Richo

Matthew Richardson, known as Richo, retired in 2009 as the most popular player in the AFL. Why was that? The careers of other great players like Nathan Buckley and Michael Voss amount to a sort of sporting perfection. Richo's career didn't. He was fallible. His kicking was flawed and he had an inability to hide his feelings on the ground, but in other respects he was extraordinarily gifted. He was one of the best marks in the competition and it is said he could have run for Australia. "Richo" is essentially an account of the last two years of his football life with flashbacks that trace the outline of his long career. In the process we discover a man who is worldly and much-traveled, who has a deep love of music, and who thinks and uses words in a novel way.