Richo earns life membership but focus fully on Tigers' winFriday, August 28, 2015 - 12:00 AM - by Chris Pike

IAN Richardson adds another terrific achievement to a growing list of accolades at Claremont this Saturday, but it all takes a back seat to the Tigers needing to beat West Perth at HBF Arena in order to play finals.

Richardson will play his 150th game with Claremont to earn life membership at the club he will forever be remembered as one of the most decorated players having starred in two premierships, won a fairest and best award, been leading goalkicker two times, representing Western Australia on six occasions and winning a Simpson Medal.

Not only that, but the left-footed half-forward has been a favourite of the Tigers faithful ever since making his debut in 2008 and now the 27-year-old reaches the 150-game milestone this Saturday when Claremont hits HBF Arena in a must-win contest against West Perth.

While Richardson is proud to earn life membership by reaching 150 games, all his focus will be on beating West Perth because that is now the only way the Tigers can return to finals action in 2015.

After struggling to kick goals, particularly in second halves, in recent times Richardson is looking forward to Claremont playing a more attacking brand of football as well against the Falcons.

"Obviously there's some nerves for big games like this, but that's just natural. Everyone is just super keen and excited to get out there to see if we can stand up in these big games. We don’t deserve to play finals unless we can win these kind of games, so everyone is raring to go and can't wait," Richardson said on WAFL World on 91.3 SportFM.

"We've had a talk about it as a senior group and we just want to take the game on and risk everything, put everything on the line and we have nothing to lose. We will give it everything and not hold back. We'll try to attack through the corridor, kick it to our damaging talls up forward and see what we can do."

Claremont did have a chance to secure its place in the finals last Saturday against Swan Districts at Steel Blue Oval, and the Tigers led Swans by 22 points after kicking the first two goals of the last quarter with Richardson delivering a season-best four goals.

However, Claremont didn’t kick another goal for the game and Swan Districts kicked the last five majors to win leaving the Tigers in a must-win situation against West Perth and trying to find a way to finish off games better.

"It was obviously pretty disappointing and it's happened to us a few times this year now. We've been in winning positions pretty much in every game since Round 5 but unfortunately we just dropped off as a team in the last quarter and didn’t get the ball forward. It was a pretty stark contrast to the first three quarters," he said.

"I don’t think it's a fitness issue but we are notoriously a fast starting team. We've been able to win most of our first quarters and we usually are up at half-time, but for whatever reason we've had too many lapses towards the end of games. It's going to be a huge focus for this week and hopefully we get off to a fast start, and hold on to it in the last quarter."

After a remarkable first six seasons at Claremont where Richardson played 130 games, kicked 322 goals, won a fairest and best, won a Simpson Medal, played for WA in all six years and was a key player in two premierships, he took a break from WAFL football to travel in 2014.

He has returned to be a leader in an increasingly young Claremont side now in 2015 and while he hasn’t quite kicked the amount of goals he would have hoped with 20 for the season compared to his previous season low of 40, he's just looking forward to a big performance on Saturday.

"It's good to get a couple of snaggers and hit the scoreboard finally, I haven’t hit it too often this year," he said.

"It probably hasn’t been the season personally I was hoping for. I have been rotating through the midfield and wing quite a bit so I haven’t kicked as many goals, but at the same time I've had a pretty average conversion rate in front of goals. Overall I'm not stoked with my season, but I might give it a pass mark and hopefully I can get a few more possessions and goals this weekend."

While the 150-game mark for many in the WAFL might signal that the end of their career is approaching, Richardson is quick to point out that he is far from finished and has plenty of time left to add to his credentials that already see him as an all-time great at Claremont.

"I don’t think I've looked back on my career just yet even though some of the boys get stuck into me about being pretty old, but I remind them that I'm only 27 and not looking at retirement any time soon," Richardson said.

"It's been a good career so far and to get to 150 and receive life membership of the club is something I'm very proud to achieve. But at the moment I only have the weekend on the mind and getting a win, and then celebrating by making the finals."