Richmond’s army caught waiting

Pictures worth a thousand words…Richmond’s long line and long march – the long wait of the yellow and black army

By Steve Alomes

Sometimes, in the cliché, pictures are worth a thousand words – they tell a story visually and symbolically, more than mere prose.

A couple of years ago a December ‘garage sale’ at Punt Rd caught the essence of the Richmond story.

At 10am on a grey day, a long queue waited in the light rain (or for those seduced by Americanese a ‘long line’). Somehow, it symbolised an army and its long wait and perhaps its long march towards the finals for most of the past three decades. It was a real queue, not a virtual queue waiting for ticketcrash.com.au to sell you a ticket.

I had always been a Tiger – Yes, that means Hobart, the club which produced Ian Stewart, Burnie Payne, Ron McGowan and Jeremy Howe and other VFL/AFL players – so the yellow and black still tugged on the heartstrings, even a foreign yellow and black to a Cat man.

And there they were, waiting in the rain, hoping for footies, jumpers, scarves and future glory….

And I was there, also waiting – for pics, as in our visual era.

Steve Alomes’ book Australian Football The People’s Game 1958-2058 is a richly illustrated exploration of footy’s past, present and future, available only from wallawallapress.com. As well as exploring dreams and hopes, and stories, it is the only footy book to discuss sports science, although briefly.  (See reviews at trove.nla.gov.au)