Testaments from Tigerland?

There are different ways that the fans can react to a stranger intruding on the largest loss in their club’s history.

Obviously at the insane, poorly educated and superstitious end of the spectrum (the Collingwood end?) tens of thousands of them could have grabbed pitchforks and torches and come looking to lynch me deciding that i was a witch or a hex upon their cause. Or you could do what i probably would have done and slinked away sulking – sadly hoping that it was never spoken of again. Or, you could do what Rosy over at Puntroadend.com has done and use this unique coincidence as a bit of a rallying point in difficult times.

Maybe some good will come of last night’s debacle and we might just get a new member out of it. There’s a bloke called Marcus featured on 3LO. He’s been in Melbourne a few years and doesn’t have a team yet. He’s been going to watch a different club each week to try and find a club to devote himself to and this week it was Richmond’s turn to try and win him over.

They had a package of his comments throughout the game on the radio today. Was pretty funny. Rather than put him off he’s considering giving the next 10 weeks of watching clubs a miss and jumping on board the Tigerland Express. He said it was certainly an experience he’ll never forget.

I reckon it’s our duty to try and get him over the line.

OK, so it wasn’t quite a “we will fight them on the beaches” or a Gettysburg address, or even that bit at the end of the Lord of the Rings where a bunch of blokes are standing at the gates of Mordor about to be over-run by 40million Orcs and Aragon tells them that “A day may come when the courage of men fails… but it is not this day” (audio link, go on listen to it Tiger fans!) but for sheer intensity of optimism against suicidal odds, I would think Rosy’s comments deserved to be overly dramatised, filmed and stuck gratuitously into a Hollywood movie.

There may be a day when the courage and self belief of Tigerland fails.. but last Sunday was not that day.

Rosie’s call to arms prompted the biggest flood of testaments for a team that i have yet seen from any team. To read them all, you need to go to Rosie’s web site at Puntroadend.com, but i will include a generous sample of them here – beginning with Rosie herself:

Dear Marcus,

Richmond have very passionate supporters. It might sound like we eat our own on here sometimes but watch an opposition supporter bag our club and see how we bond together to put them back in their box. You feel a sense of pride sticking by the club when the chips are down. It’s a good time for you to hop on board because one day we’ll be successful again and it will be so much sweeter after having been there the evening we hit rock bottom. You saw our record breaking loss so stick around and one day see our premiership too. What a story to share with your grandkids.

Stick with the Tiges and I’ll even send you a much coveted PRE stubby holder and sticker. How many of those other hob-nob clubs have made you an offer as good as that?

Ok, so i am not sure what the ABC ethics rules are about accepting a punt road end stubby holder and sticker but i get the passion.

Another from a fan called Growl:

Ok, here goes: I’ve been following this club for – er . . . a number of years – and I just want to say that there isn’t any other club as far as I’m concerned.

I think of RFC as an extension of my family and, as with naughty little kids, you might feel like giving them a good smack around the legs but instead you cuddle them and send ’em off to bed.

So, get to bed, all of you – I said ALL of you, Matthew! and don’t forget to brush your teeth and say your prayers!

From BBClay:

Hey it just occurred to me that in 1962, our previous worst start to a season, I was 5 years old and my dad and older brother started taking me to see the tiges. Even though we were hopeless I was hooked on the passion of the barrackers and the atmosphere. Made my formative years at school pretty tough but by 1967 and 1969 – I was lording it over them all! I made rash predictions in high school in 1972 which turned out to be a dream that came true in 1973 and 1974. 1980 and flogging collingwood was just the best year of all. I highly recommend you start following them while they are on the bottom – it makes you take a longer view of things, to learn humility and great joy when the successful times come. So get on board now for the ride of your life Marcus!

From Col.W.Kurtz:

Why the Tigers?

Any fool can barrack for a winning team, but when you join as a Richmond supporter, you join the loyal, the determined and the slightly deranged but you know they are true supporters who will stay in the good and bad.

Richmond supporters understand true pleasure comes from the delayed release. Teams that have a history of winning don’t appreciate it as much when they win, but only the team that has been down for as long as Richmond knows how sweet it is when you have a brief glimpse of triumph.

When they won last year’s Grand Final West Coast supporters I’m sure enjoyed the game in their own chardonnay sipping way. But let’s face it, they knew if they didn’t win that year victory would come soon enough. I wonder if West Coast fans enjoyed that moment as much as any Richmond supporter did when we started to come back in the 3rd quarter of that final against Essendon in ’95 (Marcus will have to check his history). I wonder if they have replayed that game in their heads as much as Tiger fans have replay Scotty Turners bump on Gary O’Donnell?

Despite recent changes at its heart AFL isn’t a made for TV cooperate spectacle, it is a deeply tribal, passionate game with a long history. I am too young to remember any Tiger premiership but I am proud to support a club which has such a glorious past. Richmond used to be one of the poorest parts of Melbourne, and even in the darkest days of the depression heroes like ‘Capitan Blood’ Jack Dyer gave the people of Richmond something to be proud of. When you barrack for Richmond now you tap into that past, and you join something that will hopefully keep going a long way into the future.

I follow a lot of sports, but nothing compares to Richmond. As much as I enjoy watching the Australian cricket team (probably the greatest of all time) everything is a dull prosaic pleasantry compared to the thrill of a big Tigers victory.

From RFC not KFC:

Marcus, If you choose another team you may see more wins, experience a flag sooner rather than later, get to watch home games on Foxtel live from interstate (ha), get a job at channel 9 perhaps, and maybe even chuckle at the Tigers from afar. However every time you hear the crowd roar “YELLOW AND BLACK” during our song (fair enough the opportunity is normally limited to when we run out on the ground rather than after the final sren) you’ll know you’ve made the wrong decision.

From HellsTiger:

Over 29000 members and we have been 26 years without a premiership, imagine the numbers when we get out $hit together. This club gets you in and you won’t ever look at another. I have two boys and they both love being Tiger cubs. And besides, whats the alternative? Barrack for collingwood….I think not.

From LeeToRainesToRoach:

Marcus,

I understand you’ve been feeling a bit down lately, and think that becoming a Richmond member could be just the tonic you need – after watching the Tigers each week you will feel that the rest of life is pretty good in comparison. You’re bound to feel better about yourself after watching 22 players – two complete cricket teams – consistently fail to score a hundred between them. You are Marcus Trescothick, aren’t you?

Seriously mate, if you’re going to rationalise your decision there is no way you can justify choosing Richmond as your club on the score of recent history. But barracking for Richmond is an affair of the heart, more so perhaps than following any other club; join us and I guarantee you will be carried aloft by the tide of elation emanating from the Tiger faithful when we are surging back toward our rightful position at the top of the football tree. And ‘Tigerland’ will be the sweetest song you ever heard.

FromTigerblood (who did some research on me and was smart enough to load it up with Newcastle references):

Dear Marcus,

you are thinking it’s a long way from Nobby’s lighthouse, Merewether Beach, the Cathedral on the Hill and the towering harbour coal loaders to a place called Tigerland. You’ve had a beer at the Bowling Club at King Edward Park and marvelled at 20 ships waiting on the horizon for their turn in port. You’ve enjoyed a coffee on Darby street after a Saturday surf. You’ve driven your girlfriend into the Hunter for a night on the wines in an old wooden restaurant nestled in a paddock. Ah, the greatness of Newcastle, so under-appreciated by other Australians. Just like Richmond! It has the heart, the tradition and the mug’s reputation that would appeal to any Novacastrian. I know – my parents sent me from Tigerland to Newie as a primary school kid. And although I copped a ribbing, and became like you a Knights supporter, I kept singing the Richmond song all through school and even won over a few mates – because there’s nothing a boy from Newcastle appreciates more than good honest Aussie sport.

I now invite you to take the reverse journey. A Newcastle boy has arrived back in Richmond!

Come on over! They’ll love you down the Delaney for this insane move!

From CagedTiger:

Dear Marcus,

A Tiger supporter has an innate heightened passion and desire. There is a burning fire within. A passion that is uncompromising, unconditional and indelible. It cannot be extinguished or washed out and it can never be lost.

Rosie topped it off by nicely by saying, “We’ve all suffered the biggest footy kick in the guts yet it’s obvious there is still no club but Richmond for us.”If i do eventually settle on the Tigers she offered to make me Lord Mayor of Puntroadend for a day – I am not sure how ABC ethics rules apply to that as opposed to stubbie holders – but given the spirit that those folks over there have shown it would genuinely be an honour.