Mod. Notice Ron The Bear RIP

[Ancient Tiger]

I don’t post much these days - 3 posts in 4 years but I have been on BF for 19 years. This is awful news.

RIP Ron.

Mate, you should post more. You have been missed. I promise I won’t mention the doozy if you do!

 

[tropicaltiger]

The great man was a walking encyclopedia on all things football especially his Tigers. RIP

 

[Captain_Bender]

Rest in Peace

 

[Stevi_Tigers]

Condolences to his family and friends he will be missed rip ron

 

[Phar Ace]

Hey all, not sure how much personal stuff he shared on here, he was a private guy, but wanted to let you all know just how much of a ripper person and Richmond tragic Ron was. I didn’t really know where to put this, so forgive the soliloquy.

I met Ron when I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide to start my first job as a young fella, fresh out of Uni. Didn’t know a soul in the state. Ron was the database programmer working in the same department as me and the first question he asked was who I supported in the footy. A strange look came across his face when I said Port – he thought it was odd and had never met a fan from a club that he considered to be new. Suffice to say some lessons between us on football history went back and forth. I told him about Russell Ebert and Scott Hodges and winning flags in the 90s. He told me they didn’t count. Then he told me about Francis Bourke, Royce Hart and Jack Dyer and winning flags in the 70s. I told him they didn’t count. Then we had a statistical argument about who was better Richo or Tredrea. We agreed to disagree.

After all that we became fast friends.

Next came invites to go to the footy and stand with him in the “grog squad” behind the goals at the Punt Road end. He was too bashful to become too involved with the social stuff, but he stood there for every game for decades including in the dark days for Richmond – although he would admit that on occasion he sneak away to the TAB for a punt if things were too dire. He was certainly not bashful when it came to feedback on opposition players and/or the umpires. The language and terminology being yelled not at all 2021 appropriate. But he never had any real malice. It was just his way. He was emotional and passionate about his footy club.

Soon after that came the invite to play cricket. Ron was a crafty swing bowler, treasurer and life member for Marcelin Old Collegians. I reckon quite a few batsman would see a large Homer Simpson looking dude trotting in and underestimate him, largely to their peril. His outswinger was deadly.

Then there was the invite to the custom fantasy football tournament (before online fantasy footy was thing) where Ron and group of mates would hold draft nights and pick our players. Ron ran the scoring database, kept that stats up to date and did the results updates.

As you can tell, he was an incredible support and friend for me. Without him, I would have gotten homesick much quicker than I did, probably quit my job and moved back to Adelaide much sooner than I should have - and then who knows where I would’ve ended up.

Sadly the tyranny of distance, time and other commitments meant we didn’t catch up as often as I would have liked, then COVID hit and we somewhat lost touch other than online. So when the news came through, I felt a strong pang of regret. Give your mates a message, just to say hello. Nothing bad can come from that.

Thank you Ron for introducing me to punting, Nando’s, hand tennis, VFL lore, statistical analysis, Richmond history, some terrible language, how to handle temper tantrums but most of all thank you for being a genuine character, the likes of which I haven’t met before or since.

Thank you for that morell - explains why I always thought of Ron as 'The Accurate One' (stolen from Bill Collins). Will be sadly missed! RIP

 

[Not Important]

the board will be the poorer without him.

 

[tugga]

Hi - another one of Ronnie's sisters here ... this is all beautiful, thank you so much. Ron had had a cough for the past few weeks, and it turned worse on Tuesday night and he called an ambulance, but they arrived too late. He tested negative for covid earlier that night. He was 53 years old.

Ronnie spent a few years on the dole in his 20s where he was writing a program to predict horse racing winners. When that didn't succeed he went back to uni and delivered pizza at nights. They called him Rainman and Calculus at MOCCC. But no one seems to know that he failed year eight and changed schools. Failed year ten and changed schools again. Out of this school hopping came an unfathomable mind for stats, and a fierce and biting use of words.

I'm not familiar with the forums, if there's anything I should read can you point me to it?

BTW, Ronnie never married or had kids. He is survived by our mum, three sisters, five nieces and nephews.

Many thanks, Barb.

those pics made me smile. Thank you for sharing.

 

[The Filth Wizard]

RIP Ron.

A BigFooty institution and even though the interactions were few I always found him a likable, passionate poster. A genuine loss for your forum and for the website at whole.

 

[cairo tiger]

RIP Ronnie. Grace.

 

[Chat Pile]

One of our better posters. Shame. Hope it was painless, peaceful and surrounded by loved ones.

 

[Barry_Badrinath]

RIP Ron

 

[Equus]

Reading Ron's post on the MB is always so interesting. So informed. So cutting. It is really sad news that he has passed away.

RIP RtB.

 

[Barbieup]

I'm so sorry to hear it was so sudden

But thank you both for taking the time to come and join BF to post about him when you're dealing with the loss.

You're always welcome to join us here in future to discuss footy, if you're also a fan!

He must have spoken often of BF - he was very, very well respected here

I'm finding that out. We knew MOCCC loved him like a brother and he was highly thought of at work. Unfortunately , I have a memory like a goldfish, as soon as a game finishes I have to watch the replay for all the bits I missed. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and prayers with us, it means a lot.

 

[Marcel Proust]

I'm finding that out. We knew MOCCC loved him like a brother and he was highly thought of at work. Unfortunately , I have a memory like a goldfish, as soon as a game finishes I have to watch the replay for all the bits I missed. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and prayers with us, it means a lot.

He was much loved by many of us

 

[jreesosb]

RIP - Ron The Bear

 

[WillHayward]

Hey all, not sure how much personal stuff he shared on here, he was a private guy, but wanted to let you all know just how much of a ripper person and Richmond tragic Ron was. I didn’t really know where to put this, so forgive the soliloquy.

I met Ron when I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide to start my first job as a young fella, fresh out of Uni. Didn’t know a soul in the state. Ron was the database programmer working in the same department as me and the first question he asked was who I supported in the footy. A strange look came across his face when I said Port – he thought it was odd and had never met a fan from a club that he considered to be new. Suffice to say some lessons between us on football history went back and forth. I told him about Russell Ebert and Scott Hodges and winning flags in the 90s. He told me they didn’t count. Then he told me about Francis Bourke, Royce Hart and Jack Dyer and winning flags in the 70s. I told him they didn’t count. Then we had a statistical argument about who was better Richo or Tredrea. We agreed to disagree.

After all that we became fast friends.

Next came invites to go to the footy and stand with him in the “grog squad” behind the goals at the Punt Road end. He was too bashful to become too involved with the social stuff, but he stood there for every game for decades including in the dark days for Richmond – although he would admit that on occasion he sneak away to the TAB for a punt if things were too dire. He was certainly not bashful when it came to feedback on opposition players and/or the umpires. The language and terminology being yelled not at all 2021 appropriate. But he never had any real malice. It was just his way. He was emotional and passionate about his footy club.

Soon after that came the invite to play cricket. Ron was a crafty swing bowler, treasurer and life member for Marcelin Old Collegians. I reckon quite a few batsman would see a large Homer Simpson looking dude trotting in and underestimate him, largely to their peril. His outswinger was deadly.

Then there was the invite to the custom fantasy football tournament (before online fantasy footy was thing) where Ron and group of mates would hold draft nights and pick our players. Ron ran the scoring database, kept that stats up to date and did the results updates.

As you can tell, he was an incredible support and friend for me. Without him, I would have gotten homesick much quicker than I did, probably quit my job and moved back to Adelaide much sooner than I should have - and then who knows where I would’ve ended up.

Sadly the tyranny of distance, time and other commitments meant we didn’t catch up as often as I would have liked, then COVID hit and we somewhat lost touch other than online. So when the news came through, I felt a strong pang of regret. Give your mates a message, just to say hello. Nothing bad can come from that.

Thank you Ron for introducing me to punting, Nando’s, hand tennis, VFL lore, statistical analysis, Richmond history, some terrible language, how to handle temper tantrums but most of all thank you for being a genuine character, the likes of which I haven’t met before or since.

Absolutely brilliant post and a real insight into the man himself.

Thanks for sharing that.

Steeped in humanity.

 

[dean33]

RIP Ron
Such an intelligent footy poster, you would always read anything he wrote with much interest.
Will be missed.

 

[omesie]

Hey all, not sure how much personal stuff he shared on here, he was a private guy, but wanted to let you all know just how much of a ripper person and Richmond tragic Ron was. I didn’t really know where to put this, so forgive the soliloquy.

I met Ron when I moved to Melbourne from Adelaide to start my first job as a young fella, fresh out of Uni. Didn’t know a soul in the state. Ron was the database programmer working in the same department as me and the first question he asked was who I supported in the footy. A strange look came across his face when I said Port – he thought it was odd and had never met a fan from a club that he considered to be new. Suffice to say some lessons between us on football history went back and forth. I told him about Russell Ebert and Scott Hodges and winning flags in the 90s. He told me they didn’t count. Then he told me about Francis Bourke, Royce Hart and Jack Dyer and winning flags in the 70s. I told him they didn’t count. Then we had a statistical argument about who was better Richo or Tredrea. We agreed to disagree.

After all that we became fast friends.

Next came invites to go to the footy and stand with him in the “grog squad” behind the goals at the Punt Road end. He was too bashful to become too involved with the social stuff, but he stood there for every game for decades including in the dark days for Richmond – although he would admit that on occasion he sneak away to the TAB for a punt if things were too dire. He was certainly not bashful when it came to feedback on opposition players and/or the umpires. The language and terminology being yelled not at all 2021 appropriate. But he never had any real malice. It was just his way. He was emotional and passionate about his footy club.

Soon after that came the invite to play cricket. Ron was a crafty swing bowler, treasurer and life member for Marcelin Old Collegians. I reckon quite a few batsman would see a large Homer Simpson looking dude trotting in and underestimate him, largely to their peril. His outswinger was deadly.

Then there was the invite to the custom fantasy football tournament (before online fantasy footy was thing) where Ron and group of mates would hold draft nights and pick our players. Ron ran the scoring database, kept that stats up to date and did the results updates.

As you can tell, he was an incredible support and friend for me. Without him, I would have gotten homesick much quicker than I did, probably quit my job and moved back to Adelaide much sooner than I should have - and then who knows where I would’ve ended up.

Sadly the tyranny of distance, time and other commitments meant we didn’t catch up as often as I would have liked, then COVID hit and we somewhat lost touch other than online. So when the news came through, I felt a strong pang of regret. Give your mates a message, just to say hello. Nothing bad can come from that.

Thank you Ron for introducing me to punting, Nando’s, hand tennis, VFL lore, statistical analysis, Richmond history, some terrible language, how to handle temper tantrums but most of all thank you for being a genuine character, the likes of which I haven’t met before or since.

Thanks Morell,
I couldn't have put it better. Ron was a true friend and colleague and a genuinely good guy. No other way to put it. We always had our disagreements of course but there was never any malice in anything he said. Being an Essendon supporter, he always let me know how he felt.

Ron, you will be sorely missed and I'll definitely miss our Nando's lunches / banter.
So glad you talked me in to going to the last AC/DC concert in Melbourne.

RIP Big Man.

 

[omesie]

Hi - another one of Ronnie's sisters here ... this is all beautiful, thank you so much. Ron had had a cough for the past few weeks, and it turned worse on Tuesday night and he called an ambulance, but they arrived too late. He tested negative for covid earlier that night. He was 53 years old.

Ronnie spent a few years on the dole in his 20s where he was writing a program to predict horse racing winners. When that didn't succeed he went back to uni and delivered pizza at nights. They called him Rainman and Calculus at MOCCC. But no one seems to know that he failed year eight and changed schools. Failed year ten and changed schools again. Out of this school hopping came an unfathomable mind for stats, and a fierce and biting use of words.

I'm not familiar with the forums, if there's anything I should read can you point me to it?

BTW, Ronnie never married or had kids. He is survived by our mum, three sisters, five nieces and nephews.

Many thanks, Barb.

Thanks so much for posting those photos. (That's probably the first time I've seen him with a full head of hair )
I'm so sorry for your and Jessthetigerbear's loss. My condolences to your family.

The amount of general knowledge he had, and how quick he was to calculate numbers, I would never have guessed that he failed and I don't think he ever mentioned it either. I could ask him almost anything and get an answer in seconds. We got to a point where the team would compete against him alone on the herald-sun quizzes on a daily basis and he'd beat us a lot of the time.

His passing is a huge loss to everyone who knew him.

 

[Vikingnz]

I read a lot more than I reply so I don't know if we ever even had a direct interaction but it still came as a shock to see this. Such a ubiquitous username on the MB, calmly dissecting overblown opinions with stats and facts.

And so nice to see the messages in here from those who knew him in real life - a timely reminder to us all there's a person behind the post.

RIP Ron.

 

[worbod]

It was always interesting to see the depth of how Ron would lay out his statistics.

I remember on one occasion probably ten years ago I made a post in the Weird Football Scores thread. I noted that there had been only one score in league history where the final score had been 99 to 86, making a suitable reference to Get Smart to go along with it. When I next checked back with the thread I saw that somebody replied with the statement that they did not understand my post. The next reply had come from Ron who had included a great link to a Get Smart website.
Great to know Ron had good taste in television shows as well as possessing profound footy knowledge.

 

[joelsyt]

This is definitely sad news.

RIP Ron the Bear.

My condolences to his family and friends.

 

[Barbieup]

It was always interesting to see the depth of how Ron would lay out his statistics.

I remember on one occasion probably ten years ago I made a post in the Weird Football Scores thread. I noted that there had been only one score in league history where the final score had been 99 to 86, making a suitable reference to Get Smart to go along with it. When I next checked back with the thread I saw that somebody replied with the statement that they did not understand my post. The next reply had come from Ron who had included a great link to a Get Smart website.
Great to know Ron had good taste in television shows as well as possessing profound footy knowledge.

All the greats Mind Your Language, On the Buses, Love thy Neighbour.

 

[The Dice Man]

RIP Ron, one of the Very Best.

 

[tigers_of_old_08]

Saddened by the news, you will be sorely missed.

Rest In Peace, Ron.