It was just three years ago that Sydney key defender Ted Richards contemplated the end of his AFL career.
Stuck in the reserves, out of contract and struggling to find the confidence that had eluded him since being drafted by Essendon in 2000 – Richards was stewing over another change of clubs.
This time it would be a free transfer to the Solna Axemen, where the then 27-year-old would be the star of Stockholm’s Australian Football Federation – and be able to play alongside older brother Jake.
“I didn’t want to finish up playing football, but I thought the decision might be taken out of my hands,” Richards said on Thursday ahead of his 200th AFL match.
“I’d finished a degree at UNSW and I thought about what I wanted to do next year. My older brother was living in Sweden.
“I started the discussion with him about maybe moving over there … but fortunately I got back into the team .”
Richards did more than just that, studying the league’s best defenders from afar in the 2010 finals and bulking up in the gym before the Swans’ 2011 campaign started.
The result was an impressive conversion from fringe player to one of the league’s best defenders, and in 2012 came a premiership and All Australian honours.
He can now dream of winning another flag with his younger brother Xavier, rookie listed by the Swans last year.
On Saturday night he will join an elite club, running out for his 200th match when Sydney hosts Collingwood at ANZ Stadium.
“I didn’t think I would make 50 games, let alone 200 … five years at Essendon to play 33 games. Going by that ratio it was going to take me a long time to make 200,” Richards reflected.
“At times at Essendon I was just happy to be getting a game.”
Confidence remained an issue even after he sought a fresh start with Swans coach Paul Roos in 2005.
“He was almost expecting to be dropped at different points,” John Longmire, then an assistant of Roos now a premiership coach in his own right, said of Richards.
Richards noted he had to kick the habit of “looking over” his shoulder and waiting to be axed, but that even now he’s wary of feeling complacent in the star-studded Swans side.
“I think that’s a healthy attitude to have – that you constantly have to prove yourself,” he said.
