“I just want to come in and have an impact straight away, be pretty vocal, which I’m quite comfortable doing, and be a leader on the track … I want to drag others along and maybe set some new standards. I’m really excited about that. I just want to come in and be myself.”

It was hardly a world-shattering statement at the time he arrived at Punt Road – October, 2011 – but those words seem prophetic when assessing the impact Ivan Maric has made at Richmond.

He was back in his hometown of Melbourne, having signed a three-year deal, and was sporting the beginnings of the mullet that would lengthen and help catapult him to cult-hero status within a matter of months.

Fast-forward to April 2013 and it is hard to imagine he was not always a Tiger.

Quite simply, Maric could not have had a bigger impact on the group – in a playing and leadership sense – in his 24 games in yellow and black.

He placed third in last year’s Jack Dyer Medal – behind Trent Cotchin and Brett Deledio – and in his acceptance speech, said he felt like he had always been meant to wear a Richmond jumper. 

Players and coaches echoed that sentiment by voting the former Adelaide ruckman into the leadership group two months later.

Maric’s positive influence and his popularity saw him join Dylan Grimes as new additions to the six-man group led by Cotchin.

It meant a lot to the softly-spoken big man with the most talked-about locks in the competition.

It resonated with those goals he outlined when he first became a Tiger, and proved to him how much his new teammates valued his direction.

“It is good, I suppose, that they appreciate what I have to say,” Maric says.

“It’s just sort of in me, I suppose. It’s how I was brought up, I have a good family and it’s how my family is – we care for each other.”

That family is “huge”, according to Maric, starting with his siblings – Lucie, 28, and Mark, 24, and his Croatian-born parents, Ivan and Stefanie.

Growing up in Keilor in Melbourne’s north, the Maric kids learned Croatian before English and dedicated plenty of time to sport. Ivan senior played soccer for St Albans – the club where Maric is now No. 1 ticketholder – and the kids always had a hand in some activity. 

It wasn’t until a 2009 trip to Croatia that Maric realised just how far his extended family stretched.

It was the first time his parents had been back since migrating to Australia – Ivan from the town of Komletinci and Stefanie from Ðurdenovac – and it was a five-week trip around the country that involved plenty of family reunions.

"It was a special feeling. I can’t explain it,” Maric says.

“To know where you come from and to see the houses your family was born in and the villages they grew up in, the graves of your grandparents you never met.

“You meet your aunties and uncles and cousins. You find out who you are.”

To Richmond supporters, Maric is a bullocking, physical ruckman who has changed the shape of the Tigers’ midfield. It wasn’t always destined to be that way.

Basketball was Maric’s chosen sport in his adolescence, having started at the age of nine and when he was bigger than all the other kids. 

He dabbled in soccer and Australian Football at school, but it was hoops and the Keilor Basketball Club that captured his attention until he was 16.

Maric’s days at Keilor’s Overnewton College centred around what he did at lunchtime – and that was sport. Somehow he managed all three during the break, but as he neared the end of his education, it was Australian Football that stood out.

Maric’s mates, who were mainly Essendon supporters and had influenced him to follow suit, urged him to take his football further.

Encouraged by AFL players with Croatian heritage such as Glen Jakovich, Alan Didak and Ilija Grgic, Maric found himself at Keilor Football Club trying to get a game.

Maric thought he was a better basketballer than footballer, but persevered anyway. It took just 12 games before he caught the eye of scouts and was invited to train with TAC Cup club Calder Cannons.

“I thought I’d go down and see what it was like,” Maric says.

“I stood out because of my height and, then when I started training at Calder, I was always pretty good at running so I’d stand out there.”

Football didn’t come as naturally to Maric and he became frustrated. In his second season at the Cannons, he almost quit.

“I was so serious about basketball and I just thought, ‘Oh, this footy thing … I don’t know’. On the basketball court, I’d never make mistakes and I’d play really well and then I’d go out on the footy field and make mistakes and everyone would be telling you off and giving you feedback,” he says. 

“I sort of couldn’t handle that. I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

Maric got over it. He continued to play, continued to impress, and was drafted by the Crows with selection No. 40 in the 2004 NAB AFL Draft.

He left his family and moved to Adelaide to begin a seven-year stretch that resulted in 77 games and the further honing of the competitive streak he had always possessed.

There were always other big guys at the Crows to contend with. Early on, it was Matthew Clarke – who became a significant mentor – and Rhett Biglands. Then Jonathon Griffin, Ben Hudson and John Meesen. Then Brad Moran, Kurt Tippett and James Sellar provided rivalry, before the recruitment of Sam Jacobs for 2011 tightened competition yet again.

It was not always easy for Maric. At times, he was considered the No. 1 ruckman at Adelaide, but there was always a backdrop that he needed to fight for his spot. In his eyes, that was OK.

“I look back and it has made me work harder and more determined to be good, to be the best,” he says.

“It was good for me. I was so lucky to have that competition at the club for so long.”

Griffin (now at Fremantle) and former Richmond (and now Crows) ruckman Angus Graham, whom Maric viewed as tough competition at Punt Road, are two he still considers good friends.

It is relationships like these forged through sport Maric cherishes most.

Former Crow and new Tiger Chris Knights is another close mate. They lived together for more than four years in Adelaide and Knights introduced Maric to Erin – the woman he is set to marry on November 3 at an Adelaide Hills winery.

Maric played a big part in Knights’ move to Richmond last year. He told coach Damien Hardwick the midfielder wanted to return to Melbourne and was worth considering.

“They had to come to an agreement and the coach had to like him, and I just said, ‘Look, he’s interested, he’ll come and he doesn’t want to come for money, he wants to come and be part of a team’,” Maric says.

“It worked out really well for both of us.”

Fitting in at a new club and adjusting to different surroundings is a challenge, and it was assistant coach Brendon Lade who helped Maric’s transition.

The former Port Adelaide ruckman and his wife Sarah made sure Maric and Erin felt welcome early on, hosting them often for dinner. That has since become a regular occurrence and the couples are good friends.

Lade said Maric could easily come across as a “bit reserved” in an initial meeting, but never took long to become well liked. “He’s probably a bit measured in his approach in talking to people,” Lade says.

“He does take a while to probably make a friend, but once he’s friends with you, he’s a very genuine friend and would do a lot of things for you.

“He would fit into any group really easily. The boys love him, they love what he brings to the table, his competiveness and what he can do around the ground and his will to win.”

So well liked is Maric, AAMI Stadium ground staff were thrilled to see him back in Adelaide in round 14 last year when the Tigers faced the Crows.

At a training session before the game, one staff member wrote “Welcome back Ivan” on a cone cordoning off the centre circle. Maric was rapt.

He arrived at Richmond with commendable rucking ability, having worked closely with the Crows ruck coach Clarke for four years.

It was his ability around the ground the Tigers wanted to develop. With the help of Lade and triple Brisbane Lions premiership player and Tiger assistant coach Justin Leppitsch, Maric made inroads in that area last year.

“He’s not one of the tallest ruckmen going around so he needs to be able to have an impact around the ground,” Lade said. “We think he’s improved in that area and helps the defence out when he can. His competitiveness around the ground has been outstanding.”

Maric, who recently played his 100th AFL game, always wanted to be an “aggressive ruckman, one that people hate to play against”.

Learning from Lade and Leppitsch has helped his development and has meant he is more than just a strong tap ruckman.

“They were imposing figures when they played,” Maric says.

“That’s what I want to do. I want to play like they played. I’ve worked on my marking and it improved last year and I want to keep improving it.

“Teammates love it when ruckmen take marks so that’s definitely got a fair bit to do with it.”

Away from football, Maric is a big family man. He is a practising Roman Catholic and goes to church, visits his parents in Gisborne and spends plenty of time at St Albans Soccer Club, often attending the Thursday night buffet as a family, as well as games.

“I’d go down there anyway, even if I wasn’t the No. 1 ticketholder,” Maric says. “I grew up around that soccer club. My dad played there in the inaugural team so we have plenty of family history at that club.”

He is also helping grow interest in Australian Football abroad. In January, the Croatian Knights – the national representative team – asked him to be an ambassador.

He has sent them footballs and has already given the team’s young ruckman pointers to work on.

But the pull to return to the birthplace of his parents might see him offer some hands-on assistance sooner rather than later.

“For me, 2009 was a great trip. The best trip,” he said. “I’m planning on going back to Croatia soon and get involved and do some training over there.

“It’s all done via email at the moment so it’s a bit hard, but it’s good fun. I really enjoy that sort of stuff.”



A CUT ABOVE THE REST

There isn’t another hairdo in the AFL that commands its own Facebook page. At last count, ‘Ivan Maric’s Mullet’ had more than 10,000 ‘likes’ with the group’s simple and to-the-point description: “Everyone loves a good mullet so like!”

Mullet wigs and nicknames have followed Maric to Punt Road with the back of his hair attracting more attention with every centimetre it grows, which only strengthens the former Crow’s position as a cult hero to Tiger fans.

Initially, it started as a bet between Maric and good friend Adelaide forward Taylor Walker to see who could grow the best ‘party in the back’ arrangement. 

Walker’s hair has its own following, with the Adelaide Advertiser creating a ‘Taylor Walker Mullet Mask’ for fans at the Adelaide-Richmond round 14 clash at AAMI Stadium last year – the first time the two hairstyles faced off as opponents.

The penalty for the man whose mullet is cut off first is to name his first-born after the victor. Trims are allowed.

For Maric, he is not even sure where the bet lies anymore. But he has grown attached to his hair and is considering keeping it for his November wedding to fiancé Erin regardless.

“Taylor talks so much crap,” Maric laughed. “It was just something we did for a laugh initially, but we still talk about it and I think he enjoys the media that goes on with it.”

With that, Walker was recently asked by Triple M in Adelaide about the wager, which he considers very much alive.

“I’m hoping I don’t have a girl,” Walker said. “I’d have to call her Ivana.”