New St Kilda coach Alan Richardson. at his Park Orchards home with his wife Jo and two teenage sons (R) Ben and (L) Lachy. Picture: Colleen Petch. Source: Colleen Petch / News Limited
THE heartbreak of missing Collingwood's 1990 premiership still lingered as Alan Richardson wandered to the football one winter day the following year.
Richardson had cracked a collarbone during that finals series, but was hopeful of playing until coach Leigh Matthews subjected him to a brutal fitness test as he walked from the ground after completing Thursday's final training session.
The unsuspecting Richardson's collarbone popped, he was replaced by Shane Kerrison and he was still nursing that pain the following year.
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"That was his job,'' Richardson said this week of Matthews' tough love.
"He wasn't going to give me something that was predictable, he was going to give me something which would come in a game. He is a powerful man and I was pretty unaware.
"I was going to the football in 1991 and walking across the car park and I ran into John Kennedy Sr, who was my coach early in my career at North Melbourne. His message was, 'This will push you one of two ways. You will either feel sorry for yourself and it will be an anchor around your neck, or it will be something that drives you'. It was fantastic for a guy like that to show a level of care. It is something that has really helped me."
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More than two decades later, Richardson, 48, is finally a senior AFL coach after 114 games as a quintessential utility at Collingwood, three flags as coach at East Burwood and 13 seasons as an assistant coach at seven AFL clubs.
New St Kilda coach Alan Richardson. at his Park Orchards home with his wife Jo and two teenage sons (L) Ben and (R) Lachy and dog Max. Picture: Colleen Petch. Source: News Limited
It is no small part due to the lessons given by Kennedy and Matthews, who Richardson says was "incredibly empathetic'' in the days after that Grand Final heartbreak.
But while Richardson's football career has been well documented, his family life has remained in the background.
As it turns out 48-year-old Richardson spent a year away from his family after moving to Port Adelaide, confessing to wife Joanne that his dream of coaching an AFL club was probably over.
He and Joanne live on 20 acresabout 9ha of bush in Park Orchards, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, with sons Ben, 16, and Lachey, 15.
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This week they have had to quickly abortabandon a family moveplans forthat would have seen him joined by the clan to join him in Adelaide next year.
The kids were booked in at Sacred Heart College and Richardson had a new 12-month lease on a bigger rental property. He isn't quite sure what he will do with that now.
Richardson is the kind of laid-back, suburban bloke, happy with a fishing rod every Christmas and birthday, and who loves camping and fishing with his mates to get away from the 24/7 focus of AFL.
"From a family perspective (2013) has been a really challenging year," he said. "No doubt the football side has been really rewarding. My coaching role allowed me to get back to Melbourne to watch other teams play, and I would stay over for a night afterwards, and they came over in the holidays, so we made it work, but it was a big ask.
"We would often do the Skype thing. The family wanted to see what dad was having for dinner. I had to prove I wasn't working all hours and getting takeaway, and while that happened a bit it was good to have a yak while we were all having dinner, so that worked out well."
In recent years Richardson missed out on senior jobs to Scott Watters (St Kilda) and Damien Hardwick (Richmond), and admitted he believed for the first time his chances had passed him by.
"My wife rode the journey with me through my career, and she knows I have been really committed to the cause of the footy clubs I have been involved with, but also in doing as much as I could to be ready," he said. "And it certainly looked like that had passed, in terms of the direction I had taken (as coaching director) at Port, so she was incredibly pleased for me and deliveredrelieved I was going to get an opportunity to steer the ship.''
Instead of interstate flights, his commute now will be a 40-minute drive down the freeway to Seaford.
He said he had spoken to players and staff who assured him the Seaford factor was a non-issue: "They really like and respect the facility they have got".
While he will ask plenty of St Kilda's senior players, who return tomorrow, he said he also planned to use Port coach Ken Hinkley's mantra of extending their careers, not ending them.
"I think their role in where we move as a footy club is critical," Richardson said. "The impact on the team from a leadership perspective will be significant. We have got some terrific people there, so I would be surprised if we didn't get the example I am after from that perspective.
"We are in a rebuilding stage of our list, so you have to earn your position. If you are a younger guy your behaviours and actions will determine if you play. And that is true of the older guys as well. They won't get positions in the team because of what they have done previously. It will be on the way they perform and the way they lead.
"But they cannot only extend their careers, but also be really proud when they do eventually leave that they have left a strong legacy that underpins future success."
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