Flying Without Rings

I was never a huge fan of Danny Richardson. Not a fully paid-up member of his fan club anyway. The kind that religiously clings to the belief that a player's overall contribution to the game is largely irrelevant if they are good at goal-kicking (see Jamie Foster). And I certainly wasn't in that even more extreme camp that believed Richardson to be the second coming of Sean Long. The blonde hair and the ability to run reasonably quickly was enough for some observers to believe that we had finally found a halfback who could compare to and maybe even surpass Long. It was never all that likely.

So when the announcement was made towards the end of 2019 that Richardson would be on his way to Castleford to fill the Luke Gale-shaped hole in the Tigers playmaking department I wasn't on the phone to the Samaritans. Sure, it would have been nice to keep him around. He has a certain amount of potential even if his own behaviour sometimes seems like the most likely reason that he may not fulfil it. And it is not as if we have great depth in the halfback position, with Theo Fages equally unconvincing at times. Former coach Justin Holbrook left Fages out of the biggest games at the end of 2018 and then backed him to the hilt throughout most of 2019 at the expense of Richardson. There was still a debate going on about who was better suited to Saints number 7 spot right up until the time that Richardson departed.

Richardson has been busy this week driving a huge wedge between himself and his former club by publicly calling them out on their failure to provide him with a Super League winners ring at the end of last season. Richardson did not play in the Grand Final victory over Salford Red Devils, but managed to make 10 appearances throughout the campaign as Holbrook learned the lessons of 2018 and shuffled his pack more regularly. Richardson's proclamation that he remains positively ring-less has prompted some fans to turn their ire on him, pointing to the murmurs of his poor attitude while he was with the club as evidence that he is just acting like a spoiled kid. How dare he call our Sainted club out on this, right?

Well maybe not actually. Whatever you think of Richardson, whether you think he is the second coming of Sean Long, Alfie Langer, Alex Murphy and Jonathan Thurston all rolled into one or whether you think he is a preening one-trick pony soon to be found out at Super League level there is little argument against his claim for a Super League ring. Ten games is a significant contribution over a 30-game regular season. It is symptomatic of the extent to which we disregard the regular season and the League Leaders Shield that two former Super League winning players - fuck it let's call them out Richie Mathers and Keith Senior - have taken to Twitter to opine that Richardson shouldn't even want a ring given that he didn't play in the Grand Final. And their view is echoed by many fans. Almost every fan I spoke to at the time agreed that Holbrook's legacy at Saints would have been seriously diminished had we not won that one game on that one day in Manchester last October. Even Holbrook himself seemed to subscribe to that view, referencing often the pressure he felt under to deliver on Grand Final night having already agreed to move to Gold Coast Titans for 2020. Somehow we have managed to create an environment in which only one game in the year ever really matters, and have done so at the behest of our TV broadcast paymasters who continue to keep the game's head above water financially.

For their part Saints have acknowledged that Richardson is entitled to a ring, with Chief Executive Mike Rush revealing that there is one 'waiting' for Richardson. The implication here is that he can have his ring, but the club will be damned if it is going to make any effort to get it to him. While Richardson bitches away in the media about what the club have not done for him since the Grand Final, Rush is offering the equally eye-roll-worthy stance that if he wants it he should come and get it. They're like a divorced couple who have decided to live in different counties, but one partner has forgotten to take their priceless collection of vinyl with them so the other is thumbing their nose, shrugging and refusing to give any ground. The two parties need to get their heads together and come up with a resolution to the situation. Richardson doesn't want to look back on his career in 50 years time and note darkly that he still doesn't have a token of his first and maybe only major success, while the club should not want to reflect that they allowed a genuine contributor to go without because they felt like he sulked every time he was left out and then went and told on them to the rugby league media.