THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION

Round 18, 1996 Richmond versus Brisbane, Princes Park

Brisbane 9. 16 (70) defeated Richmond 7. 11 (53)

Every player fondly remembers their first day at an AFL club - or perhaps more importantly the first ever teammate to walk up to them, shake their hand and welcome them into the big bad world of the AFL. 

Richard Champion will almost certainly not remember this, but indeed he was the player who did exactly that for me, and made an extremely raw, nervous and overwhelmed 17-year Aaron Lord feel at home on his very first day at work for the Brisbane Bears, albeit under a strange set of circumstances.

I was drafted by Brisbane in the 1992 National draft despite making it quite clear to the Bears that I was pursuing a Chiropractic career in Melbourne, a course that wasn't offered anywhere in Queensland and therefore precluded me, at least in my head anyway, from being able to join Brisbane under any circumstance. 

The Bears selected me in any case, prompting an unnecessary stand-off between player and club - leaving me without an AFL career at least for the next 12 months and Brisbane one player short on their list for the 1993 season.

Despite this, I received a call from coach Robert Walls in March of 2013 on the eve of the season commencing. 

Brisbane was playing its final practice match against a star studded Hawthorn at Skinner Reserve in Melbourne and ‘Wallsy' had unbelievably named me on a wing to play the following day.

So at 17-years of age, zero pre-season training and having never once travelled to Brisbane nor met anyone even associated with my new AFL club, I rock up to Skinner Reserve on a Saturday afternoon in March to make my AFL practice match debut.

Talk about throwing a lamb to the slaughter!!

But Richard Champion was a calming influence right from the very start. 

He hadn’t even dropped his kit bag from the team bus before walking straight up to me, welcoming me to the club and telling me that he had my back today against the Hawks.

That’s Richard Champion.

As a player his career was grossly underrated.

A naturally gifted footballer, Champion had the double whammy (at least in the profile stakes) of playing in a struggling side and outside of Victoria, meaning that the football world never truly appreciated how good a player he actually was.

Originally drafted from Woodville in the SANFL, Champion was an incredibly tough, durable and reliable defender throughout his 183 AFL game, 80 goal career with the Brisbane Bears/Lions.

A cult hero among fans throughout his entire career, Champion was a shining light in a very dark period for Brisbane in the early 1990’s, before the wheel inevitably turned and the club dramatically improved, playing finals for the first time in 1995 and having a stellar season in 1996 and beyond also.

Champion would be dominant at both Centre Half Back/Full Back for a decade at Brisbane in an era that was blessed (or cursed according to many defenders of the time) with the most brilliant opposition forwards the game has ever seen.

Gary Ablett Senior, Wayne Carey, Stephen Kernahan, Tony Lockett, Matthew Richardson, Jason Dunstall, Tony Modra, Barry Hall, Peter Sumich, Matthew Lloyd, Sav Rocca - anyone who tells you the game is easier as a defender than a forward needs to have their head read, and clearly didn’t play the game throughout the 1990’s against the above mentioned superstars.

Champion would have the unenviable task of trying to quell, or at the very least reduce, the impact of the the opposition’s best forward each and every week, and more often than not walked away having taken the points against some of the game’s most decorated champions.

“I loved the personal challenges of playing against the best forwards back in that era - and rest assured, every team had one,” Champion says.

“When you played on these guys, every single contest was crucial, as there was no flooding back then and you were often 'one out’ inside the forward 50 on some of the most potent forwards in the games' history and with opposition midfielders hell-bent on trying to get them the footy,” he adds.

They are insightful words from one of the most honest and reliable defenders the game has ever seen.

His point is valid when it comes to the changing nature of the game, and the fact that in today’s footy there are a multitude of options for clubs to assist their defence and ensure that individual defenders are never, or very rarely exposed.

This however didn’t happen in the 1990’s - quite simply defenders were at the mercy of their opponent on any given day, so if you were good enough to beat them on your own merit, you knew you’d had a pretty good day at the office, and Champion did it regularly.

So which of Richard Champion’s 183 games would be the most memorable of his AFL career?

“From a team perspective, playing our very first final in 1995 against Carlton was pretty special,” Champion says.

“They were unstoppable (Carlton) that year and we were massive underdogs, and in the end we only went down by 13 points which gave us enormous belief that as a club we weren’t that far off ourselves,” he adds.

“From an individual perspective, the best ever game I played was against Richmond at Princes Park in 1996.”

“As a player you are always striving for that perfect game, and this was as close as I ever got.” 

Assigned the monumental task of stopping a white hot Matthew Richardson, himself in outstanding form coming into Round 18, and against a Richmond side badly needing a win to keep their finals hopes alive, the game was all set up for a Herculean like performance from the Brisbane defender in Champion, and that’s exactly what he delivered.

“Richo (Matthew Richardson) was a game breaker - a running machine and a elite player in every sense of the word,” Champion says.

“Everything seemed to go my way on that day (against Richmond) - I think I restricted him to only a couple of kicks for the game and he was taken off the ground in the last quarter, which as a defender is always very satisfying,” he adds.

The statistics for both Richardson and Champion on this particular day are equally as compelling in favour of the Brisbane Bears stalwart.

For 'Richo' it would be a day he would prefer to forget;

3 kicks, 0 Marks, 0 Handballs, 0 Goals, 4 free kicks against.

Versus Richard Champion;

14 Kicks, 2 Marks, 5 Handballs, 19 Disposals, 3 Tackles, 4 Free Kicks for, and you guessed it - 3 Brownlow Votes.

Remarkably, it would the only game for the entire season in which Matthew Richardson was kept goalless and without a mark to his name - the Richmond champion was unstoppable in 1996 in a career best season with 91 goals and 177 marks for the Tigers.

But that was the type of player, and character Richard Champion was.

Extremely driven, very rarely beaten, as tough as nails and just bloody hard to play on, he was a good as it gets when it comes to classic, physical one-one-one contests, and his performance on this day against one of the best forwards the game has ever seen in Matthew Richardson, was one for the ages.

The fact that Champion retired after the 2000 season and therefore missed Brisbane’s history making premiership three-peat the first of which was the very next year in 2001 seems to me like a cruel and twisted oxymoron, but then again, that’s football. 

Thank you ‘Champs’ for “TOTALLY RECALLING” the greatest game you ever played.

Aaron Lord