Brendan O’Reilly

Round 2 v Collingwood at the MCG – Deepest, darkest fears

01/04/2019 By Brendan O'Reilly 4 Comments

My deepest darkest fear is that this will be a famous Richmond victory and I won’t be there. When I get home after a long, exasperating day my footy companion tells me she is too tired. What sweet relief! I’m too tired too! Now I can stay home and do exciting things like get a load of washing on the line for the warm day tomorrow. And watch the game on telly. I feel bad for not going, but not too bad. Thursday night footy is a joke. Doesn’t the AFL know that some people have to get up early in the morning to go to work?

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Pre-match

Before the first bounce dinner is cooked and the washing is finished, if not exactly on the line yet.

Watching the telly I’m glad not to be there. The atmosphere before Richmond games is electric. Well, electronic. With 60 thousand or more in the ground all you can hear is loud music. We Are The Champions, by Queen. Queen were a great band, no doubt. But how many of their concerts were ruined by games of football? It’s a trick question. None of their concerts were so ruined. So why is our footy ruined by their song?

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Richmond start pretty well and have not been destroyed in the first four minutes. We have the first good chance, a snap from a pack that misses. And for a good while we’ve doubled the ‘Woods’ score and lead 2-1.

But Collingwood kick away with Cox, of course, and someone else. Lynch gets a very lucky free kick and splits the big sticks from right in front. Then the ‘Woods get another goal and look to be doing it easily. They seem to have good players everywhere, don’t drop a mark and don’t stuff up when I want them to.

Ellis is tackled when well over the boundary line by Varcoe. Somehow a free kick is not awarded.

Score 20 to 8.

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Short kicks a goal with a set shot from the pocket but it looks a lot like Riewoldt has broken his wrist. He’s still on the ground though.

Castagna has a shot from outside 50 which is picked off easily by the defender. Then we get another goal and it’s level but too quickly the Woods respond and are seven points in front. Castagna hits the post from right in front after a great mark in a crowded 50. The kick to Castagna was from Butler who won a free for a good tackle, which, in the replay, had a touch of the chicken-wing about it. But not too much.

We keep giving the ball to Collingwood, which is frustrating.

Our defence is standing up well though without Rance. Vlaustin and Grimes have been great.

Darcy Moore gets a free for a high tackle. As if. Should have been a free against and 50 for his bad hair.

De Goey who is terrifyingly good scores and we’re two down. Defence is good but sooner or later we turn the ball over after all our hard work.

Bloody Treloar scores, after Collingwood surge forward following about two hours of kick-to-kick across the Richmond back-line. It’s a three- goal lead now. Riewoldts’ broken wrist appears to have healed.

I take no pleasure in any player being injured. But Treloar appears to be hurt and I’m not heartbroken. De Goey takes a screamer because there’s nothing he can’t do and scores from a good way out.

No, there’s nothing worse than being beaten by Collingwood. How did they get so many good players? Two years ago they were a joke.

Collingwood are getting frees for falling over.

Lynch marks and passes to Higgins. He has to kick this and he does. Lead to Collingwood back to three goals. Could we get it back to two by half time?

Less than two minutes left.

Great centre clearance and Lynch marks. Great kick from the young feller and it’s down to two goals.

Another before the break? Another to us, I mean?

With the ball deep in our forward line McIntosh tackles Sidebottom just hard enough for him to drop the ball. No free kick. Yes it is! McIntosh tries to give it to Shedda but it looks like McIntosh will have to take it. It’s a fair way out and almost on the boundary. But for some reason Shedda is given the ball, goes back and kicks it straight through the big sticks. The Tiger fans and players go nuts.

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Collingwood make a nightmare start, Pendlebury sets up an attack and Mayne scores. Didn’t he used to be at Freo? How did Collingwood get him?

Collingwood again looking very menacing. Mihocek is beating Vlaustin and Prestia is penalised for dropping a ball he never had.

Broad does well to beat Elliot on the ground and fakes an accidental tap out of bounds. Vlaustin, having just been written off, does a couple of goal-saving things.

Bloody De Goey has a mark again. For a small player he gives the ball a fair roost and Collingwood are winning by three again.

The Tigers go forward and Short goals with a quick snap. The first Ashley & Martin ad of the night. What a disgrace they are. How are they even allowed? My daughter told me once that men spend more money on fighting baldness than they do fighting malaria.

Grimes takes a strong mark in defence. He’s the best.

Dusty coughs up the footy, but Grimes saves the day again.

Ellis is driven into the ground by bloody Grundy but doesn’t get a free, of course. Treloar gets a free a second later but again the Collingwood attack is turned back.

Lynch takes a great grab but is denied the mark. Collingwood attack again, throw the ball and get away with it, but the attack is repelled again. Dusty marks from close in, kicks a banana, unforgivably, and misses.

Collingwood rebound and score, a two-goal turnover. Might not be our night.

Edwards kicks off the ground from the ball -up and Lynch marks strongly and goals, despite the twelve-foot Cox being on his mark.

Presty is tackled and gets rid of the pill but is still pinged for “taking too long.”

Treloar takes the ball over the line but isn’t pinged for deliberate.

De Goey marks and kicks his fourth. How can we beat a team with players like him? Collingwood lead by seven points.

Cox marks not too far out and Collingwood are doing it a bit easily again after Richmond had been on top for a while. Cox misses easily and maybe we do have a chance?

A chance for the Tiges but Weller is tackled before he can kick and the Woods get a free.

A huge, rolling mess in the Tiger goalmouth but somehow Higgins emerges triumphant. He’s a magician.

Treloar has a chance to pull one back and puts it out on the full. A good minute for Richmond.

Prestia penalised despite having had the ball for a mere fraction of a second and Pendlebury scores and its 18 points again. Another Ashely &Martin ad. Despicable, manipulative. Girls won’t like you if you go bald. Very subtle. The ads are so much worse when you’re losing to Collingwood.

Sidebottom drops the footy in front of the Richmond goal just like Presty did a moment ago but no free kick. We follow footy to learn that life is not fair.

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Cox kicks a goal before I’m back on the couch and I’m beginning to think we might not do it. But Markov takes a strong mark and will kick from a 45° angle. He gives it a good go but misses. Riewoldt is off, down the tunnel. His healed wrist might have broken again.

Ellis drives the Tiges into attack and Shedda steams through like a train, gathers and goals and it’s not over yet.

Butler driven into the ground but no free. What did happen to the push in the back rule?

Collingwood open us up again and De Goey marks but hits the post. Merely human, after all.

Cox marks the kickout from Ellis. Damn it all. We miss Houli tonight, as well as Rance.

Cox gets a point and it’s 18 the difference.

Ellis takes the kick again, getting back on that horse.

Collingwood win it back and De Goey marks again, much closer in this time but misses, doesn’t even go out on the full. The Richmond attack breaks down a kick from goal.

Collingwood rip us apart on a counterattack and goal and it’s 24 points now. Hope slipping away. Maybe we can get one or two back and not lose by so much? If we could make a game of it against a full-strength Collingwood it would really mean something.

But we have to stop giving the ball away. McIntosh kicks well to an opponent and the ball is marked by Elliot. Apparently he’s very good, but has been well-held, mostly. Hits the post from not far out.

Riewoldt is back on the ground. 22 free kicks to nine, Collingwood’s favour. Why are we surprised?

Short or Vlaustin pinged for a throw. Even Carey thinks this is unlucky. Elliot kicks the goal.

Promo for Home and Away, makes me so glad I’ve never watched it.

“Colling-wooood” echoing around the ground. If only we had thousands for supporters who could sing like that. We do of course, but they’re not allowed to sing at all.

We’re getting towelled up now. It’s 31 points. Grimes down off the ball. Six minutes to go, please let it go quickly.

Grimes is indestructible and takes a saving mark in defence.

Collingwood awarded a mark that’s a thousand times messier than the one Lynch wasn’t given.

Stevenson marks right in front and it’s getting ugly.

Grimes has lost his mind and in the last minutes, with the game lost, has run at Elliot and elbowed him in the head. I love Grimes to pieces and I’ve barely seen him give away a free kick before. Maybe he can plead insanity? But really, crap like that has to earn him a few weeks.

Collingwood score and it’s 43 points, as bad as the prelim. Well, it might be, I haven’t the heart to go back and check the score on that one.

So glad I didn’t go.

Eddie “night grand final” McGuire is seen going over to our Peggy. But not for long.

Collingwood have the ball again and it’s going to be 49 points.

But Cox hits the post and it’s only 44.

Thank God it’s over.

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In summary, footy doesn’t get worse than this. There is nothing so bad as being beaten by Collingwood. They have far too many good players and the AFL shouldn’t have allowed it. Their tactic of kicking across the ground and marching the ball up the field seemed to work very well, but was awful to watch. But it mystified me. The obvious way to counter such a strategy is to go man-on-man and deny them the easy kick and mark. We did have 18 on the ground, the same as them, even if our 18 weren’t quite as good as theirs.

Many of our players did well. Grimes was great, again, before he went insane. Vlaustin was good too. I thought Shedda was outstanding, playing mostly in the middle. His goal to give us hope in the last was a beauty. Lynch was good too and on a better night would have kicked a bag. Ellis was pretty strong and didn’t give up. Generally, our team battled well and I didn’t see heads drop or players turns on each other, which is a good sign. But the omens aren’t great. Our heavenly run without injuries is over. Do you remember we put exactly the same team on the park for each week of the finals in 2017? And probably for the last few home-and-away rounds as well? After 37 years of heart-break we deserved some luck, but still.

Collingwood, contrast, have all their players back and they’re all supermen. De Goey is just ridiculous. Cox is way over what should be the height limit for footballers and yet can still run, jump and kick. Adam “diss the list” Treloar is good too, but still doesn’t have a premiership medal.

To make it all better though, Eddie insulted a woman with a disability on Fox Footy on Friday night. As Douglas Adams said of some-one he’s clearly a man of many qualities, even if most of them are bad ones. I think he would be very well-suited to a job where he didn’t have to talk.

Two easy games coming up, against the Corporate Giants in Sydney and then Port in Adelaide. Both Saturday twilight games, both on pay TV. Even if I had time to go and watch these games somewhere, I might have to McGuire’s commentary. I don’t want this match report to degenerate into a tirade against the Collingwood president…ah, who am I kidding? That’s exactly what I want. Anyway, he’s not much of a commentator either, sometimes doesn’t take the trouble to learn the players’ names.

Richmond will plug a few gaps and pinch at least one of these games and will be on an even keel after round four. Dusty will find his mojo, Houli will heal and the young players will step up.

But footy is not such a great game after you lose to Collingwood.

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Benny Votes by Chris

5 Edwards – played four quarters, his quick hands and accurate kicking kept hope alive.
4 Lynch – our only tall target after Riewoldt broke his wrist early. Took some great grabs and kicked goals nervelessly.
3 Broad – has started the season really strongly. Impressive tank – he is bobbing up all over the ground and seems very hard to shake off.
2 Grimes – wonderful for most of the game but burned badly by his opposite number De Goey late on. Unforgivable brain fade will see him lucky to miss just one game.
1 Nankervis – tried very hard against the athletic Grundy. Lost the hit-outs but used his body intelligently in play, and racked up 4 tackles (one eighth of the team total).

Leaderboard

Grimes 7
Edwards, Lynch, 5
Vlastuin 4
Cotchin, Broad 3
Martin 2
Nankervis 1

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2018: Caddy, Grigg, Houli, Lynch, Nankervis, Prestia, Townsend and Weller)

Lynch 5, Nankervis 1

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2019: Balta, Coleman-Jones, Collier-Dawkins, Miller, Naish, Ross, Turner)

No votes yet

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot:for left footers
(Eligible 2019: Chol, Grigg, Nankervis and Houli)

Nankervis 1

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season

(Potentially eligible 2019: Aarts, Baker, Chol, Eggmolesse-Smith, Stack, Townswend, Weller)

No votes yet

Maurice Rioli Grip of Death Trophy:
For the Tiges top tackler in 2019

Dion Prestia 11
Jack Graham 10
Dan Butler 10
Kamdyn McIntosh 9
Toby Nankervis 6
Dylan Grimes 6

Round 1 v Carlton at the MCG – A season starts and a season ends

23/03/2019 By Brendan O'Reilly 1 Comment

The start of the season is always too early for me. March is the most beautiful month in Melbourne until footy comes along. A Long March, with fine weather and no men’s footy, would suit me fine. It would suit the AFLW too, of course, and send the best message about the value of their game. We’ll make the men’s season a fraction shorter (our players are always saying it’s too long) and give you some more time and space.

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The start of the season is always too early for me. March is the most beautiful month in Melbourne until footy comes along. A Long March, with fine weather and no men’s footy, would suit me fine.

It would suit the AFLW too, of course, and send the best message about the value of their game. We’ll make the men’s season a fraction shorter (our players are always saying it’s too long) and give you some more time and space. Now is the time for the AFL to announce this. Not in ten years’ time. Not next year. Now, after the Tayla Harris’ stand, after the AFL has trashed the women’s game once more.

And while they’re at it, now is the time for Toilet Equality at the ‘G and elsewhere. Make some of the men’s dunnies into women’s until our queues are of equal length. Only then will women and girls know that the AFL takes them seriously.

I digress, but I needed to. The first game doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes into a glorious month trailing controversies real and contrived. Then the ball is bounced and a flip is switched and it’s on again.

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Our tickets in row Z in the Southern Stand cost us about half a year’s membership, but without them we might not have gotten in at all. As it was we missed Lynch’s first goal. From outside the ground, when we were still lined up, I assumed the roar was for Carlton. There was something about the sound that I didn’t like and it seemed strong at the Punt Road End where, at a Carlton home game, I assumed the crowd to be Blue-ish. But once we were in we learned Richmond had scored first. What did that teach me about tribalism? That, in fact, a crowd’s roar sounds much the same, whatever team it’s for?

We were in our seats when Lynch kicked a goal and were able to deduce, from the way all the Richmond players didn’t mob him, that it wasn’t his first. This was so much better than last year when the Blues killed us in the first quarter and it felt like round 1 at Waverley in 1981 all over again. This was footy the way it should be – a big crowd, Richmond with five goals on the board and Carlton yet to score.

The second quarter was footy as the AFL prefers it – more of a contest, but with the Tigers still in control. Higgins’ goal was the highlight, a quick snap from fair way out on a very tight angle. Has there ever been a player who loved playing so much? His celebrations make me feel young again.

But Carlton had come back a bit and worse was to follow. The third was footy as nightmare. A good lead being whittled away, the Carlton crowd roaring. The lead went down to four goals, to three and then to two. The Richmond defence was under siege. Finally, they forced a turnover and broke away. Dusty tore through the middle, wondering which option to take to set up our much-needed goal. Then he was caught, the Blues fans went nuts, the ball was turned over. He looked very cross with himself. But the counter-counter-attack was thwarted once more.

At a big marking contest Rance went down and play was stopped. We know it’s bad when they actually stop the game. Nobody knew that the problem was. From the scraps of replay we saw he was hurt either in the head or the leg or somewhere in between. All we saw was him falling. And now on the ground, un-moving and the surviving players huddled, discussing life without him.

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This could hardly have been worse. Carlton surging, the lead down to two goals, the quarter barely half over, the best full-back of all time on the deck. But Richmond really stood up then and gave Carlton nothing. It was a desperate end to the quarter but if anything, the break in play had settled the Tigers and all of Carlton’s attacks were blunted.

In the last, order was restored and the Blues were taken apart. What could be better than getting the jump on them early, teasing them in the third and then breaking their spirits in the last? Even after our third goal, with the lead at 28 points and the quarter not half gone, Blues supporters were leaving. This is something I will never comprehend, but I saw Richmond supporters do the same in the prelim last year, so this fickleness infects everyone.
Rance emerged from the tunnel on crutches with a bag of ice on his knee. The crowd roared in appreciation and in sadness.

The best goal of this quarter was Weller’s, a brilliant soccer kick from a good distance out and a similar angle to Higgins’ effort. The lead went out to 40 points before a late consolation goal to the Blues. We could get our breath back before we stood and sang the song.

I could see the smile on Rance’s face which was encouraging. But the way his mates went to him and patted him on the head said “season-ending injury” and so it was.

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Match reports have bemoaned this game as a spectacle. “Objective” writing often does. There were plenty of highlights though. Cotch and Riewoldt each took beautiful marks. Cotch kicked a behind from his but I think Jack split the big sticks. Many too-tall and too-skilful Blues players also took good marks. They have no shortage of good players, despite everyone running them down. I tried to learn their names and numbers but we were so high up in the Southern that we could only read the numbers when play was on our wing, which it often wasn’t.

I don’t know if the rules changes mattered that much. It chokes me to say it, but it did look nice and symmetrical to see everyone lined up, almost like the old days, at the centre bounces. I miss the dinky little kick-to-himself that the full-back had to do to play on. One of those little quirks that the AFL despises and so it had to go.

It looked a lot like the 2017 Richmond – often messy, often scrappy, but from one contest to another the ball herded between the big sticks.
Next week a sickening clash awaits – Book Club to discuss Brideshead Revisited or Richmond v Collingwood?

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Benny Votes

5 Grimes – as always, was great. Never beaten, always there, always contesting.
4 Vlaustin – was good too. The way the defence stood up after Rance left will be written about for years to come.
3 Cotchin – played a classic good Cotchin game, with a memorable highlight being his mark over his opposing skipper Cripps.
2 Martin – was an important player for us too, even if he was caught a few times.
1 Lynch – great to see the new players get goals in Lynch, Weller and Balta.

Leaderboard

As above!

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2018: Caddy, Grigg, Houli, Lynch, Nankervis, Prestia, Townsend and Weller)

1: Lynch

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2019: Balta, Coleman-Jones, Collier-Dawkins, Miller, Naish, Ross, Turner)

No votes yet

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot:for left footers
(Eligible 2019: Chol, Grigg, Nankervis and Houli)

No votes yet

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season

(Potentially eligible 2019: Aarts, Baker, Chol, Eggmolesse-Smith, Stack, Townswend, Weller)

No votes yet

Maurice Rioli Grip of Death Trophy:
For the Tiges top tackler in 2019

Dan Butler 7
Dion Prestia 6
Jack Graham 6
Dylan Grimes 4
Kamdyn McIntosh 4
Shane Edwards 4
Bachar Houli 4
Trent Cotchin 4

Preliminary Final v Collingwood at the MCG

25/09/2018 By Brendan O'Reilly 5 Comments

From our perfect seats, front row, top deck of the Ponsford, we could see that Dusty wasn’t right, even before the first bounce. He was lining up in the goal-square, which wasn’t a great sign, but could have been an interesting tactical move. If only he could move, which he clearly couldn’t. He was thinking about each step. And this was when he was walking. That he went on to have the worst game anyone could remember him having was not surprising.

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From our perfect seats, front row, top deck of the Ponsford, we could see that Dusty wasn’t right, even before the first bounce. He was lining up in the goal-square, which wasn’t a great sign, but could have been an interesting tactical move. If only he could move, which he clearly couldn’t. He was thinking about each step. And this was when he was walking. That he went on to have the worst game anyone could remember him having was not surprising.

Later Dimma would say, if it hadn’t been a final he wouldn’t have played. “But he would have killed me if I’d said he couldn’t play.” Well Dimma, that’s the coach’s job, breaking the bad news. And in what sort of shape would Dusty have been in for the GF if we’d won on Friday night?
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Playing injured players in finals is the sort of mistake our opponents made last year and paid a great price. I can’t believe we fell into the same trap.
But there it was. The game started well enough, with Riewoldt – can we still identify him as “Jack” now that we have three of them? – marking in a gettable spot. But with the Collingwood jeer-squad booing him he missed. I think we had another shot and missed that too. Soon enough Collingwood had a goal and then another and maybe another before we had our first. At quarter time it was 5.2 to 1.3 and we’d been killed around the ground. Not just on the ground, around the ground. The haunting chant of “Coll-ing….woooood” completely drowned out the Richmond chants.

Luckily our marketing heroes took care of this at the break and drowned out everyone with their loud and noxious tripe. I took the time to send an SMS to Patrick Keane at the AFL. He once told me that the loud music at the breaks and before the games “makes no difference at all.” How about now Patrick? I asked him. But he didn’t reply.

In the second quarter the world ended. I had said several times over the year that if Mason Cox ever played really well he’d be unstoppable. He did and he was. Three times he soared into the air, grabbed the mark, slotted the goal. Three times in about ten minutes. The Magpies behind the goals went nuts. So did the 60 thousand other Magpie supporters. And their “Coll-ing…wood” chant could get going and no loud music drowned it out.
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I think at one stage we were nine goals down and it wasn’t even half time. I thought we were going to lose the match by 100 points. But there was a faint rally and we went in at the break only 44 points down, the same margin Collingwood led by in the 1970 Grand Final.

What had gone wrong? The short answer was everything. Martin had been kryptonited. Astbury, who had destroyed Cox in round 19, appeared not to be playing. Later I heard he’d been really crook. Cox was too tall and was playing too well. Our defence was rattled, our forward line ineffective and our midfield battling but in retreat. I drew solace from the fact that we had come back a bit. But I’d have preferred a margin a bit less than 44 points.

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The third term was better and we trailed by 33 at the last break. Collingwood had certainly smashed us but much of this smashing was simply straight kicking – it was 12.7 to 6.10 at this stage. And the umpires, god love them, were not being kind. Dusty had taken a perfectly decent mark in the goal square and had the ball taken off him. For nobody-knew-what. Had that mark been rewarded and had it only been 27 points at three quarter time…
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The opening of the last term was our best stretch. We got two goals and the margin was down to 21 and another one or two and the ‘Woods might have panicked. But the next three goals were Magpies and the night was over and the “Coll-ing…wooooood” chant was unstoppable.
Our boys kept trying, which is more than I can say for our supporters. Well before the final siren at least three quarters of them had left. I could not believe this. These players won us a flag last year! They finished on top of the ladder! And you won’t even stay to the end of a Prelim Final?

When Cats fans left the qualifying final ten minutes from the end last year I was disgusted. Is this what a few flags does for your commitment? Well we’re just as bad after winning one.

Now I don’t think you should always, always stay. If you’re sitting in the rain and 90 points down at half time, maybe you could go home in good conscience. But what are we teaching our kids about dealing with grief and loss, about commitment, when we leave before the end of a final just so we can get out the carpark a bit quicker or catch that early train? Honestly.

So, a dreadful night for the Tigers. I didn’t quite see it coming but I was never as confident as all the media experts. When we beat Collingwood twice during the year they didn’t have Goldsack, Treloar or De Goey and Cox was tall, but quiet. Bring those three back in and let Cox actually play a bit and it’s a different game.

But as a Club when can learn from this game. We simply have to let our supporters sing! No more corporate crap at the breaks and before the game. Let’s get singing and chanting at least as well as Collingwood. We’ve got 100,000 members and only a dumb-as-dogshit club would try to shut them up.

Oh, I feel better now.
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Benny Votes (double for finals)
10 Jack Riewoldt
8 Jack Higgins
6 Bachar Houli
4 Trent Cotchin
2 Dylan Grimes

[Editor’s note: there is one game report missing from our season (Dreamtime v Essendon), so the Benny is still in the balance. Five votes for Dusty would tie it up. That report will come with the season wrap in the next few days]

Leaderboard

51: Cotchin
46: Martin

39: Riewoldt
23: Grimes
22: Short
21: Caddy
20: Astbury, Nankervis
19: Edwards
18: Lambert, Prestia
14: Rance
12: Higgins
11: Vlastuin
9: Houli
7: Conca, McIntosh
6: Graham, Rioli
3: Lloyd, Castagna
1: Townsend

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2018: Caddy, Grigg, Hampson, Houli, Nankervis, Miles, Prestia and Townsend.)

21: Caddy
20: Nankervis
9: Houli
14: Prestia
1: Townsend

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2018: Liam Baker, Noah Balta, Callum Coleman-Jones, Ryan Garthwaite, Jack Higgins, Ben Miller, Patrick Naish)

12: Higgins

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot:for left footers
(Eligible 2018: Chol, Corey Ellis, Grigg, Nankervis and Houli).
20: Nankervis
9: Houli

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season
Potentially eligible 2018: Baker, Chol, Eggmolesse-Smith, Moore, Stengle
No votes yet.

Maurice Rioli Grip of Death Trophy:
For the Tiges top tackler

Graham: 107
Cotchin: 103
Conca: 92
Grimes: 82
Nankervis: 81

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To those few, those lucky few, that band of siblings

17/05/2016 By Brendan O'Reilly 20 Comments

Apart from my team travelling badly and apart from loathing the experience of live Richmond matches, I was also extremely tired by Saturday evening. A few hours of door-knocking for the Greens in Preston and a couple more at a party where I knew very few people was enough to wear me out. Oh, and I’d had a big week too. So I was never very likely to go last Saturday night. I wish that I had and I take my hat off to the 36 thousand who did.

A post from Tiger guest Brendan O’Brien. You can read his regular posts at theinternetatemyblog.wordpress.com

I wish that I had and I take my hat off to the 36 thousand who did. Sydney, many commentators were saying, were the best team in the competition. Richmond were not the worst, but they were certainly in the mix. So how likely was it that we could beat them? Sure, we have a good record against them: beating them in Sydney last year after being five goals down at half time, beating them in an excruciatingly close finish in the last round of 2014 to make the finals, beating them at the ‘G a year or two before that. But that’s when we were quite good. And Sydney rested half their team in the 2014 game…

In any case the Swans began well this time and had three goals on the board before we knew which way we were kicking. But then an odd thing happened and we actually started to play quite well. Franklin was rampant but Rance stuck with him and limited the damage. We fought and scrapped and got the ball into the forward line and set up countless chances. Most of these we squandered. From near and far, tight angles and straight in front. Through for a behind the ball went. In no time we had our first “point goal” – six behinds for our trouble. But despite all the misses, at quarter time we were only ten points down and at the half-time break – this we could not believe sitting in comfort on the couch – we were five points up.

The breaks are when I’m really glad I’m not at the ground. Even at home you can hear the spruiker and the music obliterate the crowd noise. Tiger fans were not doubt roaring their heroes off the ground, but nobody could hear them, not at home on the couch, not in the outer at the ‘G.

In the third term our terrible kicking reached another level. We added 1.5 to the Swans 5.4 and trailed by three goals at the last break. Football’s oldest and truest clichés surely applied – bad kicking is bad football and the third quarter is the premiership quarter. Lose that and you’re stuffed.

But something truly bizarre happened at the start of the last term. The Tigers burst from the blocks and kicked goal after goal. Rioli got two of them – how many years have we needed a Rioli? – and we were right back in it. But Sydney steadied and kicked away again and there were only a few minutes left and they were two goals up. Then Jack won the footy in the maelstrom much closer to the Swans’ goal than to ours and kicked it perfectly to the advantage of the helmed Griffiths. For a big man he moved like the smallest gazelle, chased by his equally helmed and large opponent. The ball bounced, Griffo grabbed it and took off, one bounce inside the 50 and then kicked it, along the ground, straight as the road to Lockington, right through the big ones.

Five points now and four minutes to go. Sydney attacked, Richmond attacked. Twice Rance performed heroics to save the game for us. Or was it thrice? Still, it was not enough. Sydney had the ball and attacked again. We won it again, Sydney won it back. Only a minute left. Then less than a minute.

Sydney had the footy, forward of the centre and chose, in the most sporting way imaginable, not to kick it wide or backwards to one of several un-marked team-mates but instead into attack again, into a contest from where it was wrestled free by the much-maligned and poorly-pronounced Vlaustin who roosted it out of the back-line.

It landed close to Riewoldt and took what Dimma would call “the bounce of God” straight into his lap. But, as Dimma said too, you make your own luck sometimes. Jack saw Griffo again running into the forward line and kicked an inch-perfect kick to him. The helmed one took it easily, 65 meters out. Seconds left could be counted on my fingers. Should he roost it? He’s a big kick but the angle was bad. Should he go for another run? But the Swans were getting back and it would be tough for him. One tackle, one mis-step and the chance would be gone.

Three facts might have occurred to the pessimist at this point, not that any of that ilk have a place at Richmond: we haven’t won a game since March; we have an awful record in close games; our set shot kicking is abysmal.
But our heroes did not have time for such maudlin rubbish.

Sam Lloyd, the boy from Deniliquin, loped into the forward 50 and called for it. Griffo kicked over the man on his mark and Lloydy marked, 45 from goal on a worse than 45 degree angle. Seven seconds left.
On the couch we were beside ourselves. I think I was sobbing already. Griffo walked over to Lloydy and said – so we learned later – “three deep breaths and keep your head over the ball.” The young feller settled himself, wasted no time, walked in and kicked from the 50.

A straighter, higher, truer, more beautiful kick has never, ever, in any sport, at any time on any planet ever been kicked. It went high and it went handsome and split the big sticks as elegantly as if they’d been a block of straight-grained red box beneath your grandfather’s axe.

I was openly sobbing by now. Lloyd was buried beneath an avalanche of team-mates. The Tiger supporters went nuts. The song rang out and the supporters were allowed to sing it once, as they are allowed to now, not twice like before. Who cared? All was right with the world. Rance said in a one-minute interview “I love this team!” three times. We said it to ourselves and to each other many more times and are saying it still.