AFL Round 15 – North Melbourne v Richmond: One of those days

Like his own father before him, John Green is taking his son to see the players in the rooms. It should have been the best of days. Instead, it’s a life lesson in losing. (And getting lost.)

AFL Round 12 – Richmond v Adelaide: Fun on our patch

John Green – and 40,000 other Richmond tragics – played a part in stopping at least one Adelaide goal at the MCG on Saturday. There’s much to love about these home games against interstate sides.

AFL Round 3 – Richmond v Western Bulldogs: A yellow and black symphony

John Green, who once endorsed his students’ right to heckle the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, experienced the Tigers match in four different movements on Sunday.

AFL Round 2 – St.Kilda v Richmond: When holidays go wrong

John Green is re-assessing the timing of his annual leave. He is a Tigers fan.

AFL Round 1 – Carlton vs Richmond: The Real Thing

John Green agrees with fellow Richmond supporter Russell Morris – Richmond are, indeed, the Real Thing.

The last Sunday in August

You see it every September in the Herald-Sun. Photographs of victorious premiership sides in suburban and country leagues across the state. Jubilant players leaning into a huddle. Laughing out loud and yelling “Yeah, you beauty!”

Holidaying on Fantasy Island

By John Green Where else would Richmond supporters stay in Perth, but Richardson’s Hotel and Spa in Richardson Street? At number 32 no less, Ben Cousin’s ID at Tigerland. Richmond is taking on Fremantle. While it’s a sunny Saturday morning on this side of the country with a projected maximum of 24 degrees, it’s 15 [Read more]

Going troppo

By John Green It doesn’t seem right. Australian football was originally meant for “gentlemen interested in keeping the muscles in full vigour during the winter months”, as stated in an article in Bell’s Life on July 31,1858. Thomas Wills, one of the founding fathers of the game, wrote in a letter to the same publication [Read more]

The Running Man

Sometimes the messages get complicated when you’re the team runner for the Ivanhoe under 15s. “Tell Patrick to hit a target when he’s kicking into fifty, tell Seb to pick out a teammate when he gets it and take Sam off for Liam. Sam’s number nine.” Many times I’ve bounded onto the field and realised [Read more]

Summit Fever

  The football world really ought to give Richmond supporters more credit. “Keep a lid on it Tiger fans”? Even Mick Malthouse is getting in on the act. People think we’re like little kids sighting a bit of tinsel in July and getting all excited because Christmas has arrived. But things look good. Scintillating victories [Read more]

BORDER WARS

By John Green We would all have to agree that the sport-as-war metaphor has been taken a little too far at times, especially by military history buffs like Mick Malthouse. But allow me to indulge myself for a moment. If I was comparing today’s Richmond-Melbourne clash to a famous battle, which conflict would I refer [Read more]

Nobody hates us anymore

The problem for Richmond is that we don’t rate at all on the football hatred scale. No-one even tells jokes about us. I am with my Magpie-supporting mate, Grant, on a crowded express train  jetting past Victoria Park on the way to the MCG for the Collingwood-Richmond clash. The voice of the train driver is [Read more]

THE ENDLESS TREK

Sometimes you look forward to something and it turns out a lot differently to what you expected. I always wanted to walk the Overland Track through the Cradle Mountain–Lake St. Clair National Park in Tasmania. After a few practice rambles through places like Wilson’s Promontory, I landed in Devonport in January 1997 with a mate [Read more]

Summer Love

Ah, the triangular arrangement for the opening round of the NAB Cup. It’s like the old Streets Three- In-One ice cream from the sixties. Tonight we get to take a peek at Richmond, Hawthorn and North Melbourne. The Hawks are warm favourites to win the NAB Cup and are expected to press for premiership honours [Read more]

The Big Nick

  by John Green I never thought I’d see a band of Vikings marching up the centre of Bridge Road. There they were. Arrayed in red and white, sporting horned helmets, brandishing hammers and calling on the names of ancient Norse gods. At least that’s what I thought they were saying. They weren’t the only [Read more]

Under the Southern Cross

  by John Green  Who would have thought it? Richmond playing September footy. Up the escalators from Southern Cross Station. It’s the annual Eureka game honouring the birth of Australian democracy on the Ballarat goldfields in 1854 and the contribution of Australia’s workers to the development of our nation. That’s the miners, not the soldiers [Read more]

The Unfriendly Skies

    Tiger Airways has been grounded indefinitely. Seven weeks ago the tiny budget airline intruded into the airspace of the marauding Bombers and caused them to crash-land. That 16-point Richmond victory in the Dreamtime at the G clash of the sash was the first of five losses in a row for Essendon. But a [Read more]

The long road back

  by John Green   How times change. Back in the late sixties and early seventies, when the Tigers ruled the footy jungle, my forays to the   MCG on Saturday afternoons always began at the Australia Hotel, on the corner of Bridge Road and Waltham Street in Richmond. This was where my father would meet [Read more]

A day with the Tigers

  by John Green There are many types of Tiger in the football jungle. They may be found in places as diverse as Coburg, Werribee, Mitcham, Morwell, Colac-Coragulac, Woori Yallock, Kyneton and Foster. Or Glenelg, if you want to continue your safari outside Victoria. Today I’m watching the Tigers in the afternoon and fronting up [Read more]

AN EVENING WITH DOLLY GRAY

Dimmer says we’re “a fair chance” tonight against Collingwood. Humble supporters can be a tad more realistic. A Tiger victory over Collingwood is about as likely as Bob Brown receiving an invitation to the BHP Christmas picnic in December. At least I can do it in comfort tonight. I like my normal seat at ground [Read more]