THE SIGHT of Richmond's midfielders streaming down the ground towards him was the sort of birthday present for Matthew Richardson that money cannot buy.
A day after the Tigers' beloved key forward turned 33, he kicked 5.2 as the Tigers opened their AFL season with a badly-needed 30-point win over Carlton at the MCG.
In front of more than 72,000 fans, last year's bottom side ran over the top of the Blues in the last half and Richardson reaped full benefit.
Typical of "Richo", it was a mixed night – two bad misses to start with and then late in the first term, he marked 50m from goal.
Richardson went to handball, decided to play on and then – of course – turned a moment of near-disaster into a booming goal.
"It was pretty disappointing, the first two shots; the third one, I nearly buggered it up but it went through, so I probably gained a bit of confidence out of that," he said.
"More importantly, I was able to kick the ones in the last half, which probably counted more.
"You want to kick them all, but you want to kick them when you need them."
Richardson's fist-pumping when he goalled in the last term not only showed his elation, but also reflected a feeling of relief among the Tigers after a tough 2007 season and a very long off-season.
"It's always something that I wanted, to win in round one, so I'm pretty happy with that," he said when asked about his birthday “present”.
"We had a tough year last year and when you're down, people want to knock you and bag you.
"They've done that all pre-season and that's fair enough.
"We've performed very ordinary last year and you can't expect people to pump you up.
"In saying that, it is nice to win and feel good about your footy."
Richardson praised his midfield teammates, saying they had isolated him perfectly with their use of the ball.
"As a forward, you need inside 50s and we gained some dominance in the last 40 minutes of the game in the middle," he said.
"We had plenty of opportunities and then it's up to us to do the job, as a forward you just want one-out chances and we got plenty of those tonight.”
For Tigers coach Terry Wallace, it was a simple equation – if they give Richardson enough of the ball and give him plenty of open ground, he will score heavily.
Blues coach Brett Ratten said young key defender Michael Jamison had worked hard on Richardson, but noted the Richmond legend was perhaps even improving with age.
"As Matthew has gotten older, he's stayed a little closer to home and that probably makes him even more dangerous," Ratten said.
"He's been one of the great players for Richmond and he'll go down as one of the great forwards."
