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Its Sunday, its cold and rainy, and am I sitting by the heater with the radio on. My plan was to work while I listen but I am finding it impossible due to pre-game anxiety. I am just going in circles.

I am actually feeling confident of a solid win and of the team gelling well, but also in the long run it will be to no avail. I did the ladder predictor earlier and it told me we would finish 9th below Essendon on percentage. Our percentage is worse than Hawthorn’s and they are 15th.

I am delighted for Marbs that he’s been retained in the side. It will be good for Noah Balta to have a rest and – I am confident he’ll be a long term player at Richmond.

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Terrible start. Junk 50 entries from us. Saints have stolen our game plan. Pinging it around. Ross does a little Dan Rioli-style pat to keep the flow going and it ends in a Josh Bruce running goal. Then two more to Acres and Marshall. We are in deep awfully quickly.

Sydney Staaaaaaaack!!! 7 stars have come back into this side and the one who has to kick start us is a 19-year-old. A fantastic screamer – sounds good on the radio but I have now seen it on Twitter. He lines up Hunter Clark from 15 metres away to be his stepladder. What a wonderful addition to Richmond he is. It is so right that we are the only club that would take him, because we are the club that can use him best in my opinion.

Stack above the pack 😎🚀#AFLSaintsTigers #gotiges pic.twitter.com/uw6yBNQWNi

— Richmond FC 🐯 (@Richmond_FC) June 30, 2019

Sydney’s mark by the amazing Kate Birrell, painted back home from a photograph

And the ball got down to him thanks to a wonderful strong mark from Mabior Chol on the wing. He’s playing well, has great awareness and seems ready for this level.

Marbs! Marks and goals after leading out to Dusty, with three minutes left. A confident start from the South Sudanese Sensation.

Vlastuin is running and spreading, has six marks for the quarter. We are back in it at the break 18 – 12.

Kate’s plein air painting done on the spot, under the dome. Her work here on her site is worth a good look.

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Stack goals again while am I making a sandwich, and Dion scores a behind to put us in front. And… breathe.

Then the Saints take control again, somehow getting their kicks in without much pressure from our midfield. Suddenly, from a point up we are 4 goals down in six minutes. I am feeling furious, disconnected and anxious sitting by the radio.

Goal to Bolton. Lynch brings it to ground in a pack and the little feller is front and centre and kicks straight.

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It’s all happening too fast. I want it to slow down. Now I am looking over Marcus’ shoulder at his phone for the rest of the quarter. Marbs again! What a lovely left foot set shot he is.

Then Sydney out on 50 just within the boundary steps inside and sinks the goal from 45. Dusty is being given ages by the umps to get rid of it. It’s not really fair but I am not petitioning the AFL about it. The new no-mo Stack has 3 goals.

We go in four points down with no goals yet from the Anglo-Saxon contingent. The scoring has swung in big storm surges and I am feeling a bit seasick. Lambert is making a terrific return, 16 touches so far.

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On ABC radio the half time chat with Brad Sewell and Parko is about Stack needing to build his tank to play midfield. Parko: “I hope he stays unfit so he keeps jumping on people’s heads like he does”.

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We restart and its with Lynch who misses, and cops a serve from the radio team. “You never see him DEMANDING the ball” – Sewell.

Finally after a long wait a really good team chain of possessions ends with Lynch in the square, and he roosts it towards the roof. Great goal. Back in front, and into seventh on the live ladder which we all shouldn’t care about in June.

10 minutes after half time Sewell says “McIntosh had Lynch SCREAMING at him for a pass out wide and McIntosh turned back into the channel”. Yeah Brad, you are turning out to be a bit of a dickhead.

Dusty must have sensed the pressure Tom is under, because he took a risk to square it to him for the first goal of the 2nd half, when could have kicked it himself in his sleep.

Dan Rioli goals easily after great work from Martin and Graham and a shimmy from Sheds. Then Caddy adds another. Sydney had the chance there to destroy his opposite nº44 Wilkie but simply dispossessed him. We have a 14-point lead, the ship is steadying as we have kicked the last six.
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At this point our old dog went berserk, because his best mate went past the back gate, and he NEEDED to get out there. So my idea of a walk with my head down listening to the rest of the game became instead a social walk with a dear (human) friend who has no interest in footy. But it was lovely to see the dogs play and my game-day anxiety just faded for the thirty minutes or so, until I excused myself to come back in and listen to the conclusion.

[Highlights I missed were: Ellis goal. Caddy delivery to Lynch. Amazing chain of possession with great evasive skills from Bolton and Castagna, George ends up slotting it from boundary on his left. Wonderful.]

When I get back the Sainters are starting to fray, and no-one nominates for the ruck, allowing Marbs to stroll in in and kick a very easy goal, his third.

We are easing in now to a comfortable win with some confidence-building goals to Chol and Lynch. Though having said that Marbs doesn’t seem lacking in confidence. And Sydney Stack – words fail me. He’s moved forward and kicked four. Could be anything. Could win the Brownlow, this year.

Since typing that I have looked at the official Brownlow vote predictor and S Stack is currently on zero votes.

In the Saints’ second half they kicked 3.10. If they had kicked straight they could have given us a serious fright. At times they looked a good match for us, and when they decided to play keepings-off we had no option but to occupy space and be patient.
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Benny Votes
Dusty (5) was in classic form and had both the Saints and the men in green in his thrall.

Stack (4) had an amazing 15-touch game. Kicked four goals, was also a creative engine and a defensive menace in the front half. A revelation as a permanent forward.

Chol (3) kicked 3 goals in his third game, and did it all – forward, back and ruck, with aplomb.

Prestia (2) had 29 touches and carried a load, with both Edwards and Cotchin having quiet returns.

Vlastuin (1) had 26 touches and 11 marks and was a dead end for many St Kilda thrusts forward.
Leaderboard

Houli 30
Martin 28
Edwards 22
Vlastuin 21
Grimes, Stack 18
Prestia 14
Lynch 13
Ellis 11
Bolton 6
Cotchin, Nankervis 5
Baker 4
Broad, Chol, Lambert 3
Ross, Naish 2
Rioli, Castagna, Balta 1

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Saturday nights we have dinner with my Mum and Dad. Since the Tiges have become box office gold, this often means a clash with the only game of the round I intend to watch. They are nice people who raised me so I am pretty disciplined about time-shifting the game and just focussing on what they are saying about their fruit trees, their friends’ health challenges and what things were like in Launceston in 1946. Drays feature heavily.

All this is by way of saying I watched the 2nd half of our heavy loss to the Bulldogs live (without taking notes), and have now just gone back to the start. The hard drive has some sort of palsy and won’t let me get past the Billy Gowers reverse-head-butt on Grimes. But I’ll give you what I’ve got.

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Start was promising, lovely footwork from Ross stepping around big Z Cordy and centreing the ball for Lynch but it was intercepted by Kam McIntosh who goaled. But then Bontempelli [Italian for “little good times”?] began his masterclass which continued all night.

Mendadue crashed in hard to make a chance for McIntosh’s 2nd but he missed. Bolton hit a target by hand while being put in a spinning sleeper slam. Caleb Daniel having a clumsy game – gave the ball to Captain Sheds who hit up Caddy who notched our 2nd. Rioli was running into goal with only the pitter patter of little Caleb’s feet behind him and he shot from too far out, like an under 10. Next minute he was run over, coming up with sore leg and ribs. Dr Matthew Richardson suggested he’d picked up a “hip pointer”.

Dogs murdering their shots at goal. Stacky sold the dummy then gave to Baker who put it over the goal umpire’s hat. Baker has the now-standard Bulldogs munter hairdo. Bolton delivered a perfect pass to Balta 15m out but he dropped it under light pressure.
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Bont loped about doing as he pleased and found dear old Sam Lloyd who at last kicked straight. They’re the most inaccurate team in the league and that’s the only reason we went in 3 points up at quarter time, 3.2 to 2.5. Vlossy turned his ankle just before the siren and it looked like we might have lost another couple of senior Tigers.

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After the restart Naughton was doing what he liked, playing on Broad, with Grimes on Gowers. I’d have swapped but then I’ve only coached u/12 school soccer. Darcy loved Naughton “marking it at it’s highest point”, the sign of a real doofus. Nank was exuding power and menace, the man just loves to tackle other humans. Dogs flicked the switch to ACCURATE and like that we were in trouble. Their mids were delivering it silkily under little pressure. The first 20 minutes were all Dogs and it rained goals at the Alan ‘Banana Legs’ Hopkins End.

Balta was getting a bath in defence but he’s hopefully learning heaps. Vlossy was never 100% after QT – he sold Stacky into terrible trouble from a kick-in but the young man has a touch of the Wanganeen rubberlegs and he eluded capture; then shortly after took a remarkable pack mark amongst taller timber. His composure is wonderful. He and Bolton both seem untackle-able.
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The last ten minutes of the term were all Tiges but our shape was all wrong. Our first shot of the term came from Nank. Broad was bobbing up on the edge of 50, he’s never scored a goal in his life. Terrific fellas but something’s amiss when the ball is repeatedly in their hands up the ground, not with say Sheds or Caddy or George. Finally just before half time Stacky delivered to Bachar who got a lucky free for beard-contact, and slotted a desperately needed goal.

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After half time I raised the roof at home when Balta galloped around the boundary to kick a wonderful solo goal. Nank continued to tackle like a 2-metre-tall Maurice Rioli. Dusty was having an influence inside. But the Dogs just looked too tall for us. Dylan Grimes had an off game, which is like saying the last pylon standing had a bad day when London Bridge fell down. Was someone blocking for Naughton so no-one could get a run to spoil? It felt like it. He had a day out.

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As we lost so badly, I think readers will forgive me skipping the last quarter; I thought I’d be able to rewatch but let us just draw a veil over it.

If we’d been playing a front-runner I would be happy to call this a natural tipping point; you can only cover x missing stars and now we have solved for x. There were the early injuries to Rioli and Vlossy, who played on but didn’t look nimble [Ed Richards ran around Vlossy towards the end of the night like he was set in concrete]. BUT – this was the Dogs, who are possibles for the lower end of the 8 at best (from where they can win the flag of course). I think there’s no excuses . Although I’m not bothered by the final margin we should never have let ourselves get that far back.

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The Benny Votes

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5  Stack – never looked flustered, never put a teammate under pressure.

4 Vlastuin – had his hands full and kept trying to play our way

3 Nankervis – up against a giraffe in English he played smart and his tackling was good

2 Baker – is getting more of it every week. A reliable kick for goal and good in traffic.

1 Bolton – also got his hands on it more than he has, his field kicking is sublime

Not too bad: McIntosh, Prestia, Lambert, Martin, Balta

Leaderboard

Edwards 19
Vlastuin 14
Grimes, Lynch 12
Stack 11
Martin 6
Nankervis 5
Ellis, Prestia 4
Cotchin, Broad, Lambert, Houli 3
Ross, Baker 2
Rioli, Bolton 1

Hi everyone, its Chris here. Time has passed and I still feel gutted about losing the preliminary final to Collingwood. I ignored the first three quarters of the Grand Final, something I have never done before. And to be honest, it was a doozy. But we weren’t there. We were all so certain we would be – maybe we  “got ahead of ourselves” – and I still feel like it’s an opportunity missed, and that casts a shadow back over all our good work and the fun of being the top dogs all through 2018.
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But it was fun. We had fun in the sun as premiers, games clear on top of the ladder, with the reigning Brownlow medallist, coach of the year etc, we won everything but the Cox Plate. This year we got Jack winning the Coleman medal, Snags won the GOTY, and we broke the 36-year McClelland trophy drought. Winning stuff was fun. And that’s my analysis done.

Next year I am handing the baton of The Benny to Brendan O’Reilly whose excellent work you have already enjoyed here from time to time.  Thanks to Brendan for this offer at a time when we thought TTBB might be looking at a year off in 2019. I will continue to chip in photos and graphics and keep adding to the Richmond Virtual Duffle Coat. I am interested in trying to get a public display of the Coat happening somewhere in the Richmond 3121 vicinity so if you have any ideas about that, drop me a line.

Take care in the off season, and bring on 2019.

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Awards

• Congratulations to our great skipper Trent Cotchin who wins his second Benny.
• Josh Caddy had a breakout season and wins the Blair Hartley Appreciation Award for recruits from other clubs. He regularly dominated games playing beside a bloke who won the Coleman.
• Jack Higgins was the only first year player to poll Benny votes so he wins the 2018 Anthony Banik Award. Snags has given us all a lot of fun this year and shaken up the pecking order.
• A combination of a solid season and a lack of fellow lefties, see Toby Nankervis take out this year’s Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot. We love you Nank.
• Cal Moore and Liam Baker came off the rookie list this year but did not get votes, so the Tivendale stays in the velvet bag in the drawer.
• Jack Graham had a lot to live up to after his ’17 finals heroics. He never stopped tackling and wins the 2018 Maurice Rioli Grip of Death Trophy

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Full Tallies

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We did not smash our way into September, we did not barnstorm … we cruised our way into September. Over the last month we collected the 4 points without too many thrills or spills. Injured players recuperated, we stayed on top of the ladder. There was no change to the season’s starting proposition – Richmond are the best team in it. This was unfortunate for journos, who have to work hard to try to spin a grander narrative.

I only made it to one roster match this year – the first. At quarter time of round one I thought, oh boy, Brendan Bolton’s boys are going to scare some good sides this year. But it was not to be – we went in radically different directions after that. That Sliding Doors bloke has probably done a really smart episode about it.

For New Richmond’s 4th final Marcus and I settled in to watch in the spare room, decorated for the occasion. Ellis dropped! Didn’t quite see that coming.

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Q1

Such an intense beginning. I love footy like this, a mad scramble with intense desire for the ball trumping systems and even skills. The great thing is it is widely available in September all over the country.

Richmond were on top of the Hawks and dominated the quarter. One of our many forward thrusts fell into George’s hands and he, presented with many options, chose very well, chipping it across to Kam McIntosh. Immediately after this kick I saw Sheds coaching Dan Rioli who was fully tuned in to the voice of experience. Shortly afterwards Dan crumbed a ball at his ankles and scored an opportunistic goal.

We were killing ’em really. The one shot they earned was shanked badly by one of their leaders, Burgoyne. Our composure was superior but we gave away a couple of 50s which resulted in goals, keeping Hawthorn in the game. They started to show glimmers of fight late in the quarter.

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Q2

Again it was our quarter early before Hawthorn gave themselves some hope late. Nank marked and the TV producer clearly knew what would come next although the Hawks didn’t. He dished to Shorty who missed. A fight broke out and the same TV producer decided to focus on that while the game went on in a little window. Now listen old mate. This is a final at the MCG with everything to play for. This isn’t a dead rubber at Metricon in the Sunday graveyard shift. If you must show the fight you pop THAT in the window while we watch the game.

Breust missed a soda and any small apprehension I had felt melted away. Shortly after that Dusty thumped a wonder goal from the boundary; we are doing the impossible while they are stuffing up the probable. Wonderful to see Kamdyn hit the scoreboard and he seemed to be bobbing up everywhere.

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Dusty threaded the needle on the boundary to find Prestia. Mitchell seemed to have gone quiet. Our best in the first half are Dusty, Sheds, Rance, Cotchin, Kamdyn and George. Our backline was impenetrable. I called the game for us at half time.

Q3

Kamdyn in defence took another great stopping mark then set off on a brave run that came off. So many of our next tier are playing with boundless confidence. Moments later up the other end he nailed his third. Our defensive marks are winning this game. They can’t get an inside 50 for love or money. Grimes is having a great quarter as Rance did in the first. Astbury is quiet. Dion goals again – ours are just coming so easy compared to theirs. Rioli goals. We are simply too good for this mob. They fell into the top 4 and we owned top spot, and it looks like it. You’ll have to do better than this, rest-of-the-AFL.

Now Higgins goals. The Hawks have 5 majors – we are just crushing them with pressure. Edwards magnificent. It’s like we are playing a different game. Never in my life (apart from 2nd half of 2017 GF) have I felt so confident that Richmond is on its way to a flag. As Joe suggested last week, Dusty was playing August footy in August and now he’s unveiled his September footy, and its something to behold. Congratulations on your 200th, to the best player going around at the moment and probably one of the all-time greats.

Q4

Dusty the Great went quiet later in that term. Hawks inexperienced players have not stood up, some senior players have had mares (Gunston, Breust) and Clarkson has not fired a shot. Nankervis is such a key for us – thank you baby Jesus and the Blessed Oliver Plunkett for looking after him these last two years. Nank just does his job, it’s as simple as that. And we love him for it.

Sheds tries a few cute moves in this quarter that don’t come off. Riewoldt and Rance both have ankle/foot scares. At the end the vice captains come off arm in arm, sore feet forgotten for now, with a week off to sort them out. There’s Rachel Hofton in the cheer squad!

Oh we’re from Tigerland. What do you mean I have to go to work tomorrow?
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Benny Votes (double for finals)
10 Dusty – Just majestic
8 Prestia – Gained 626 metres for the night
6 McIntosh – Was everywhere, career-high 3 goals
4 Cotchin – 26 touches, was consistent all night
2 Rioli – Moments of genius

Leaderboard

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It’s ironic that as Richmond barrels towards a likely 2nd successive grand final, TTBB is sputtering uphill on bald tires with practically nothing left in the tank. This is not a plea for financial support – we don’t cost much to run and that’s covered by our merch sales (thank you to everyone who has bought a little piece of Tiger Tiger for themselves). Spare time for blogging has been hard to come by of late, and even organising contributors takes time and energy. But the end is in sight!

To business – our unimpressive but competent dispatch of Essendon in round 22, about three weeks ago. We looked too good for most of the night but gave up the last 4 goals of the game. We went in without Cotch, Lambert, Prestia or Astbury, but brought back Nank and sent Ivan II back to the VFL.
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More was probably written about a handshake at the coin toss than was written about the match. Such as by the self-satirising Andrew Bolt. I don’t know Adam Saad very well but I do know Bachar Houli is a great Australian and if more like him are keen to come here, I will bake them a halal cake.

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Q1: Loved Grimes attack on the ball to dead-heat Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti. And George’s one-two dance move for our third goal.

Q2: Our quarter but we lost our way in front of goal, kicking 1.6. A chain of passes out of deep defence ending with Bachar in the forward pocket was sublime. And Caddy marking on the point post while Goddard was busy pointing.

Q3: A frustrating night for stand-in skipper Jack although/because Josh Caddy just kept judging the pack marks better. Bruce McAvaney said “Caddy” like he was singing a death metal song about golf. Young Baker kicked his first.

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Q4: Cale Hooker who is a 7/10 footballer briefly looked like a 9 and Essendon gave their long-suffering faithful a bit of sunshine. We switched into cottonwool mode and coughed up some cheapies. Not Dan Rioli though, his late tackle on Adam Saad saved a few blushes. As Dimma said “It was a terrible game of footy, but I was happy with the win”.

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Benny Votes

With only the highlights clip as a refresher on the game, I am once again giving the Benny votes out just as the best players were listed in the AFL match report.

5 Martin
4 Caddy
3 Rance
2 Short
1 Edwards

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So it’s Wednesday night, I am writing a match report and the only thing I can remember about the Gold Coast game is Jack kicked ten. OK – I am prepared to say up front this one will be phoned in. I’ll watch the highlights again but that’s it. Very much feel we have bigger fish to fry.

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Q1

Fantastic Little Ivan soccer assist to Jack Riewoldt then

Silky hands of Dan Rioli stream out of the centre and a little chip to Jack Riewoldt 45 out and

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Q2

Little Ivan hands it to Josh Caddy who salutes with a lovely shot from an angle. Sorry Josh, no graphic for you.
Then a long kick finds Grigga who outsmarts a hapless golden coastal, flips it to Ellis via – Vlossy? – and Brando spots up Jack Riewoldt.

Suns jag one, Dusty Kicks Across His Body™ to Caddy for his second, followed soon by this 3rd with help from Jacks Higgins and and Riewoldt. At half time JR has 5, with Caddy and Gold Coast both on 3. It’s reasonably tight.

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Q3

Martin -> Riewoldt and he could have notched his sixth but instead lobbed it to Joshua ‘Cadds’ Caddy who now has 4.

Steven May and Pearce Hanley are both footballers but in the next few minutes they look like prize numpties, and thanks to them we get a) a rare goal to Brando and then from tight on the left boundary another …

200-game Milestone Man™ Shane Edwards gives the worst handpass of his career, but with no pressure being exerted anywhere, Dan Rioli goes and fetches it, hands it back and Shane underkicks a feeble little effort that nevertheless brings up two flags. It’s more than a cakewalk, it’s a potato cake walk.

Bachar looks from these snippets to have been moving well, he cruised through the centre and delivered precisely to the Riewoldt breadbasket area. Hard to tell from the abbreviated highlights if he got 50 or not but anyway with little trouble he notched another…

Right down the spine Prestia (hammy looking fine) finds Lambert (ankle looking fine at this point) who pivots and hits the man the French call Le Jaques Magnifique. One more…

Caddy and Vlastuin also scored in that quarter but didn’t feature in the highlights, sorry.

Scorecheck at 3QT: Jack with 8 goals has pulled away and left Caddy (4) and Gold Coast Football Club (3) squabbling over silver.

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Q4

Callum Ah Chee took a speccy, fair dos to him. Great ride on Astbury. Ellis kicked his second (even more rare). Just to show I did do a tiny bit of work for this, here are some people who played alongside Brando last time he kicked two; Orren Stephenson, Brett O’Hanlon and Aaron Bloody Edwards. Round 10, 2013. And have a guess who kicked 11 that day? Go on. Have a guess.

Classic outside of the boot goal to Dusty. Jack H marks, shows the ball and pops it over the top to Jack R who is giving S May an ocean-sized bath.

The team the Chinese know as 冷吐司 actually put a few things together in this quarter and nearly double their 3QT score, frankly running all over Josh Caddy.

With seconds to go the Tiges win possession on the back of the square then carry it bucket brigade-style to Jack Higgins who shovels a handpass on the bounce to the waiting dual Coleman Medallist who hoists his tenth.

So that’s Riewoldt 10, Gold Coast Football Club’s 22 players 7, Josh Caddy 4. Hard luck Josh, maybe you’ll get a priority pick or something.

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Benny Votes

I am just going by the AFL match report here, so let me know in the comments if someone has been robbed blind.

5 Riewoldt – not much more needs saying. I really hope he can put the Bombers and the Dogs to the sword and collect another Coleman.
4 Caddy – has just passed Nank in the Hartley (see below). It’s a measure of how bloody well so many of our blokes are going that he gets hardly any press.
3 Martin – point this fellow at September and light the blue touch paper.
2 Lambert – Hope he gets over his ankle op quick smart. A required player for us to be us.
1 Short – Would not have been my pick in March as the bolter of the year but clearly is.

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