Oh we're from Tigerland
Stories of being Richmond
Louise Murray, 34, and Katie Cowe, 32, St Kilda West (both via Glasgow)
Louise’s favourite all-time Richmond player
Matthew Richardson – “I’ve never seen him play, but I’ve got the Youtube clips and the DVDs and the book, and I just love him. When the Tiges were down and out in the dark days apparently he was the guy who kept everyone turning up.”
Louise’s favourite current Richmond player
Dustin Martin – “In the last four years when we’ve been here we’ve seen him grow up. He was just like a little boy when we first started, and now he’s the main guy.”
Katie’s favourite current Richmond player
Jack Riewoldt – “I love how much he loves Richmond. He’s a one-club player, and he’s easy on the eye.”
“Ah hadnae seen anythin’ like it,” says Louise Murray, aka ‘Pervy Perverson’, recalling her first game of Australian Rules football, Round 3 of the 2012 season; Richmond defeating Melbourne.
“I remember being really disappointed people didn’t cheer for a behind, because they’re still gettin’ a point. Ah did think that was quite cute, y’know, you’ve tried to kick a goal but you’ve missed, but here’s a point for trying. That’s lovely.”
Early Sunday afternoon, on the lowlands of Richmond at a café called Friends of Mine, I meet with Louise and Katie Cowe (aka ‘Fannybaws’) to hear a Richmond story I cannae do justice. Mostly, it’s because of the accents; the Glaswegian patter of their hometown, think Billy Connolly (without the expletives) – letters dropped, others added, a lyrical dry wit, and it’s true I’m hardly sure what they’re saying.
But it’s also the repartee.
Golden Tigers: Katie and Lou at a members cocktail night at Crown, 2014.
The two are flatmates, work colleagues at the maternity ward at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, and longstanding friends from studying midwifery in Scotland. And both of them, four-and-a-half years ago, came to Melbourne together on a working holiday that knows no end.
“We were only supposed to stay 12 months,” says Katie.
Lou adds: “I joked at the beginning, once we became Tigers, that I wouldn’t leave until we’d seen AC/DC in concert and the Tiges win a flag. And we saw AC/DC last year, so we’re just waiting on this flag thing.”
Katie: “We’re settling in for a while, by the looks of things”.
For a legion of Richmond fans on social media (Twitter and Facebook), it’s a blessing. Yes, we want the Tigers to win a flag. But for all who’ve followed the public-private lives of these two finding their feet in Melbourne, played-out often under the stage names of ‘Fannybaws’ and ‘Pervy Perverson’, we want them always in the crowd.
They chose Richmond for the initials. “I looked down the list and said if there’s a team that starts with ‘R’ I’ll take them,” explains Lou. “The only other choice was the Doggies because they’re the red, white and blue that Rangers play in. But I stuck true to RFC.”
Glasgow girl: Louise in her Rangers colours at the 2008 UEFA Cup Final in Manchester (she chose Richmond because its initials were the same as her beloved team back 'home').
“Initially, I was going to pick either Melbourne because we’re in Melbourne,” says Katie. “Or St Kilda because that’s where we live…”
“…or Essendon because of Jobe Watson,” adds Lou.
Katie: “But then I went to a Richmond game with you…”
Lou: “…and saw Jacky”.
Katie: “Jack’s absolutely brilliant.”
A full house, we sit at an outside table on the street corner, tape recorder running, and it’s like listening to a two-hander comic play. “Because we live together everyone thinks we’re a wee married couple,” says Lou. “But I think because I used to go home actually feral if we lost or completely hyper if we won, and that started rubbing off on you.”
Whatever the reason, the two have travelled to Perth, Adelaide and Sydney to see Richmond play, rarely miss games in Melbourne, and two seasons ago upgraded to a 3121 membership. “The word ‘mad’ crops up a lot,” says Lou. “At work, we’re not Richmond supporters, we’re mad Richmond supporters.”
“We request our shifts around the footy fixture, our social life revolves around Richmond games.”
“Our boss just knows,” says Katie. “She’s a Tigers supporter as well, she just knows not to put us on when Richmond play”.
Lou: “We did say to her if the Tiges ever win a flag you won’t see us for at least a week. And she was, ‘oh, yes I will, because I’ll be with you’”.
Travelling Glasgow Tigers: Katie's aunties (L-R Carol, Patricia, Kathleen and Geraldine) before the season's opening game against Carlton, when they got to sing a song they took along printed on a laminated card.
Wee Tiger bairn: Katie's niece, Rose, in a particularly fetching outfit she sent back to Scotland.
For both of them, two migrants a long way from their birthplace, belonging to Richmond offers a de facto family (“our wee Tiger family,” says Lou); and the embrace of companionship. “A lot of our closest friends are through football,” says Katie.
At games, they sit often with others they’ve met via social media, like Jason Dowling (“good comedy value”, “he’s absolutely hilarious”), on Twitter as @JD_RFC_Tiger, and Shelly Connors (@Tassiemum528) and her husband. And among their 3121 fraternity, as with elsewhere in the crowd, there’s usually a gathering of familiar faces with no name.
There’s ‘The Big Lad’ (“he starts the chants after every goal”), and ‘The Baldy Guy’ (“He looks like an accountant but he goes absolutely wild”), and another who “just moans about everything”.
Not that being Richmond is always easy. Both Lou and Katie understand the place that Richmond, the football club, holds in the hearts and minds of all who follow our game. They know the rivalries (“that was drummed into us at the very beginning,” says Lou, “if you supported Richmond you hate Carlton, that’s just the way it is, no questions asked”), and they know of the disappointments.
But as they explain, their perspective is a fresh one.
Katie: “Richmond has been in the finals every year we’ve been here and we’ve followed them.”
Lou: “We’ve heard the stories. This is our season of heartbreak.”
Katie: “It’s been quite depressing.”
Lou: “It’s been hard at times.”
Katie: “Compared to previous years.”
Lou: “It was the optimism everyone had at the start of the season because we finished so well last year. I read somewhere about West Coast getting knocked–out in the first round of Elimination Finals for three years in a row, then they went on to be runners-up in a Grand Final, then won a flag, so I decided that’s that way we were going. I had very much decided we were in a Grand Final this year. And it all just went a bit pear-shaped.”
Katie: “You get so disappointed sometimes, but you get over it so quickly. You never give up hope. You know next week we’ll be back.”
Lou: “And little Daniel Rioli, it’s been good watching him.”
Katie: “And obviously the cult hero that is Shaun Hampson.”
Lou: “She’s obsessed! She’s obsessed!”
Katie: “But he’s come good. Oh, I think he’s great.”
[The conversation could run all afternoon, and it sounds just as good listening back on the tape recorder, but there’s a home game against Essendon this Saturday afternoon to ready for].
So a last word, a Lou and Katie story. Two seasons ago, with Richmond on that beautiful winning streak that turned on winter’s equinox, the two of them were at Adelaide Oval, among the cheer squad, for a memorable Saturday night game against the Adelaide Crows. Round 21 and it was do-or-die, and Dusty held his ground, and our mighty Tigers came back from the brink.
After the game, in the joyous celebration (our football fairy tale still alive!), another Richmond fan plugged-into social media, Andrew Sloman (@KiwiTiger12) who lives in Auckland and famously flies across the Tasman Sea for every match, contacted the pair. He invited them over to the city hotel where he was staying.
They’d met before, and after a win like that all in Adelaide wearing yellow and black were the best of friends, anyway. Being connected with the club, ‘Slowy’ was staying at the same hotel as the team.
They met in the foyer, all broad grins, feet yet to touch the ground, mingling with the crowd, and Andrew turned to Brendon Gale, the club’s CEO, put his arm around him, and said: “Brendon, have you met Lou and Fannybaws?”
Winners are grinners: Louise and 'the Chief' at the Playford Hotel in Adelaide, after a memorable win on the road.
Two wee charming Glaswegian midwives: welcome to Tigerland!
Go Tiges! And go Lou and Katie and their 3121 gang this Saturday afternoon at the ‘G’!
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
www.tigertigerburningbright.com.au
