The football season starts this Thursday night, and you will likely hear a bit more about it in the coming weeks. Melbourne is the home of Australian Rules football. So it should not surprise that a native Melburnian is so passionate about this game and his team.

My team is the Richmond Tigers, who have won the premiership for three of the past four years, and have proven to be the competition benchmark. The young brigade of players remains up to the task of keeping them in contention. They show no signs of falling away and start the new season as the hot favourites to win the premiership again.

What has separated Richmond from the other teams over those four years has been method - the imperfect, chaotic way that the Tigers play, with their pressure and surging style. Success for this season is just a question of whether the Tigers can maintain their rage, avoid significant injuries, or whether another team finally devises an effective counter to their low disposal, high pressure, chaotic game style.

Seventeen other clubs want to take the Premiership Cup from Richmond this year. Let's see them try, as it is unlikely that the Tigers will be missing in the finals action in September.