up four or five others, and make other teammates feel good about themselves.
“It was like a switch went off, and that’s why now I think he is one of the modern great forwards.”
Carey rated the 2017 season as Riewoldt’s greatest, for he was the sole key forward in a season-long campaign and premiership.
“He just competed,” Carey said. “He realised he didn’t have to mark the footy and could manipulate where the footy landed.
“He was never out-marked. That year for me was defining and he’s carried it on.
“He got his sidekick in Tom Lynch afterwards and he’s realised he’s Robin and not Batman, but he embraces it.”
In the face of popular opinion Riewoldt was limping towards a career end in 2022, but he is surging again.
Asked if he was in any way looking towards next year, he quipped: “I’m not looking beyond this week.”
Still, on the field he’s chirping, bouncing, finger-pointing to the heavens and his high-fiving is podium worthy among AFL players. And he’s playing pretty good footy.
The change from last season to this season has also been profound.
His 2021 season, like his team’s, was a labour. Outside of losing matches, Riewoldt had mental hurdles.
Like, his family not making it to his 300th game because of a late-hour Covid change.
It’s one game you might say, but it’s a major milestone, the kids with him through the banner moment.
Like, missing out on the fun of the journey to a premiership.
“This year, well, you know a lot of people laughed at me last year on AFL360 when I said good luck playing the Tiges in the back of the year, and maybe we weren’t as good a side as I believed we were,” he said.
“But I firmly believed we were a good side and we had to re-establish our brand and I feel we’ve done that.”
Riewoldt is happy. Not just for himself for being a contributor, but for Lynch, for great mate Dustin Martin, who has returned, and for all the young players, including Maurice Rioli, getting a game.
“I think Lynchy’s playing the best footy he’s played nearly ever,” Riewoldt said.
“He looks free and I describe that as him looking like he’s in good condition, he’s marking well, he looks confident, and the way we have shifted in the past month of footy ... look, if you get to the footy to him one-on-one he’s going to win a lot of contests.
“We are giving him great looks and he’s turning it into scores.”
Riewoldt looks so far past himself these days, that when asked about Dreamtime, he talks about the excitement within the Riolis, about his cherished friendship with his long-time mate Shane Edwards, the Year 7 kids in the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School at Punt Rd, and the fact the Tigers’ organisation on any given day can have 52 Indigenous people on site — composed of students, staff and players.
“Win, lose or draw, we’re always going to be a great club because we value those sorts of things, and I’m really proud of that,” Riewoldt said.
He’s a statesman, Jack, a far different human from the young man who arrived from Tassie who wanted to take marks and kick goals and who has learnt about and had a thirst for cultural diversity.
“I didn’t know anything,” he said.
“I came from Tasmania where unfortunately most of the Aboriginal people were executed. That’s not part of the curriculum.
“The only way I’ve learnt about Indigenous culture is through one of my great mates Shane Edwards and his journey and I’ve been influenced by so many other Indigenous people.
“It’s changed my life. It’s changed our football club.”
Truly, the growing up of Jack Riewoldt is a wonderful story, on and off the field.
Originally published as Mark Robinson: Jack Riewoldt’s remarkable transformation from ‘me’ to ‘us’ football
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