12 hours later and almost 100% sober, here are my thoughts and recollections of a superb night..
* Lounge suit affair with all dining ($350 ticket attendees) along with the who's who of Richmond congregated in the large foyer prior to being seated. That alone was a buzz for me to see players, committee and legends of the club roaming around, happy to have a chat, sign autographs, etc.
* Awesome setup and attention to detail at the Convention Centre. Room was decked out in yellow and black with a MASSIVE screen showing pics and collages of the great man. Also had a few smaller screens with the same. Tables had a yellow and black theme with Richo menus, signed miniature Richo jumper/center pieces for auction, etc.
* Let me also add that this was not a testimonial for Richo. Ie, no money from the night went to Richo and all proceedings went directly to the club. The $350 p/h is/was very steep and I'm not sure how they justify charging so much however as I said earlier, I was lucky enough to get a free ticket via Asta Solutions who sponsor the Tiges. 800 people paying $350 p/h shows how much Richo is loved and respected.
* Food was good - typical reception style menu. Service was excellent - you would expect nothing less at $350 a pop.
* The official tribute to Richo started at 8.30pm. At this stage, the gallery was opened to the 1000 odd people to take their seats in a theatre style balcony area. In this segment they covered 12 categories of Richo's career and life ranging from childhood pics of him from a baby right through to him getting drafted at Richmond in 93. Definately the hilight of the night which went for 1-1/2 hours I think. Categories such as:
- Richo the entertainer. This segment showed video hilights such as his countless screamers, freakish goals, etc.
- Richo the fashion statement. This segment showed his different hair "do's" along the journey, different dress styles, etc. Jack R did a video segment taking the p!ss, pulling out all sorts of things from Richo's locker at club...quite funny.
- Richo the brave. This segment hilighted Richo's injuries over his career and how resilient he was in playing with broken bones, etc.
- Richo the clubman
- Richo off field.
There were plenty more but the memory escapes me right now...
Guest speakers included: Gary March, Richo's mum, his sister, his close mates including Ben Harrison (his best mate as stated by Richo), Nathan Brown and Joel Bowden. Very funny segment where they all revealed anecdotes from the course of their careers and friendships with MR. Glen Archer - who spoke well -talking about how hard Richo was to play on and that the only player he could say was better than Richo (with a biased opinion) was Wayne Carey. Benny Gale spoke superbly and was one of the hilights of the night. A good, natural speaker who spoke from the heart. On that, I spoke to Benny later in the night and said "great speech Benny" who replied, "mate, that wasn't a speech, it was talk" - insinuating that his words were genuine, truthful, etc...hard to explain but I got the point. All these speakers were at the function and spoke on stage. All spoke really well, full of genuine respect and praise...amazing to hear some of the stories. One thing that I didn't know about Richo was that he smokes!!! Nathan Brown made sure to tell the audience about this where Richo seemed quite embarrassed about that one getting out...
They also had video speakers including Peter Knights who coached Richo at the saints in Tassie in his junior years. Robert Walls was the other, plus a mate of his whose name I can't remember. A few current players also spoke via video - Lids was one, can't remember the others. Nathan Bower was another (just came to mind) who was an absolute p!sser...very funny and entertaining who basically was saying that he was on the end of many a Richo outburst and how scarred he is to this day from the sprays he copped....had to be there to fully appreciate it I suppose.
I do want to add that there was plenty of emotion in the speeches...quite a few tears around the room on several occassions...very hard not to get emotional at stages. I would give anything to have him back playing with us. He is the true king IMO!
The club must have made a sh!t load of $$$...the amount of auction items sold was amazing...I know that 280 odd Richo prints @ $595 each sold out as an example...the original print (massive collage of Richo which was advertised somewhere - can't remember where) sold for $51,000! Many other items were sold for various amounts, ie. $5k, 10k, etc, plus heaps and heaps of posters, etc.
All current players were there (along with heaps of past players, committee members, etc. The players were mobbed by people wanting autographs and photos - I got a few. Most players were awesome and more than happy to oblige. Dustin Martin was rattled - very innocent and almost overwhelmed...I love this kid. Cotch was happy to sign also...
It seemed that all the players barring the leadership group and one or two others had a curfew as most left at the same time - around 10.30pm or so. Lids, Jackson, Newman, McGuane and maybe one or two others stayed to the end and were indulging in the grog having a great night it seemed. They then kicked on to the Hilton Hotel bar area which was awesome - I tagged along and got to mingle there also...Richo was also there and seemed like he was having a ball.
Glen Archer made mention that as he was walking into the function, he was speaking to two random people - both of whom were non Richmond supporters (one was a saint, the other was a blues fan), basically saying how well liked Richo is to have all sorts attending. Another small but indicative point of how loved Richo is was at approx. 11.45pm, I went for a smoke. As I was walking back to the function there were 2 ladies with their 4 girls (ageing approx. 10-15) waiting in the foyer, fully decked out in their Richmond gear. I stopped and asked what they were doing there - they replied, we're waiting for the function to end in the hope that they could get a pic/autograph of Richo as he walked past. They had been waiting for 2 hours (didn't have floor tickets to the function obviously). I tried a "shifty" by bribing the security to let them in for a few mins to however this didn't work. I eventually asked the security guard "hey, if get 6 tickets off my mates who were inside, can I give them to these fans to get in"? He said ok, so I did....cut a long story short, all six of them got in, got pics with Richo plus others, and were that happy and emotional that 1 of the girls was actually crying with happiness...Richo is a true legend!!!
10.30pm came and that was the end of the formal stuff - time to boogie with a band or 2 taking the stage...Richo got up with Pettifer and sang with the band...Richo is a natural and obviously loves his music as was mentioned a few times throughout the night.
Awesome rendition of the theme song right on midnight - lights came on, then began the "ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh we're from Tigerland....I reckon 3/4 of the room joined in including Jackson and Lids who were in my vacinity at the time....awesome way to end the night! Benny even made mention how good the rendition was....
Overall, an amazing night which I can't put into words on here. I have definately missed a number of things I'm sure but hopefully others who attended will be able to jot their thoughts and recollections down on here.
Excuse the rant - I won't even bother proof reading the above so excuse any parts that don't make sense....
