Team Australia Captain Richardson Retires Having “Outdone My Own Expectations”
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – It was Sunday morning when Team Australia head coach Troy Dunn summoned his team inside the locker room at AT&T Stadium for a brief meeting with captain Cliff Richardson.
Dunn and the team had already known that after this weekend’s 2020 WinStar World Casino and Resort Global Cup USA, presented by Monster Energy, Richardson would be stepping away from the sport for good once he took off his Team Australia jersey on Sunday afternoon.
Richardson did not want his retirement to become a media spectacle. He was not looking for a send-off tribute in the arena, nor for a pull-on-your-heartstrings video montage. The team captain simply wanted Team Australia’s story to be defined on the dirt as a unit, and for his saga to be secondary.
“I have seen it before,” Richardson said before Championship Sunday outside the PBR Sports Medicine room. “People talk about retiring, and that is all the media wants to talk about. Then you forget about what you are actually doing.”
Dunn, though, still wanted to pay homage to his captain for the past three Global Cups amongst the seven-man team before Richardson took the dirt one final time.
The team presented Richardson with a custom knife that said “Captain Cliff” on it, and assistant coach Will Watson even read a poem about Richardson, to the delight of the room.
It was important for the team to show their support and love for their battle leader, Dunn said.
“I am sure we used that as some emotional leverage as well,” Dunn said. “We all love him, so we wanted to see him go out on a good one. He has been our captain for three Global Cups, and there is a little emotion there.”
In many aspects, Richardson represented so much about the underdogs from the Land Down Under who finished only 9.25 points behind the Team USA Eagles – the 2020 Global Cup USA event winner.
It was the second time in the last three Global Cups that the captain helped Australia finish in second place behind bull riding super powers Team USA and Team Brazil.
Despite only competing in North America at 25 events at all levels of competition, Richardson always brought a quiet, fearless confidence to Team Australia on the international stage.
Richardson never wavered in his self-belief throughout his 10-year, career and his teammates fed off his quiet fire.
It never mattered to Richardson what the caliber of bull was in the United States or at home. All that mattered was riding for his country and making his native land proud.
That kind of mentality is what Dunn wanted all of his riders to have, and the team showed that fearlessness on Sunday by going 4-for-8 to finish the weekend 6-for-16 overall, nearly upsetting the host Americans.
“To be the underdog, and nearly take it, is a lot,” Richardson said. “That is pretty special. I am proud of the boys. For Troy to have the faith in me to be captain here, and every other one that Troy has been a coach at, means as much as anything.”
Richardson, 28, explained retirement was something that had been on his mind for quite some time.
“It is something I have thought about through the years,” Richardson said as he wheeled his gear bag out of the locker room for the final time Sunday evening. “I guess I never wanted to take things too far. All good things come to an end. I outdone my own expectations from when I was young. This Global Cup has been a big thing. It wasn’t around when I started, and when it come around, well, I set a goal to ride for my country, and I did that four consecutive years now.
“Riding for your country is as big as you can get. I know the World Finals was like a cherry on top for me. Everyone’s goal is to make it the World Finals, but I guess that wasn’t what I shot for. I just shot for being healthy when I finished up, I suppose. Here I am, walking out on me last event. I didn’t want anyone else to tell me I have to finish, like a doctor I guess.”
Richardson concludes his 10-year PBR career with 152 rides at all levels of competition, but only 20 of those rides outside of PBR Australia as he remained committed to riding in his home nation.
The Gresford, Australia, native won eight PBR Australia events and finished inside the Top 5 of the PBR Australia standings five times, including a career-best second-place finish two years ago when he rode 53.19% of his bulls – the highest percentage of his career.
Richardson finished a career-best 34th in the world standings last year after he qualified for the PBR World Finals for the first time without earning a single world point outside of Australia.
In Las Vegas, Richardson quickly showed that the big stage and higher caliber of bull was not going to intimidate him, beginning the Finals with an 85.75-point ride on Excessive Force and 89.5 points on Cochise.
The 2017 Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association bull riding champion would buck off his final four bulls in Las Vegas, but getting there strictly competing at home remains one of his proudest accomplishments.
“It is hard to single one out, but it would be between Global Cups, World Finals and a title at home (2017 ABRCA),” Richardson said. “We had been riding in that association forever, and that is what we started in. I am blessed to have the support and help I have had. Over the last few years especially, with Troy Dunn in my corner. My uncle Dave. I am one of seven kids, but I have a lot more brothers than that because of this weekend.
“My wife has supported me, my parents, everyone for so long. In the highs and the lows, that is how I have got to where I have been and I am happy with that. I don’t know what Lachy would say if you asked him because I am going to miss traveling down the road with him, and I am sure he will miss me.”
Richardson and his brother, Lachlan, are tied for the most qualified rides in Australian Global Cup history with six apiece.
They followed in the footsteps of the previous Australian brother duo of Pete and Jared Farley.
Lachlan joked that the one plus side of his brother hanging up his bull rope is that now there will be more money for the rest of the Australians to win back home.
All kidding aside, Lachlan says he is going to miss having his best friend along for the ride, but he knows that Cliff will still be a phone call away from the bull riding, just as he was when he was riding full-time in the United States for seven years.
“He has had a good career, and he is going out on top,” Lachlan said. “He has a family, and he has more to life than riding bulls. At the end of the day it sucks, but it is good because there will be more money for us to win. It won’t be the same, but he will be there and still be a part of it.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without him. He is the best above his shoulders. He has been through a lot of injuries and a lot in life, and just comes out the other side smiling with the same head. He is just a tough, true Aussie bull rider. I looked up to him, and he was there riding and pushing me. Even when we were in different countries, he would be the first phone call I make when I done a good ride or even a bad one. He was the first person I called for advice, and that is not going to change.”
In fact, family was a big driver in Richardson’s decision. He and his wife, Jess, just celebrated the third birthday of their second child last fall, and Cliff is ready to be home more often than not.
Richardson remembers how homesick he was in 2018 when he made his Unleash The Beast debut in Springfield, Missouri.
It was a feeling he often had in the days leading up to rodeos or bull ridings in Australia, too.
“I don’t like traveling near as much anymore,” Richardson said. “When I was coming over here in 2018 to them few Unleash The Beasts and stuff like that, when I was at the bull riding I am fine because you know why you are there and what you are doing. I was traveling by myself a lot of the time a few trips there. As soon as I got to the hotel room, all I thought about was my family. My kids. My wife. I just wanted to be home, really. I am glad I have done what I have done.”
Lachlan was one of the three riders on Team Australia that grew up riding calves with Cliff.
Nathan Burtenshaw and Troy Wilkinson also hit the trail alongside the older Richardson at the youth, amateur and professional levels.
Burtenshaw used to travel with Cliff before he began to compete consistently in the United States three years ago.
“I started rodeoing with Cliff Richardson when I was about 13 years old,” Burtenshaw said. “We went up through the ranks together. We rodeoed together, and we used to be traveling partners back in Australia. He is like a brother to me.”
Lachlan pulled his brother’s bull rope on Cliff’s final out of his career – a 3.27-second buckoff against Red Bandana – and for his final qualified ride – 85.5 points on Wicked Hou Saturday night.
The younger brother had qualified for seven consecutive World Finals before moving back home, in part to rodeo with his brother one final time, last year.
Lachlan says there is no doubt in his mind that Cliff could have qualified for multiple World Finals if he ever decided to go for a full PBR run in the United States.
“For sure,” Lachlan said. “Cliff’s head and talent is there. And he works hard at not just bull riding, but everything he does. I guess we had different goals and different things we had done. I had nothing to keep me back. I left, and he already had a wife – they weren’t married at the time – and all that stuff. He is a family man. I just packed up and left, and he was happy for me, and I was happy for him.
“He definitely left a lot on the table over here with what he could have done. He made the World Finals last year, like he always wanted to do. And for him to do that from Australia shows you what he could have done if he was here.”
Cliff has no regrets, though, and is at peace walking away from professional bull riding.
He is looking forward to building up his breeding program at home, and he aspires to remain involved in the rodeo and Western lifestyle in a multitude of fashions.
“People probably think I could (ride) for a lot longer, and I know I can, but I don’t want to,” Richardson said. “All good things come to an end, and it is something I decided to do. I have had a good career. I have family and everything else at home. It is not the end of anything, really. It is just the closure of one chapter. I am going to still very much be a part of the sport and rodeo, hopefully.
“Hopefully a few people will remember me, I guess. If they don’t, it is not going to worry me too much.”
And how does “coach Richardson” sound to him?
Would he want to coach alongside Dunn at a future Global Cup?
“It would be an honor if he asked me,” Richardson concluded. “If he sees something in me that will help the team be first the next time, instead of second, it would be an honor.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
© 2020 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.