How as Richmond maintained it's stature?

[Berlin]

Frank Hardy's "Power Without Glory

Great book, it's interesting how his granddaughter, Marieke (Fitzroy supporter) just cant get into footy as passionately after the Lions demise.

 

[Hoos]

Great book, it's interesting how his granddaughter, Marieke (Fitzroy supporter) just cant get into footy as passionately after the Lions demise.

Not that surprising though. I think I would be the same if Richmond were not around.

 

[smasha]

There's no place like home.

 

[Berlin]

Not that surprising though. I think I would be the same if Richmond were not around.

Of course. I should of said her writing about what it felt like losing your club from a then teenagers perspective is interesting. Now look, the league is just pouring money into soulless franchises as traditional grass roots football clubs with history are ignored.

 

[Hoos]

Yeah, it's really sad. I struggle to find one redeeming quality about the AFL at all.

A friend of mine bought in to the Brisbane Lions thing when Fitzroy ended. Even when they won their 3 in a row, while he enjoyed it immensely, he said it wasn't the same.

Another friend, also a former Fitzroy supporter, threw his lot in with us. I'm not sure I could do something like that.

 

[blaisee]

I was born in 74, and went for Carlton with my older bro until the 1980 grand final. Then a very charismatic and persuasive family member talked me into supporting the tigers with his stories of Jimmy Jess, Raines and Merv Keane. I became a passionate tiger. The 80s and 90s were tough, but we never lost the rage, Richo kept us breathing and players David Honybun and Nathan Brown gave us injury excuses as to why couldn't win. I have made it my business to personally meet all the coaches and recruiting managers since since 95 and I consider some of them my friends. My daughter writes letters to Dusty,even my wife is being empathetic towards me and it feels weird. My son was born on the only day Richo kicked 10 against the buldogs. He is a 14 years member i am a 30 year member. I am scared because this could be our year, and I don't know how I am going to deal with it, either way. I am a complete mess.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

Been a tiger supporter all my life, my old man was a mate of Dick Clay he saw all the successful grand finals of the sixties and seventies, I was lucky enough to attend the 1980 grand final never forget all the magpie fans leaving at half time that was priceless, not so good the 82 granny when we were distracted by a female streaker, then came the horrible era when we were broke and s**t, remember the save our skins campaign and all the tin rattling, always hoped and believed we would come good, was awesome to be there to see us flog the cats can't wait until Saturday go tigers.

 

[Tiger2709]

I was born in 74, and went for Carlton with my older bro until the 1980 grand final. Then a very charismatic and persuasive family member talked me into supporting the tigers with his stories of Jimmy Jess, Raines and Merv Keane. I became a passionate tiger. The 80s and 90s were tough, but we never lost the rage, Richo kept us breathing and players David Honybun and Nathan Brown gave us injury excuses as to why couldn't win. I have made it my business to personally meet all the coaches and recruiting managers since since 95 and I consider some of them my friends. My daughter writes letters to Dusty,even my wife is being empathetic towards me and it feels weird. My son was born on the only day Richo kicked 10 against the buldogs. He is a 14 years member i am a 30 year member. I am scared because this could be our year, and I don't know how I am going to deal with it, either way. I am a complete mess.

If your feeling stressed just sit back and think about how you could have ended up as a lifetime Blues supporter, with all the embarrassment that entails

 

[Berlin]

Why hasn't the title of this thread been edited?

 

[roacheee]

***cough cough*** Justin Charles ***cough cough****

clubs mate, he said clubs, not an individual

 

[BBC1967]

Been a tiger supporter all my life, my old man was a mate of Dick Clay he saw all the successful grand finals of the sixties and seventies, I was lucky enough to attend the 1980 grand final never forget all the magpie fans leaving at half time that was priceless, not so good the 82 granny when we were distracted by a female streaker, then came the horrible era when we were broke and s**t, remember the save our skins campaign and all the tin rattling, always hoped and believed we would come good, was awesome to be there to see us flog the cats can't wait until Saturday go tigers.

Good memories - as an aside Dick Clay was a four time Premiership player. Could play any position you could name. Was top five in B and F many times . I know Dick was one of the first into Tigers Hall of Fame - BUT he has not been included in AFL Hall of Fame, - many lesser lights have been nominated without a problem.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

Good memories - as an aside Dick Clay was a four time Premiership player. Could play any position you could name. Was top five in B and F many times . I know Dick was one of the first into Tigers Hall of Fame - BUT he has not been included in AFL Hall of Fame, - many lesser lights have been nominated without a problem.

Yeah as good as most in the AFL hall of fame, he was back in Kyabram where he grew up a few weeks ago and was inducted into the footy clubs hall of fame, played all his junior footy there and won the Gvfl medal and kicked a 100 goals in 1966 the year before he went to Richmond with Tom Hafey and Francis Bourke who were playing at nearby towns, not bad recruiting I would have thought won a flag in their first year at Richmond.

 

[HTT]

Think we’ve got our answer: the passion of us when we’re up is just infectious. I’m a diehard. Have been most of my life. But over the last few weeks even I’ve found myself even more sucked in to the tiger train. It’s like a black hole, and as we achieve greater success (which really isn’t much) we become unable to escape. As some have pointed out, we’ve had successful periods across multiple generations. The club draws people in during these times and while they may check out they can never leave.
When the club was on its knees, while active supporters were incredibly low, a great number of people that remembered the glory days did not want the club to die, and those wishes were upheld.

 

[tigs2010]

The hope of seeing days like last Saturday and hopefully this one too.

Was epic

 

[fleabitten]

The hope of seeing days like last Saturday and hopefully this one too.

Was epic

I think that's a huge part. You turn up to all the likely humiliations just for those days when everything comes up Richmond. I'd have been spewing if I missed either of our finals after the shite i have endured over my lifetime. Imagine if 2016 had been my final straw. I'd be feeling like some pathetic bandwagoner now instead of the king of the world.

 

[juss]

Last premiership was in 1980, yet it seems support for Richmond has hardly waned. The 'Tiger army' prides itself on loyalty, having stuck with the club through thin and thinner, and I believe even last year you had over 70,000 members? Carlton has 50 odd thousand, and seems to have declined in stature. Also Richmond seems to get an awful lot of media attention here in Melbourne, good and bad. At the same time the Melbourne FC, who boast 2 more flags, are a minnow club, though they haven't lifted the cup in over 50 years.

What do you attribute this to? Something about the culture of the club, their supporters? Borne from the early days of Richmond as a working class 'battler's' suburb? Contrasted to the toffy members of the MCC who supported Melbourne? If Richmond win the premiership this year you could argue the big 4 in Melbourne will be Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn and Richmond.

People like to say Richmond is a bandwagon, but I reckon we have one of, if not the most loyal supporter base in the league.
Not many other clubs could have come out as strong after Richmond's 1981-2016 period.

 

[Wallaby]

If you just look at crowds (the only accurate figures we have), most have clubs have crests and troughs in attendance. And when they have a resurgence after a particularly bad period - they generally get back to where they were before. Every side has bandwagon jumpers - off and on.

When we were truly crap - say 86-92, we averaged less than 22,000 per game every season. But wait until we play finals again (1995 - just 3 years later)) - we averaged 39,000 per game. What a bunch of fairweather supporters we are!

Carlton are crap right now - they are average mid-high 30Ks per game. But just a few years ago when they played finals 4 years out of 5 (2009-2013) they averaged mid-high 40ks. When we played finals 4 years out of 5 (2013-2017) we averaged mid-40ks.

Just because we have the loudest theme song and an annoying (to other clubs) Grog squad doesn't mean we have more passion or loyalty. Clubs have a supporter base size that is dependent upon many historical factors.
The Bulldogs arguably have the most loyal supporters in the league - their fans turn up whether they are good or bad. They didn't receive a significant spike due to the premiership in 2016. They have a smaller supporter base than us, but far fewer bandwagoners. Their 'hard-core' supporters - turn up no matter how bad the team, opposition, or weather - is probably only slightly smaller than ours.

Essendon haven't won a final since 2001 - they've only made the finals 4 times since then. But their support level has remained probably steadier than ours.

 

[tigerdan]

If you just look at crowds (the only accurate figures we have), most have clubs have crests and troughs in attendance. And when they have a resurgence after a particularly bad period - they generally get back to where they were before. Every side has bandwagon jumpers - off and on.

When we were truly crap - say 86-92, we averaged less than 22,000 per game every season. But wait until we play finals again (1995 - just 3 years later)) - we averaged 39,000 per game. What a bunch of fairweather supporters we are!

Carlton are crap right now - they are average mid-high 30Ks per game. But just a few years ago when they played finals 4 years out of 5 (2009-2013) they averaged mid-high 40ks. When we played finals 4 years out of 5 (2013-2017) we averaged mid-40ks.

Just because we have the loudest theme song and an annoying (to other clubs) Grog squad doesn't mean we have more passion or loyalty. Clubs have a supporter base size that is dependent upon many historical factors.
The Bulldogs arguably have the most loyal supporters in the league - their fans turn up whether they are good or bad. They didn't receive a significant spike due to the premiership in 2016. They have a smaller supporter base than us, but far fewer bandwagoners. Their 'hard-core' supporters - turn up no matter how bad the team, opposition, or weather - is probably only slightly smaller than ours.

Essendon haven't won a final since 2001 - they've only made the finals 4 times since then. But their support level has remained probably steadier than ours.

It would be fairer to compare Richmond attendance figures as a percentage of total attendance, year on year (not that I'm asking you to go to all the bother).

There were huge crowds back in vfl era due to standing room (1970 GF for example) but on the flip side, there's a much bigger population now so you'd expect both crowds and memberships (of all clubs) to increase regardless

The only way to properly quantify is let Carlton and Essendon go 37 years between drinks and then compare. Sounds fair

 

[Hoos]

The only way to properly quantify is let Carlton and Essendon go 37 years between drinks and then compare. Sounds fair

Well, Carlton are more than halfway there and Essendon not far behind them. Neither one will be winning anything soon.

 

[Goldust]

Last premiership was in 1980, yet it seems support for Richmond has hardly waned. The 'Tiger army' prides itself on loyalty, having stuck with the club through thin and thinner, and I believe even last year you had over 70,000 members? Carlton has 50 odd thousand, and seems to have declined in stature. Also Richmond seems to get an awful lot of media attention here in Melbourne, good and bad. At the same time the Melbourne FC, who boast 2 more flags, are a minnow club, though they haven't lifted the cup in over 50 years.

What do you attribute this to? Something about the culture of the club, their supporters? Borne from the early days of Richmond as a working class 'battler's' suburb? Contrasted to the toffy members of the MCC who supported Melbourne? If Richmond win the premiership this year you could argue the big 4 in Melbourne will be Collingwood, Essendon, Hawthorn and Richmond.

Our membership waned in the late 80s and early 90s when we could barely muster 10,000 members and we'd barely pull 10,000 people through the gate. But a sniff of success and they come out of the woodwork. Proud to say I was there in those dark days .... like taking three years to defeat the hapless Brisbane Bears ... makes the success all the more enjoyable. The supporter base has always been there, but like all clubs, supporters like a winner!

 

[Goldust]

Lots of neutrals wondering what it would be like to see the full on Tiger Army out in full force....people and not only Richmond fans are genuinely excited about what big Richmond games mean in terms of athmosphere.

We just bring an extra sens of occasion that even the big clubs don't bring.

Very true mate .... but try convincing some on this board that's the case.
Most I know love seeing us in full force and flight!

 

[Sterge]

Our membership waned in the late 80s and early 90s when we could barely muster 10,000 members and we'd barely pull 10,000 people through the gate. But a sniff of success and they come out of the woodwork. Proud to say I was there in those dark days .... like taking three years to defeat the hapless Brisbane Bears ... makes the success all the more enjoyable. The supporter base has always been there, but like all clubs, supporters like a winner!

Complete garbage, AFL membership as a whole has grown over the years. Our first recorded year according to the below is 1992 we had 8k whilst traditional 'powerhouses' Collingwood fresh off a flag in 1990 had 18k in 1991. We have grown almost every year since then as has the AFL as a whole as clubs put more focus into membership numbers.

sure we have had a boost this year but to claim 90% of the member base is bandwagoning off 2017 is sanctimonious rubbish

 

[Hank Heavenly]

It would be interesting to see how many Gold members we have, given that's min 10 years, so well before we made it back to finals under Dimma.

Infact that would mean they were members at the peak of our shitness, worse than Fitzroy according to some.

 

[Ned_Flanders]

Can we stop with this “true supporters” versus barrackers crap?

If you feel the need to make yourself out to be a better supporter of the club than most, it says more about your personal insecurities than their worthiness as a supporter

We are a supporter group, not an aristocracy

 

[Sterge]

It would be interesting to see how many Gold members we have, given that's min 10 years, so well before we made it back to finals under Dimma.

Infact that would mean they were members at the peak of our shitness, worse than Fitzroy according to some.

In 2015 they did a Q&A

Richmond FC: Dont have the stats on AFL members on hand but the most highly populated cateogies in our database are 3-5 year members with around 18k. Silver members about 12k, gold 16k, platinum less than 1k and Yellow and Black 159. Hello and thanks to those 159 Yellow and Black members. 50 years of unwavering support is amazing commitment.


So according to my graph above we had 70,809 members in 2015

17,159 at gold or above about 24% of total members, would be 20k plus as of 2018 you could safely guess