Votes and notes this week by Joe Crawford
5 – Dustin Martin Clearly our best player. Faded towards the end of the game as the Hawks got on top and, I suspect, he was knackered.
4 – Shaun Hampson Much maligned, including by yours truly, but won the ruck contest competing against two opponents in Ceglar and McEvoy. His best game for the Tiges by some margin.
3 – Nate Miles In and under all night. Kicked a couple of nice sausage rolls as well. Still can’t understand how he managed to get dropped.
2 – Brett Deledio His touches were all class and showed what we have been missing. When fit he is our best player, no question.
1 – Corey Ellis Didn’t exactly set the world alight but looks a likely type and will only get better once he weighs more than one of my wet socks.
Consolation prize: Nick Vlastuin
General observations (I’m sure I’m pointing out the obvious here, but someone has to do it…)
Our tackling was dire. Indicative of our ‘tackling’: during the third quarter Shaun Burgoyne running through Dusty as though he were David Bourke.
Watching Jack Gunston run around doing what he wanted must have been galling for A.Rance.
We were missing a few players but the Hawks were missing even better players and flogged us.
The first 2.5 quarters were respectable but the drop-off in our quality after that was more than alarming.
Bad kicking is bad football. Why are we so terrible at set shots?
Not sure what our defensive ‘structures’ are supposed to be but the Hawks took, by my count, 1.6 million uncontested marks. And I probably missed a couple.
Allowing the Hawks to score late in the first 3 quarters. This meant we undid 25 minutes of good work in each quarter with 5 minutes of poor work.
Jack’s body-language wasn’t great late in the game but I can’t really blame him for being despondent.
Subbing Tyrone when he was on a roll? Complete idiocy.
The last quarter was awful.
As much as I was pleased with the effort and most of what we did in the first 2.5 quarters we were still completely outclassed when the Hawks got on top and offered very little (no) resistance. I can’t see any light at the end of this particular tunnel. Apologies for being a misery guts but I can only call it as I see it.
Go Tiges…please…
The Benny
19: Riewoldt
11: Cotchin, Rance, Houli
9: Martin
8: Miles
6: Lloyd
5: Lambert, Castagna, Hampson
3: Townsend, Short, C. Ellis
2: Rioli, Deledio
1: B. Ellis
Blair Hartley Appreciation Award
11: Houli
8: Miles
5: Hampson
3: Townsend
Anthony Banik Best First Year Player
5: Castagna
3: Short
2: Rioli
Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot
11: Houli
Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal
5: Castagna
3: Short
Next week’s votes will be cast by the founder of The Benny, Sean Ross.
Thanks Joe, good job and pretty much how I saw it.
The gentlemen on ‘The Saturday Agenda’ regarded it as Richmond’s best game for the season.
It was a relief to be in it up until 3/4 time, but the last quarter was dispiriting.
The top four players in The Benny are all established players; it is a pity that we don’t have any surprises there. Jack leading by so much is good for him, but an indication of the lack of an even spread throughout the team.
I’m predicting Shedda to be in the points next week; he is starting to show signs of his form turning, bursting out of packs, long straight kicks deep into the 50.
What form does The Benny actually take? Is it a trophy, a medal, a certificate, a voucher, a ribbon, a sash, a crown?
You forgot orb. I honestly don’t know if it takes material form. Up til now the novelty factor in the Benny for me was to see fine players like Sheds, B Ellis and Dusty with only 5 points between them. I think the showing from youngsters has been modestly good.
Definitely that was our longest patch of watchable football this year, so I am happy to call it our best game. To see Sheds, Dusty, Miles and even Ty all firing at once, that was marvellous. The last quarter fall was so cartoonishly rapid that I still haven’t really grasped it.
But, to be really hard-headed about it, the 0 points you get for heroically falling just short are the same as the 0 points you get for being flogged.