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Matthew Richardson has declared he wants to remain at Richmond next season despite suffering the humiliation of being dropped to the VFL as punishment for his abuse of teammates during the Tigers’ one point loss to Carlton.
The Tigers’ highest-profile player will play for Coburg against Preston in the VFL on Saturday instead of taking on reigning premiers Brisbane later in the evening at Colonial Stadium in a dramatic post-script to his nightmare 150th AFL game last Friday night.
The out-of-contract Richardson was forced to stand beside coach Danny Frawley at training at Punt Road on Monday night as the Tigers’ boss made it clear the star forward’s petulant behaviour would no longer be tolerated.
“After discussions with Matty we’ve come to the conclusion that the only course of action for his unacceptable behaviour on Friday night is to go back to the VFL,” Frawley said.
Both Richardson and Frawley said the shock decision to dump the man who took the most contested marks in the competition last year had been a mutual one.
“I obviously know I let myself and more importantly my teammates and the club down on Friday night,” Richardson said.
“It (his public show of anger and frustration towards teammates Matthew Knights and youngster David Rodan after they had both made mistakes against Carlton) was unacceptable in a team sport.”
However despite this humiliating setback and being out-of-contract at the end of the season, the 27-year-old – whose father Alan played in the Tigers’ 1967 premiership side – said he wants to stay at Punt Road.
When asked if being dropped affected his long-term commitment to the club Richardson replied: “Not at all.”
“I’m just focused on the rest of the year and at the end of the season I’m sure everything will work out just fine,” Richardson said. “Obviously I love playing here and that’s all I’ve got to say really.”
Frawley also said he wanted Richardson to remain a Tiger but said he would be closely monitoring Richardson’s body language over the remainder of the season.
“We’ll have a look at the last seven weeks but we play a hell of a lot better when he is fit and firing and he is doing all the team things,” Frawley said of the man who has kicked 459 goals in his 150 games – the fifth highest goals tally in the club’s history.
“They don’t fall off trees, players like him.”
However Frawley said he would no longer tolerate his star forward sulking when things didn’t go his way admitting that even taking him off the ground on such previous occasions has failed to correct the bad habit.
“Over the three years I’ve been the coach his level of body language and help to his teammates has really improved but unfortunately Friday night was totally unacceptable,” Frawley said of Richardson.
“I’m prepared to help him all the way but he knows Friday night is poles apart from what I expect.”
However Frawley warned Richardson could spend more than one week in the VFL saying his return to the AFL would not be automatic for the following week’s game against Collingwood.
“It (how quickly he returns) will depend on the behaviour of course,” Frawley said.
Richardson has endured a traumatic 2002 after a dominant 2001 season when he kicked 59 goals with his deadly attacking partnership with Brad Ottens lifting the Tigers to within one game of a grand final.
But after a best afield, six goal performance against Collingwood in round one, he suffered the first of two hamstring injuries the following week against Essendon and has not been the same player since.
He has kicked just 13 goals for the season and if he stays at Richmond next season he will be forced to take a massive pay-cut particularly after club chief executive Mark Brayshaw declared earlier in the season that Ottens and defender Darren Gaspar had gone ahead of Richardson in the contract pecking order at Punt Road.
However despite the immediate playing future of Richardson beyond this season causing constant turmoil at Richmond, Frawley maintains he is happy for the issue to be sorted out at the end of the season.
“I think the way Matty’s mindset is now he just needs to concentrate on what will make him a great team player for the Richmond Football Club,” Frawley said.
“Hopefully this is going to be a turning point for Richmond Football Club but more importantly for Matty because he knows what is going to be accepted and what is not going to be accepted.”
The Tigers’ highest-profile player will play for Coburg against Preston in the VFL on Saturday instead of taking on reigning premiers Brisbane later in the evening at Colonial Stadium in a dramatic post-script to his nightmare 150th AFL game last Friday night.
The out-of-contract Richardson was forced to stand beside coach Danny Frawley at training at Punt Road on Monday night as the Tigers’ boss made it clear the star forward’s petulant behaviour would no longer be tolerated.
“After discussions with Matty we’ve come to the conclusion that the only course of action for his unacceptable behaviour on Friday night is to go back to the VFL,” Frawley said.
Both Richardson and Frawley said the shock decision to dump the man who took the most contested marks in the competition last year had been a mutual one.
“I obviously know I let myself and more importantly my teammates and the club down on Friday night,” Richardson said.
“It (his public show of anger and frustration towards teammates Matthew Knights and youngster David Rodan after they had both made mistakes against Carlton) was unacceptable in a team sport.”
However despite this humiliating setback and being out-of-contract at the end of the season, the 27-year-old – whose father Alan played in the Tigers’ 1967 premiership side – said he wants to stay at Punt Road.
When asked if being dropped affected his long-term commitment to the club Richardson replied: “Not at all.”
“I’m just focused on the rest of the year and at the end of the season I’m sure everything will work out just fine,” Richardson said. “Obviously I love playing here and that’s all I’ve got to say really.”
Frawley also said he wanted Richardson to remain a Tiger but said he would be closely monitoring Richardson’s body language over the remainder of the season.
“We’ll have a look at the last seven weeks but we play a hell of a lot better when he is fit and firing and he is doing all the team things,” Frawley said of the man who has kicked 459 goals in his 150 games – the fifth highest goals tally in the club’s history.
“They don’t fall off trees, players like him.”
However Frawley said he would no longer tolerate his star forward sulking when things didn’t go his way admitting that even taking him off the ground on such previous occasions has failed to correct the bad habit.
“Over the three years I’ve been the coach his level of body language and help to his teammates has really improved but unfortunately Friday night was totally unacceptable,” Frawley said of Richardson.
“I’m prepared to help him all the way but he knows Friday night is poles apart from what I expect.”
However Frawley warned Richardson could spend more than one week in the VFL saying his return to the AFL would not be automatic for the following week’s game against Collingwood.
“It (how quickly he returns) will depend on the behaviour of course,” Frawley said.
Richardson has endured a traumatic 2002 after a dominant 2001 season when he kicked 59 goals with his deadly attacking partnership with Brad Ottens lifting the Tigers to within one game of a grand final.
But after a best afield, six goal performance against Collingwood in round one, he suffered the first of two hamstring injuries the following week against Essendon and has not been the same player since.
He has kicked just 13 goals for the season and if he stays at Richmond next season he will be forced to take a massive pay-cut particularly after club chief executive Mark Brayshaw declared earlier in the season that Ottens and defender Darren Gaspar had gone ahead of Richardson in the contract pecking order at Punt Road.
However despite the immediate playing future of Richardson beyond this season causing constant turmoil at Richmond, Frawley maintains he is happy for the issue to be sorted out at the end of the season.
“I think the way Matty’s mindset is now he just needs to concentrate on what will make him a great team player for the Richmond Football Club,” Frawley said.
“Hopefully this is going to be a turning point for Richmond Football Club but more importantly for Matty because he knows what is going to be accepted and what is not going to be accepted.”
