By JARROD POTTER
RICHMOND Football Club had 3000 reasons to roar as an ambush of Tigers fans piled in to Beaconsfield on the Australia Day public holiday.
The turnout of the south east’s Richmond fans was incredible with every car park filled around the ground and cars lining up and down Beaconsfield-Emerald Road.
Following on from last year’s successful training run at Pakenham, Richmond returned to the area to run a special session for the 3000-plus supporters at the venue.
The Tigers’ squad – including fan favourites Dustin Martin, Ivan Maric, Brett Deledio and Jack Riewoldt – ran through their paces on the lush Holm Park Reserve playing field and all stayed around after the session to do a big lap, signing plenty of autographs along the way.
The young Tiger cubs had plenty of fun at the session – with a speccy inflatable, face-painting booth and the bin kick drill proving extremely popular for the smallest Richmond fans.
Music rumbled throughout the venue as DJ Tiger Stripes, the Tigers’ beloved mascot, laid down some of the best beats of the morning.
Richmond head coach Damien Hardwick said the support for the Tigers and football as a whole in the south east was fantastic and the club enjoyed its session in Beaconsfield.
Richmond Football Club thanked the Beaconsfield Football Club and the Cardinia Shire Council for their help to put on the session.
Gazette photographer JARROD POTTER was there to capture all the action and excitement of the Tigers’ visit to Beaconsfield.
