Oh we're from Tigerland
Stories of being Richmond
TROUT, 50, WOODEND (VIA RICHMOND)
Favourite all-time player:
Tony Free – “I just loved the way he played. Back in his day we had four little guys – Free, Craig Lambert, Chris Naish and Barry Young – who did all our fighting for us. Freezer was always up against it. He never backed down, he was a tough player. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s the nicest guy.”
Favourite current player:
Shane Edwards – “I’ve followed his career from the start. I wear his number on my back. He was drafted with Matty White and they were both told to learn how to break the lines. He gives us that run. He’s not one of the all-time stars, but he’s a hard worker. He’s good to watch.”
“When I met my wife she barracked for Collingwood,” says Trout, by way of introduction. “I said we could only marry if she changed to Richmond. Now all three of our children are Tigers.”
“What I’ve done is a community service. I’m breeding out the Collingwood gene.”
Does Richmond have anyone more passionate, one-eyed, colourful – more vocal on Kevin Bartlett’s talk-back radio program, more visible in the cheer squad – than Trout? He’s a force of nature; one man and his “COP THAT!” banner who stands up to all the character-building slings and arrows that come the way of Richmond people.
“MISS IT!” is his other great contribution to the vernacular of a football game and its crowd messages.
Of course Trout has a real name – and a real job, a real family, and a real yellow-and-black 1978 Holden Premier parked in his garage – but to call him anything else would spoil the aura. Besides, a man who wears a bright yellow clown’s wig to the football at the Melbourne Cricket Ground can call himself whatever he likes.
On the eve of Sunday’s big clash against Collingwood I’d arranged to meet Trout at a crossroads – on the corner of Hoddle Street and Victoria Parade, where the old hard-luck suburbs of Richmond and Collingwood touch. Joining us was Joffa, a big bloke with a gold-sequined jacket, who hopefully for all Richmond fans on late Sunday will be mute, sunken into his seat.
Trout and Joffa, together at last, two leaders of their tribes; court jesters of their clans. Listen to them talk and it’s a study in good-natured rivalry, and the black humour of the football fan.
“Did you park your car in Collingwood,” asks Trout.
“Yes,” says Joffa.
“Won’t be there when you get back,” says Trout.
“Don’t start me,” says Joffa. “You know there’s not much difference between a Collingwood supporter and a Richmond supporter.”
“Just the number of teeth,” says Trout.
Media darling: Trout, in front of the TV camera, talking Richmond, during his very own presser before the Round 1 Carlton win.
But for all the repartee and bravado, Trout has much respect for Collingwood and its supporters, knowing that there for the grace of God could have gone him. “My dad and my uncle, the two boys, were both Richmond but they came from a big Collingwood family,” he says. “They were a branch of Richmond supporters from a Collingwood family tree.”
Indeed, it’s proved a particularly fruitful limb. Growing up in Farmer Street, Burnley, on the flats in a meander of the Yarra, the son of a labourer who asphalted roads in Fitzroy, Trout had nine brothers and sisters. “They all go for Richmond except one,” says Trout. “She barracks for the Kangaroos because she married one of them.”
Trout was raised in Richmond, schooled at Burnley Primary and Richmond Technical College, during an era when most Monday morning talk was of football and mostly it was about the Tigers. Premierships in ’67, ’69, ’73, ’74 and 1980, when Bartlett kicked seven in an 81-point drubbing of the old foe, Collingwood, ensured bragging rights for a generation went always to those at the bottom of Punt Road.
“We’d catch a tram up Swan Street to the ground,” remembers Trout, of his early football experience. “Most of the time we wouldn’t watch the game. We’d play kick-to-kick on the concrete behind the goals at the Ponsford end, while dad and my uncle sat up in the stands.”
Nowadays, of course, the football landscape is entirely different; although the fervour and belief of the fan is unchanged. “Collingwood always wear their colours with pride,” says Trout. “And I’ve always believed in showing your colours. Nothing drives me as crazy as someone who wears a scarf to the game then puts it away in their bag as they go home.”
Certainly, none could accuse Trout of eschewing anything Yellow and Black. For about 10 years now he’s worn a luminous yellow wig to the footy, that on a clear day is visible probably from outer space. Look around the crowd on a big day at the ‘G’ and you can always spot Trout in the outer. He’s hard to miss.
Left to right: Sunny days: at the MCG, down the Punt Road end, among the floggers; Spawning Trout (in Sydney): this juvenile version was spotted at Spotless Stadium in the big win against GWS last year.
The story of the wig is that he was given four of them at work one day, and with his children, they wore them to the football. “We all got on TV, we just did it for a bit of fun.”
Afterward, his children were embarrassed, but for Trout here was a higher calling. “In life, you can’t worry what other people say. If you’re doing something that pleases everybody, you’re not going to do what pleases you. So I started to wear it to prove a point to the kids that I don’t care what other people say.”
“Then I got stuck wearing it.”
As he will again this Sunday afternoon, where he’s almost certain Richmond will re-boot their season, beating a team they haven’t downed since Round 19, 2007. “It only makes the winning sweeter,” he says. “It’s always good beating Collingwood.”
Joffa, of course, has other ideas. He hopes on Sunday to send his own cheerio, wearing his own bright garment from the ground’s other end. “At the end of the day it’s all about fun,” he says. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
Go Tiges!
If you would like to nominate a Richmond fan who has a story to tell about their barracking please email Dugald Jellie with details: dugaldjellie@gmail.com
