Richmond great Matthew Richardson has revealed a moment in time when a rival club attempted to lure him from Tigerland.
It occurred not long after Denis Pagan took over as Carlton coach late in 2002.
Richardson was in his prime years with the Tigers when the legendary two-time North Melbourne premiership coach came calling, using a ‘Pagan’s Paddock’ style setup as the major promise of enticement.
“Denis Pagan had just gone to Carlton so I went out to his house in Moonee Ponds and he said, ‘We’d love to have you at Carlton’,” he said on AFL.com.au.
“Then he got out a whiteboard and all of the magnets were up behind the halfway line. He had one magnet inside the 50 and it had ‘Richardson’ written on it.
“He’s looking at the magnet then he’s looking at me, he looks back at the magnet, he looks at me, he does it for about the fifth time, and he goes, ‘gee we’re going to give you some space’.
“I could never handle leaving Richmond because if I left Richmond and they played finals the next year, it would have done my head in.
“That was the driver to stay.”
Fortunately for ‘Richo’, the Blues failed to make the finals in five years under Pagan.
However, he and the Tigers also missed out on September action during that time with the 800-goal legend settling for just three finals over his 282-game career.