Damien Hardwick, team jacket on, strode boldly into the press-room. He was relieved at having seen his team overcome the tough and never-say-die North Melbourne Kangaroos by 10 points. The Club’s membership was at a record 70,000 (admittedly, many of them only three-game members) and about 3,000 of them had come to Hobart for the game. The game had been a cracker played to a sell-out crowd. The Tiger fans are up-and-about and the game is healthier for it. The AFL are really pleased that they have given prime-spots to Richmond in this season, “the year of the fan”.
Dimma: Fire away.
Journalist #1: Well, Dimma. That was a great win. What was the most pleasing aspect of it?
Dimma: I tell you, North are a great side. We had to be at our best today to not only stick with them, but to win the hardball when it was there to be won. Injuries took their toll on them: Waite and Nahas going down – that really cruelled them. I tell you, for a moment there, I was regretting we let Nahas go and weren’t able to attract Waite to our team.
Journalist #2: That is all about North. What about, your guys? What was the most pleasing aspect of the way your players played?
Dimma: Dustin Martin stuck to the structure all day long. He kicked the ball exactly where I told him to. Griffiths really stood up. Clunked some marks and nailed the goals. I was also impressed with the way big Ivan was able to cover the ground – took some real important defensive marks, and that mark, late in the last quarter when he drifted forward and marked in front of Farrito to effectively seal the game was a moment Richmond fans will never forget.
Journalist #3: You’re sitting 4:2 now and are 4th on the ladder thanks to your healthy percentage. Are you starting to raise the bar on what you can achieve this season?
Dimma: We haven’t achieved anything yet. We’re only six rounds in. We’ve got Collingwood next week. Sure, they got tidied up by the Cats on Friday, but we’ve got no doubt they’ll come out firing this week. It is going to be a great contest and one that we look forward to. If we’re good enough, we’ll be able to take it to them.
Journalist #4: What did you make of Deledio’s performance? He seemed to have slipped straight back into the team after a month off with the calf?
Dimma: He actually didn’t have an injury. We just gave him some long-service leave. He’s played with us for ten or so seasons now, and barely been injured or suspended. We thought that he needed break. Plus, we wanted to see if we could win without him. It turns out, we’ve done relatively well over the past month, going 3:1 – having just dropped that game to the Bulldogs, who are justifiably premiership favourites.
Journalist #5: Cotchin has gone into the book for a late hit on Brent Harvey. What did you make of the incident?
Dimma: I didn’t see it. The one thing I will say about our captain is that he stands up for his team-mates. In virtually every game against North, Harvey has torn us a new one, over the past decade. Normally it is Dan Jackson’s job to attempt to take out Harvey behind play, but he selfishly retired last season to get on with his life and do something else other than kick an oval ball around a large field day-in-day-out.
Journalist #5: You mean to say, that you gave instructions to Cotch to take Harvey out?
Dimma: You’ve had your turn.
Journalist #6: Just picking up on Cotch, what do you think of Chris Rees’s comments on TTBB regarding his habit of all those short, barely 15meter kicks?
Dimma: Chris Rees? I’ve got one of his mugs. Cotch always bangs it up the guts and always hits a player bang on the chest. Don’t know what he’s on about. He should stick to making mugs and t-shirts.
Journalist #6: But …. er …. he does it over and over again…
Dimma: Same as with #5. You’ve had your go. And by the way that is not a question.
Journalist #7: Can you give us an update on Alex Rance’s contract. Is the Club making progress with his management?
Dimma: Alex Rance is a very important part of our team. He is tall, good looking and has wonderful musculature. He makes up for some of the shabbier members of the team, that is for sure. Alex Rance is intelligent, humorous and courageous. He’s got other things in his life other than footy. The world is his oyster.
Journalist #8: Sounds almost like you think he wouldn’t be losing much by leaving.
Dimma: Reverse psychology, mate. Heard of it? We need him. WE NEED YOU ALEX. And we need you too, Chappy. Don’t get any ideas about going back to Port – just because now they have the most beautiful ground in the comp and have got a proper jumper. STAY WITH US. WE’RE GOING PLACES. FAST.
Journalist #9: Dimma…
Dimma: Bloody long press conference this one. Don’t you guys have a plane to catch?
Journalist #9: We live here.
Dimma: What at the ground?
Journalist #9: Hobart.
Dimma: What’s that? Never heard of it.
Journalist #9: Forget it. Dimma, you guys have made a lot of progress since losing that elimination final against the Blues. When you see them in the position that they’re in now, do you have any pity for them?
Dimma: It is a very even season. Make no mistake about it, we could easily be sitting 2:4 at this stage. If we’re off by 5%, 10% or 50% we know that we’ll lose a game. We have to get better each game. We know that our best is good enough to beat any team. We also know that any other team’s best is good enough to beat any other team. We’re no different. The Blues? They’re a great team. They have a great coach who the whole football fraternity loves and adores like a dear-old beloved grandfather. He’s kind of like footy’s answer to Kurt Vonnegut; bringing laughter and philosophical insight at the same time.
Journalist #10: The Tiger Army. It must be a great feeling having them on board.
Dimma: I’m not sure if I can call them an army. They don’t bring weapons to the ground nor do they wear helmets. Our colours are Yellow and Black; soldiers dress in dark green, khaki…But, I get your point. They’re proud, passionate and paid-up. We’ve got their money. We’re paying back their loyalty one week at a time – or, in four week blocks, if you will. We know that they’d still be behind us if we were 2:4. This game can turn very quickly. It’s a very even competition. Evenly.
Journalist #11: Dimma, just one final one…
Dimma: Nup. I’m cooked. I’m outta here. Thanks you blokes. See you next week after we smash the Pies in front of 90,000.
Vince Morton says
Well presented, it is just a pity we are not playing the game the way we should, but hey we are loyal and true Tigers and will stick with them no matter what, well I will at least. !!!!
TigerMan says
As I have said before, we as faithful supporters need to show just a bit more patience and the team will reward us in full. another to 3 decades is all we will need. In the interim, please ensure you buy your memberships or better yet, upgrade to the most prestigious ones, the ones we really care about. Buy lots of merchandise but only through the club shop or online. Contribute as much as you can to the FTF or any other fund we will start, buy your $200 raffle tickets and come to the annual $250 club ball and don’t forget the $200 end of season booze up. We will also ask you for a donation to the players end of season trip as a bit of reward for their outstanding efforts. Somewhere in the vicinity of $100 per family member would be ideal. Just hang in there people. We haven’t asked for much over the past 32 years but names like Lennon, Lloyd, Vickery, Gordon, Morris, Armot, McBean, McDonough, Conca, will become legendary and take this club on to greatness. We just need a little more patience.
Chris says
TigerMan, I hope your tongue hasn’t gone numb from being in your cheek for so long! Your comment reminded me of some numbers I looked up last year, from the RFC annual report 2013-14.
income from sponsorship $3.9 mil
expenditure on promotions and marketing $2.9 mil
A lot of the latter is presumably spent encouraging =us= to tip money into the club, resulting in
$6.4m from memberships and
$750,000 from merchandise sales
You can interpret those numbers in various ways but I thought they were enlightening.
Andy Fuller says
Hi Vince and TigerMan,
Thanks for your comments.
The Club is in a delicate position; they have to be financially viable – and this partly comes through ‘selling hope’ in the form of merchandise and convincing fans to come to games on the presumption that they will witness the dawn of a new era of Tiger-dominance. Richmond fans have done their bit in terms of contributing to the financial stability of the Club through the FTF, let alone the Save Our Skins campaign.As you say TigerMan, how many times can the Club call on the fans to give, when the team’s improvement is unclear?
It seems that a better financial position doesn’t always lead to on-field success. Yet, at least in this case we can’t say that the club’s poor form is because of not having the financial means.
Perhaps our expectations were too high: the team has been transformed from being on the bottom, to now, being mediocre, at best.
If we, as fans, are just expected to passively consume Richmond games, we will always end up disappointed as soon as the losses outnumber the wins. Fans need, to a degree, to be actively engaged in the club (beyond purchasing t-shirts, donating etc) and, at the moment, it doesn’t feel like Richmond fans are particularly satisfied.
I’ll watch and watch again and write and write again.
Go Tiges, turn it around
Andy
Darren Crick says
Would love to see dimma’s face reading this… 🙂
Andy Fuller says
Hi Darren,
Thanks 🙂
I have been on-board for the Dimma tenure. I don’t want to come across sounding needlessly critical. He is the coach of the RFC and we only have one coach. Football tactics etc is certainly far from my expertise, so, my main point of criticism is that the narrative needs to change a little.
I think most of the time Dimma and Brendan have been straight in saying that the team is ‘not where we would like to be’; but, if we hear this too often it starts to sound a little hollow.
Go Tiges 🙂 Go Dimma 🙂 turn it around; turn it on against the Pies.
Andy
Chris says
Nicely done Andy. I choose to forego the press conferences and Dimmas Dissections. Much like those other reality shows Masterchef and The Block, you find out the highlights through social media whether you want to or not.
I think you may have timed it just right too because from what I can tell through these secondary channels, Dimma is about to join Tony Abbott, Jaquie Lambie and Dr Edelsten as people who are simply self-satirising and almost beyond further creative mockery.