TIGERS GO WILD
Champs thank fiercely passionate supporters
THEY’VE been just as much a part of the story as anyone and now Richmond stars have lined up to laud the influence of the Tiger Army after Saturday’s drought-breaking Grand Final win.
Shane Edwards said “they really helped us” in the rampaging 48-point win over Adelaide at the MCG.
Dylan Grimes said he was “so proud to be able to give this to them” and Toby Nankervis said the team had been under instruction to just “embrace” the love.
Edwards has ridden all of the Richmond ups and downs during a 207-game career at Punt Rd.
And having been surrounded by one of the AFL’s biggest fanbases since 2007, the midfielder knows just how much the premiership would mean to them.
“They’re just diehards and they really, really deserve this,” Edwards told the Cairns Post.
“We just rode the wave. They give you so much momentum.
“You see the Crows at the Adelaide Oval and how good that is, but the G is our home ground and we used it today. They really helped us.
“We didn’t hear the Crows fans, it felt like last week against GWS.
“That might be testament to how we played, but we have the loudest fans, there’s no doubt about that.”
So loud was the crowd that Edwards said he didn’t even realise the Richmond theme song failed to play as the team ran out on to the ground on Saturday.
“I didn’t even know that,” he said.
“But I do know one thing, I don’t know if they were stamping their feet or whatever but the ground was vibrating, I haven’t felt it like that before – it was amazing.”
Richmond has 75,000 members.
And defender Grimes, who has played 104 games since making his debut in 2010, said “words can’t describe how proud we are” of all the fans, whether they were among the 100,021 crowd or not.
“You’ve heard it before but we’ve really got the most passionate, the most loyal and most absolutely nuts fans in the competition and I’m so proud of them,” Grimes said.
“As a player I can’t put into words how much I appreciate them turning up in the rain, through the close losses and through the down times.
“In my first season I think we were 0-9 and they were still showing up.
“They deserve this for the faith they’ve shown in us.”
Ruckman Nankervis only crossed from Sydney to the Ti- gers at the end of last season.
But he understands fully why the club chose the path it did in the crazy final throes of the season.
“We walk down the street and there is all that support there,” Nankervis said.
“We came together as a club and thought, ‘no, we’ve got to embrace this’.
“It was said that when we come to the club it’s time to work, but outside of that we’ve been told to really enjoy it because we’ve earned it.”
Small forward Dan Butler was facing the axe from Richmond this time last year.
In the end, the Tigers showed faith, handing Butler a one-year contract extension he describes as a “football lifeline”.
On Saturday, the small forward repaid that faith, becoming a premiership player just 191 days after making his AFL debut against Carlton in Round 1.
“I couldn’t have dreamt it up at the start of the year but I’m just so happy and so proud of the boys,” Butler said.
“I’m still pinching myself. It feels like a dream.”
THEY’RE JUST DIEHARDS AND THEY REALLY, REALLY DESERVE THIS. WE JUST RODE THE WAVE. THEY GIVE YOU SO MUCH MOMENTUM
RICHMOND’S SHANE EDWARDS