Benny Round 22 v Fremantle at Subiaco

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Votes and notes this week by Marita Petherbridge (@mareetsyo)

I’d had a couple of false starts trying to find someone to watch the Freo-Tiges game with, including a particularly harsh rejection by one of my team’s rucks who opined, “Dusty’s haircut is the best thing to come out of Richmond – and it’s crap”. But fortune prevailed. The match ended up landing on my team’s Silly Sunday. For the uninitiated (I was, until recently, one of you), Silly Sunday is the day of extreme drinking in ridiculous costumes that follows your football team’s departure from its competition for the year. 

My team played at 9:45am Sunday in an elimination final against our arch-rivals. Up by one point at half time, we screamed ourselves hoarse on the bench until the final siren blew with scores even at 3.6.24. The first of two extra five minute quarters saw us nudge the ball over the line for a behind, but with three minutes to go, the opposition took a strong mark 30 metres out from their goal and the kick through was straight as an arrow. Heartbroken and shell-shocked, we retreated to our changeroom for earnest thankyous, teary hugs, and the first of many beers for the day. 

Luckily for me, this meant that as the siren sounded at Domain Stadium we were several hours into Silly Sunday, and I was tracksuited head-to-toe in blindingly bright orange Adidas. I had a few footy-mad compatriots keen to join me in cheering on a team they were confident would win. We watched on our home ground’s bleachers, huddled around our full back’s mobile phone as she streamed the match (dressed as a grandpa on prison break).

Q1
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Despite everyone’s assurances that Richmond would have an easy win over Freo, the memory of our last clash clanged around in my heart and I nervously watched the Dockers come out strong. Fyfe looked fired up, ready to rally his team to a home victory.
After Townsend got our first goal of the day I allowed myself to relax a little. Quickly though, pressure from Freo was too much for Rance and Broad, leading to an easy goal for Bennell that pumped the Dockers up again. 

Toward the end of the quarter a quick passage through Townsend, Castagna, and Rioli led to Dan’s goal, showing signs of the automatic, fast teamwork that would come to feature in the rest of the game. I started to breathe easier at this point, just as the sounds of a drunken singalong to Darryl Braithwaite’s Horses wafted across the field in front of me.

Q2
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Richmond settled into the second quarter while Freo’s intensity dissipated. Our back end of the ground saw less of the ball as the midfield showed what’s now become its standard mode: quick thinking, good positioning, and fast feeds forward to our 50. Ellis was exemplary as he gave a quick, effective disposal down to Lambert for his first goal for the day.

Excitement started to build around the tiny iPhone screen as we watched the Richmond forwards put their trademark pressure on Freo inside our 50, leading the ball over the boundary and giving Edwards a chance to slot a banana through the sticks. Another goal from McIntosh, another couple from Lambert, and one from Butler rounded out the second quarter and the Tiges had well and truly hit their stride.  Fremantle, meanwhile, didn’t manage a goal that quarter.

Q3
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Halftime was punctuated by our coach blowing a whistle at any of us not drinking sufficiently. Looking over my notes for the third quarter of the Freo-Tiges match, I thought I must have been the recipient of a few blasts. Was that Alex Rance marking at full forward and landing a sausage roll?

Rather than easing off now that they held a half time lead, the Tiges did what so many of us fans have wanted to see for so long. The second quarter’s eight goals was followed up with another six. Dusty’s display of total (and seemingly effortless) domination of the footy ground was in full swing.

Q4
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The final quarter brought another eight goals, cementing the 100 point win. Although he didn’t get the goal, Dusty’s BOTL* mark with five minutes to go was an epic highlight on a day of highlights.

After the stress of a close game in the morning, it was refreshing for my teammates and I to sit and watch the Tiges’ comfortable victory. We were grateful – myself in particular –to forego the usual heart-strangling fourth quarter nerves of a will-we, won’t-we match. It was a pleasure to sit at our home club and watch a well-oiled team make leads, hit their targets with precision, and apply pressure as good as any premiership side (knock on wood).

* Body On The Line. Pronounced “bottle”. Much respected around our club.

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Votes

5 Dusty – there’s not much to say about him that hasn’t already been said. An average game from Dusty, with 36 possessions and two goals. Left carnage in his wake and evaded tacklers like they were hardly even there.
4 Townsend – epic stats for the day, kicking 6 goals in his first match for 2017.
3 Ellis – for his effective disposals and 1%ers.
2 Houli – solid as always.
1 Graham – rose to the standard set by the rest of the team. The excitement around his debut was justified.
Honourable mentions: Butler, Grigg, Grimes (who got a bit of love from my backline teammates)

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