Richmond Hall of Famer Matthew Richardson has reflected on the emotion-filled moment he helped end 37 years of pain for the Tiger Army and present the club the AFL premiership trophy on stage at the 2017 Grand Final.
As a Richmond Team of the Century member, Richardson will go down as one of the club's greatest icons but one who played through one of its darkest eras.
Across an illustrious 17-year AFL career, Richardson was a 282-game Tiger, three-time All-Australian, a Jack Dyer Medalist and 13-time club leading goal-kicker, with 800 majors in total.
But the legendary centre half-forward tasted finals just twice, with heavy preliminary final losses to Geelong in 1995 and Brisbane in 2001 as good as it got for the Tigers in Richardson's time, in what was arguably the most heart-wrenching periods of the club's history.
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It's why in one of the more emotional premiership wins in the modern game, Richardson was the man the club chose to hand over the McClelland Trophy to Damien Hardwick and Trent Cotchin in 2017.
Reflecting on the emotional drought-breaking premiership victory on The Athlete Diaries podcast, Richardson described the moment he was called into Richmond CEO Brendon Gale's office and asked to present the trophy should the Tigers win as the biggest compliment of his career.
Though, he admitted he at first thought he was being summoned for different reasons.
"I was working at the club in 2017 and I think it was the Thursday before the prelim final where Richmond was playing GWS," Richardson said. "Brendon Gale called me into his office - I'm only in there one day a week and it was generally a Tuesday - I thought this is strange Benny's never called me into his office, I thought I might be getting the sack here.
"I've had it too good for too long, I'm still working at the club I played at... I thought 'oh fair enough probably time to go'.
"I walked into his office and he said 'have a seat Richo' and I sat down and he said 'the Richmond footy club board has made the decision that we would love you, if we were to win the premiership, to be the person to present the cup'."
"I was thinking of people like Kevin Barlett, Francis Burke, Michael Roche, Dale Weightman, even Tony Jewell the last premiership coach in 1980; I thought they were more obvious choices to present the next cup. There'd been a 37-year drought.
"I said 'why me?' and he said 'Richo we've had this drought from the 1982 grand final, which we lost to Carlton, until now. We feel that you played in that era which wasn't that successful but you helped bridge the gap and you helped (bring) people to the footy as Richmond supporters.'
"That was a big compliment for me because I didn't have success as a player but Brendon and the club thought I played a part in keeping the supporters involved over those barren years."
So taken back by Gale's invitation, Richardson for a second lost track of what lay ahead for his beloved Tigers.
"I walked out of his office and I thought wow what an opportunity to be on the MCG AFL grand final day and present the cup if Richmond wins," he added.
"I wanted to ring someone and I thought I'll ring mum, that was the first person that came to mind. I thought hang on.. we haven't even beaten GWS yet in the prelim.
"I thought don't get too excited, let's just win the prelim, and Richmond did."
As it turned out Richardson was required on the big day, with the Tigers slaughtering the Crows by 48 points before 100,021 raucous fans, most wearing yellow and black.
Cameras flashed to a teary Richardson - also working as Channel 7's boundary rider - as the final seconds ticked on and the wild celebrations began in the stands at the MCG.
It was one of many iconic images from that day that will live on for decades.
WATCH: Richo's touching reaction as @Richmond_FC break 37-year flag drought. https://t.co/j6T1rEj5TR #AFLGF pic.twitter.com/Wnpu7Awnkp
— 7Sport (@7Sport) September 30, 2017
Richardson said memories of his late father Alan “Bull” Richardson, who played in the drought-breaking win in 1967 but passed in 2015, prompted the outpouring of emotion.
"It was six or seven goals and it was about five minutes left and it was at that moment there was no chance the Crows could peg that back," Richardson said of the moment he broke down in tears on the boundary line.
"We had a monitor on the boundary line because I was working for Channel 7 on the day and they flashed to some pictures of Brendon Gale in the grandstand with Peggy O'Neill, the President of the club, and Brendon's brother Michael and they were embracing... I could see they were getting upset and that was the trigger for me.
"Then I thought about my old man who had passed away two years previous and I thought Dad would love to see this. The last few years of his life he was just hoping to see another premiership and unfortunately it didn't happen. I started thinking about him and I just lost it.
"It was a very emotional day, I've been Richmond supporter all my life and I think in my own mind I'd given up on Richmond winning another premiership. I didn't even think about it because you just get let down if you get too excited."
You can listen to this episode and others from The Athlete Diaries on Spotify or The Athlete Diaries YouTube channel.
