Michael Roach: Special feeling when local club makes the Grand Final
WALK down any Richmond street and you’ll feel the excitement that only happens when the local team is playing in the Grand Final. This is how it feels for the players, writes Tiger legend Michael Roach.
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WALK down any street in Richmond today and you’ll feel the excitement that only happens when the local team is playing in the Grand Final.
I’ve felt it before, when we thrashed Collingwood in 1980 and when we failed to get over the line against Carlton two years later.
It’s the kind of excitement that lifts not only the club, the players and the fans but the whole community, whether you love your footy or not.
Mind you, if you’d told me in the rooms before the 1982 Grand Final that it would be another 35 years before the Tigers would get the chance to run out on to the MCG for the big one, I would have laughed at you.
After we kicked Collingwood’s behind, we were supposed to be the team of the 1980s.
As it was, only 10 years later Richmond was nearly gone and the players were out on Punt Rd shaking cans to try to raise some money to save the club.
It’s an illustration of the club’s resilience that not only did it survive, it thrived and grew to its current position of financial and competitive strength — and I couldn’t be happier.
Sure, I was born in Tassie but I first came to Richmond as a raw 16-year-old and boarded in Tanner St, near the Cricketers Arms. I worked in the shoe department at Dimmeys — how Richmond is that? — before mum and dad came over and decided I was too young to move out of home.
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But I was back at Tigerland in 1977 as a signed player on the senior list and have been with Richmond, club or area, ever since. I bought my first home in Wall St in 1982, have been in my current home for 32 years and my boys, Thomas and Matt, went to the primary school in Mary St and played with Richmond Junior Football Club.
My Friday night ritual throughout my career was a pizza from Silvios in Bridge Rd — they’re still there — so I reckon I’m a local.
I’ve watched the area change — in the 1980s it was a tough place, very working class and not popular with younger families as it is now.
You could get a house for $30,000 or $40,000, but now that wouldn’t cover your stamp duty. In some ways the club has changed as well: in 1980, Richmond had seven staff while now the number would be more than 200.
We used to have the Best and Fairest count on the back of a semi-trailer parked in the middle of Punt Road Oval, now it’s a big night at Crown with more than 1500 people.
But in other ways it hasn’t changed and I reckon that’s its appeal. The club is still the heart of the area, many of the players live there and the community bleeds back and gold. And the vibe in Richmond right now is as good as I’ve ever felt it.
So what advice have I got for Trent, Dusty, Alex and the boys? Take in the atmosphere, take in everything because, as we found out, it isn’t guaranteed that you’ll be there again.
It’s an awesome feeling hearing the roar of almost 100,000 people — we had more than 113,000 — but don’t expect to get as big a cheer as last week. That Adelaide mob will have a few cheering them.
But above all, enjoy it. We certainly did in 1980 — it might sound a bit arrogant but we knew we were premiership players long before the end of the game and our celebrations after it were pretty spectacular too.
We had some champagne in the rooms and I remember Dale Weightman managed to get his head in the cup. Then there were some drinks with our families and a big function at the Southern Cross Hotel.
After that? Well, there are a lot pubs in Richmond and we visited a fair few of them, getting a fantastic reception wherever we went.
Mum and dad were staying at my place and dad was waiting up for me. I remember him telling me it was 4.46am when I came through the door which wasn’t the smartest thing because I had to be at Channel 7 that day to be awarded the Coleman Medal.
Playing in a winning premiership team bonds you for life and on Wednesday we were at the MCG for our annual reunion for all of Richmond’s premiership players. The one thing we agreed was that after 37 years, we’d love to see some fresh faces — we’ve told all the old stories.
And what are the chances of hearing the Tigers roar at the final siren? Pretty good, I reckon. Richmond by 16 points.
Michael Roach played 200 games for Richmond, winning a premiership in 1980 and the Coleman Medal in 1980 and 1981. He was All-Australian in 1979 and was inducted into the Richmond Hall of Fame in 2002.
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