Jack Riewoldt on his new TV role at Fox Footy, Tasmania and winless predictions about his former club Richmond
Jack Riewoldt is about to take on one of the leading roles in footy’s TV wars. And as he tells JON RALPH, he won’t be pulling any punches — whether it’s about his beloved Richmond or not.
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Jack Riewoldt has always had a happy knack of being thrust to the forefront of some of footy’s biggest stories this century.
Think his unwitting role as the first victim of new concussion rules; his “killer” of a role as a post-Grand Final rock star; his 2020 goal from the boundary as Richmond clinched the AFL’s covid premiership at the Gabba.
Now the AFL great who at one stage put a media ban on himself through those turbulent early years at Richmond has found himself smack bang in the middle of the TV footy wars.
The Tigers champion retired at the end of 2023 with three Coleman Medals, three flags and 798 goals and made an impressive start to his career as a Fox Footy analyst.
As Fox Footy starts a new seven-year broadcast deal with Seven also beefing up its weekday analysis offerings, Riewoldt is jumping in the deep end — as the host of the venerable On The Couch.
Giving his take on footy’s biggest issues is a doddle for 36-year-old Riewoldt but following previous hosts Gerard Healy and Garry Lyon extracting compelling content from the panel while also juggling the hosting duties is a fresh challenge.
Yet Riewoldt cannot wait, fresh from a practice run this week as four time premiership midfielder Jordan Lewis joins Nathan Buckley and Jon Brown, with Leigh Matthews a semi-regular guest.
“It caught me by surprise. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would host a program this early,” Riewoldt said on Friday.
“I had aspired to do it and I have had a bit of a taste with some of the Fox Footy promos around player round and with Jordy on AFL 360 and cutting my teeth on Saturday nights with a great crew. But ‘Couch’ is pretty cool. I am nervous but I can’t wait.
“It’s not going to be perfect off the top. I understand that. I had to play my first game of footy once so you just have to start and get going and develop a relationship. The fact Jordy has come along is really important for me, to have someone I feel comfortable with or have done a lot with on air. “And the way the show is set up, it will be a little bit of the younger generation of Fox Footy versus some of the older experienced stalwarts who have been there for a long period of time. So the mix is good, the off-camera mix is good. It’s fresh as well. So I hope that bodes for good TV.”
Brisbane legend Jon Brown is likely to spend early episodes basking in the glow of the Lions’ 2024 premiership but as the season unfolds Buckley’s status as a coach-in-waiting will have to be probed by Riewoldt.
Is he ready to ask the tough questions in a way some ex-footballers sometimes cannot come to grips with?
“The program is about chatting about the big issues, and those questions need to be asked, because they’re the questions that every single person sitting at home on their own couch will be wanting answered and wanting to be asked.
“So I’m lucky that that’s me that gets to ask those questions, as it will be for the other three.
“It’s a conversational show and we want to make those conversations great and what people want to watch at home.”
TASMANIA’S INTRODUCTION IN 2028
As Tasmania’s introduction to the AFL nears, Riewoldt has been effectively tasked with finding the soul of the football club.
Father Chris played 298 games with Clarence in the Tasmanian Football League and Jack played in a premiership there before being drafted by Richmond.
His official job is to find the Tasmania Devils’ “identity” as the club seeks to establish its culture under CEO Brendon Gale and its first AFL coach.
“As (chairman) Grant O’Brien put it in the first press conference in Launceston, it’s about the fabric and the DNA and the essence of being Tasmanian, and it’s a very different football club to anything that exists at the moment.,” Riewoldt said.
“That one state mentality _ one team, one state representing a piece of land that’s very important to a lot of people, whether they be on island or off Island, whether they be born Tasmanians or people who have visited there or Tasmanians that have moved away.
“It’s critically important that you get your DNA right, because sporting clubs are extremely tribal organisations.
“Looking at Tasmania, it’s probably a bit similar to the addition of Port Adelaide because there is 150 years of football history. There is a passionate supporter base already there, we have got four or five years to build up and people know we are coming so they have got to prepare to let go of their current team or they might just have Tasmania as their second-favourite team.”
RICHMOND’S TOP-TO-BOTTOM REBUILD
Riewoldt will have some time to decide if Richmond becomes his second-favourite team but a year on from his retirement the place is unrecognisable.
They have a new CEO in Shane Dunne, a second-year coach in Adem Yze, a relatively new president in John O’Rourke (appointed late 2022) and six new first-round draftees.
He can’t help comparing this process to the quick list builds Hawthorn pulled off in their first premiership of this century as they try a similarly expedited premiership charge in 2025.
“What is a pass mark? I’ve heard stories of them not winning a game, which is a lot of crap,” he said.
“History tells us if you have a plan and invest in the draft, and I am looking directly at the Hawthorn model right now, then you can bounce back quicker than if you don’t make the hard decisions. That’s where I see Richmond at the moment. I hope at the end of the season we are sitting back saying we can see what the future looks like.
“We can see through the trees and know the Tigers are going to come out the other side.”
Riewoldt says it was impossible for new coach Adem Yze to execute his game plan with such a ridiculous injury toll including four ACL victims as star Tom Lynch played only four AFL games.
Now while there will be tough times blooding so many kids he believes Yze should have a better chance to put his tactical acumen on show.
“I am bullish on what they are. With the results this year, unless everything went absolutely pear-shaped, I think it’s really irrelevant. As a supporter, and that’s what I am right now, you want to see an identity and a game-plan.
“Now we know we won’t be able to see the game plan for the full quarters of every round but you want to see some structure to it.
“Adem Yze came into the chair that was filled by one of the great coaches of the modern game and they were big shoes to fill.
“The ACL list was as long as my arm so they need to have an identity and to further their growth they also need to win some games of footy because you need to experience winning footy.
“They will win a few games, they might not finish last. I know a lot of the Fox Footy crew have predicted they will finish last, which is OK, but I couldn’t be prouder of the people in that organisation making some really tough, difficult decisions.”
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