Mick Molloy: Tough times lead to ultimate Tiger release
MICK Molloy is your quintessential Tiger tragic: His will states his twins will not get a cent unless they are members when he dies. He writes about how, after so much pain, he couldn’t be prouder.
Opinion
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BARRACKING for Richmond over the past 35 years has involved more than its fair share of lows.
People often ask if I ever got to the point where it was all too much and thought about jumping off the Tigers?
There is only one time I remember actually seriously thinking about it and it was 2010.
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We were eight rounds in and Richmond were eight losses, no wins.
I thought “bugger this’’ and went and bought a Melbourne Storm membership because they were eight wins and no losses.
Later that week Storm were stripped of all their points in a salary cap debacle and I was barracking for two teams with no wins between them.
I started to wonder if it was me.
But I’ve never genuinely considered turning my back on the team I love.
Barracking for Richmond has been tough but not impossible.
The rough times have almost been our cross to bear and you can tell by the energy around the place what it means to the fans to be in a Grand Final.
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We’ve had to keep the club afloat so we know how hard it has been for everyone involved and that is why it is so important to us now.
Despite being the worst performed team of the past 35 years you could not kill us if you tried.
I doubt any other club could have survived what we’ve been through but the fans have always been there.
They have never stopped going to the football and we have 75,000 members as we have had for years.
So to me, we’ve survived the greatest test any football club could go through and it makes it satisfying to be where we are.
Given I didn’t get to Melbourne until fifth grade, it’s funny how Richmond found me.
I remember walking into Mt Eliza Primary School and there were a couple of spare seats.
One of them was sitting next to a kid named Darren Chow and he barracked for Richmond, so I barracked for Richmond.
We still go to the footy every week together.
Until recently we had the same conversation after every game — “Thanks a lot mate. I could have sat next to Jim Smith who barracked for Hawthorn”.
We got to choose our own team when we were children but my kids won’t have the same luxury.
My five-year-old twin boys, Fred and Lenny, are already paid-up members of the Richmond Football Club.
And it’s in my will that they will receive nothing unless they are at that time still paid-up Richmond members.
As twin boys the only thing I will ask them to do together is wear the same Tigers outfits to and from the MCG.
Until now, the only Richmond Grand Final I’ve ever been to was 1982 when we lost to Carlton.
I still blame Helen D’Amico for streaking because it was at that precise moment Richmond turned terrible and we haven’t won a thing since.
Sometimes it has been hard for Richmond supporters to defend themselves but that is why the relief and the release now is so great and people are so happy.
The suburb of Richmond is just incredible at the moment, so full of life.
Walking home from the G last week felt like they had just announced the war was over and Richmond had won because people were literally dancing in the street.
If we win on Saturday we will all ride to the gates of oblivion on a horse called Destiny.
We will go mad.
I will officially start my Tiger gap year and wear my jumper to everything — meetings, dinner, all kinds of stuff.
Just winning a final was a monkey off the back so everything from here is a bonus.
Obviously it would be great to win it but no matter what happens it’s been a great year.
I could not be prouder to be a Richmond supporter.
Mick Molloy is a Tigers tragic and co-host of The Front Bar on Channel Seven at 8.30pm Thursday. Guests include Chris Judd, Nick Riewoldt, Jobe Watson, Leigh Montagna and Santo Cilauro.
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