I spent most of the 90s living overseas – first in Scotland and then Germany. Apparently, the Kangas were good during this period and a bloke called Duck dominated. I didn’t see any of this. My only thoughts regarding North are, first: my Dad follows them – he’s originally from NSW and chose North based on the fact his Dad played League for Canterbury Bankstown, who are also blue and white, second: I can’t remember North ever being any good and third: I never, ever tip North correctly – they win when they should lose and lose when they should win. They were supposed to lose to Richmond, and as a result, I was worried.

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Q1
The first 10 minutes of the first quarter had me concerned – we were overusing the ball and turning it over with monotonous regularity. While I am big fan of ‘flair’, sometimes the basics work, especially early when the other mob is ‘up for the contest’™. Grimes starts very well and his bullet pass to George brings a big grin to my dial. Man-mountain Majak Daw’s tackle attempt is shrugged off by Towna despite the fact Daw is approximately 37 times his size. Daw is the sort of player who must frustrate the bejesus out of supporters – he has all the physical attributes to dominate footy but always seems to be a half-step behind the play. I really hope he works it out…just not today. Despite our poor use of the pill, we got inside 50 a lot – but don’t capitalise. North were a model of efficiency – by my count they got inside our defensive 50 twice and had kicked 2 straight. We had kicked 3.4.

Quarter-time notes: Dusty unsighted, Cotch starting to get hot, Caddy kicks goals, we need to tighten up on Ben Brown, Cunnington is a machine.
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Q2
Repeat efforts from Cotch (this is standard) leads to Dusty getting the ball, quick flick back to the skipper then onto Lambert – GOAL!!! Best passage of play by a mile and our mid-size speedsters make North’s tall defence look cumbersome. 4.4 to 2.0 – we are starting to get reward for effort and have some breathing space. Simpkin snaps – goal. Atley snaps – goal. 4.4 to 4.0 Breathing space gone. North have 4.0 from 4 shots on goal ffs… Our pressure finally starts to reap rewards: Titch shimmy, onto Cotch, onto Lambert – GOAL!, Caddy takes advantage of a dubious, um, advantage call – GOAL! Jack, set shot from 45 – GOAL! 7.4 to 4.0 North finally miss and each team kicks another goal (Jack) to make the half-time score 8.4.52 to 5.2.32

Half-time notes: Cotch is on fire, ditto Cunnington, Brown marking on the wing – win for us, we have fluffed a few chances through being unselfish – sometimes Route 1 is best, 16 inside-50s for 5.2 hmmm…
I am on iTunes listening to ‘Killing Joke in Dub’ and trying to work out if I like it or if I’m annoyed by it. I saw Killing Joke in Frankfurt in the mid-90s and they were fantastic, Jaz Colman was mental and my ears buzzed for a week. On the tele (muted) Sam Gibson is doing ballet. Early Killing Joke sounds like early Cult – when they were Southern Death Cult. I decide Killing Joke in Dub is annoying.
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Q3
Rance is tackled by Brown, while the ball is in a different postcode – Ball! Nice one ump… North kick the first of the term and edge closer. 8.4 to 6.2 North look like they believe they can beat us. Nank delivers a pinpoint look-away handball – he is a ripper. Titch misses a set shot. Rance, too slow, is tackled and the following passage of play sees the Sherrin sail over the umpire’s hat. 8.5 to 7.2 Our disposals have been poor and were it not for our tackling pressure, we’d be in real trouble. We need Dusty to join in at some stage. Lambert kicks his third. 9.5 to 7.2 I know I shouldn’t, but I’m starting to get annoyed by the number of ticki-touchwood frees the Kangas are receiving. Conca tries to break one too many tackles with the resultant turnover being marked by Brown 30 metres out, D.i.F. (Directly in Front) – Goal! 9.6. to 8.3 Soft free kick to McMillan – Goal! 9.6 to 9.3 The siren goes and Towna has a set shot from about 80 metres. In the background some North-supporting halfwit is hurling abuse at Towna while glancing at himself on the big screen. This bloke is, I’d say, in his late thirties. My suggestion for this clown is to maybe try on some big boy’s pants and grow up a bit, or go back to the kiddies table. What a twerp. Towna’s shot ends up going at right angles and almost into the second tier. Three-quarter time score 9.7.61 to 9.3.57.

Q3 notes: Cotch is a jet, the game was very messy for the last 10 minutes and this suited North, we need to keep up tackling pressure, North have won more contested ball, the last quarter will be stressful, c’mon Dusty!!!
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Q4
Dusty has moved forward. Higgins snaps – Goal!!! Bollocks – it’s Shaun Higgins, not Jack. Kangas in front. 9.7.61 to 10.3.63 Five minutes into the quarter, we have a 50-19 advantage in inside 50 disposals and we’re behind. Jesus. C’mon boys! Dusty finally makes an appearance – kicks to Caddy, great contested grab and goals from 45. 10.7 to 10.3 This is tight. Free kick then 50 to Waite (I have no idea why) Goal! 10.7 to 11.3 The best passage of play for the match – Jack quick hands to Dusty, Dusty tap to Cotch, Cotch – Goal! Unstoppable, classy, imaginative and a real team-lifter. 11.7 to 11.3 Dusty has clearly decided he has had enough of watching, wins a scrap on the wing and hits up Butler, 45m out D.i.F. – Goal! 12.9 to 11.3 Ben Brown has two chances to put North in front and misses both. We dodged a bullet there. The last few minutes are desperate and scrappy. Rance is all class and desperation – winning contests and free kicks as he does what he does week in, week out. The siren goes. We have won. Again. Tiges 12.10.82 – Kangas 11.6.72
End game notes: Our skipper – what a pearler. Cunnington (32 contested possessions!) – who wouldn’t have him? Dusty – good enough to have an impact, despite being in second gear. Bachar backed up into a pack to take a mark – he would not have done this 2 years ago. I was right about the free kicks Tiges 24 – Kangas 33. Sometimes we need to take the shot and not try to handball to someone who is in a marginally better position. Caddy is getting better and better. We won through grit and effort – this is good.
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Votes:
5 Cotch – easily our best, and if he keeps this up will press for another Brownlow
4 Caddy – kicked 4 and, importantly, kicked them when others couldn’t
3 Lambert – kicked 3 and buzzed around covering enough ground for 2 players
2 Grimes – as fashionable a happy pants, as effective as combat boots
1 Vlastuin – hard as a cat’s head and, for a small defender, took a lot of big defensive marks
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I was a few minutes late to the TV and the very first action I saw was George climbing between two Pies to take a ripper of a mark 25 metres out. Then he did something between a Kennedy stutter step and a Running Man and kicked a point. Spectacular, ineffective. This should have been like the Lambert goal in the GWS prelim – an announcement to the effect ‘thanks for coming ladies and gentlemen, this is our game. Please stay and enjoy the minor details’.

Thanks to another magnificent last quarter we did get there in the end. We are outscoring our opposition by 147% in last quarters this year. As @sjross observed it is probably no coincidence we are often up against 21, 20 or 19 fit men at the end. A game against Richmond is no place for the semi-fit, people carrying niggles and under-prepared sides on tight turnarounds. We torched Collingwood in the last term, a team who beat Adelaide a few weeks ago.

A feature of the past week has been everyone with paid positions in the football industry taking turns to agree how terrible footy is now, what can we do to fix it, maybe zones, faster ball-ups, cut teams down to 16. (This is after the previous week when we were handed a night grand final on the basis as far as I could tell that fireworks look pissy in the daytime.) But most Richmond people are basking in the sunshine right now, and the Venn diagram of Tiger Fans / People Who Want To Change Stuff looks like this:

OO

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Cotch was fantastic. For such a pin-up who never even raises a sweat, he has a delightful nasty streak. Dusty was quiet early and worked his way into it. Caddy looked underdone but still ended with 4 goals. Snags Higgins was lively and got two in a minute thanks to cartoon knucklehead Lynden Dunn. Imagine getting Dunn and Mayne across to your team in one summer. Rance looked off his best when Cox was a real marking target in the first half, but he got better. Astbury and Grimes were great all day, Houli and Short terrific and Broad looked settled and confident. Nank was arguably best afield playing against a much-vaunted ruckman. People oughta vaunt Nank a bit more.

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VOTES
5 Nankervis – he had 29 disposals if you don’t mind.
4 Cotchin – he had 29 too, and planted Treloar’s face in the the grass on his way to the bench. Get up son.
3 Grimes – I love him.
2 Houli – I love him too.
1 Short – He will play AFL finals this year in my opinion.
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I am on foot weaving my way through the back streets of Richmond. The car park is officially full so in order to make it for the first bounce we had little choice but to dump the car in a two hour space and take our chances. I am returning to the ‘G’ for the first time since that wonderful drought breaking day, part of me doesn’t want to go back. Like a holiday destination where the memories are so good, so pure you make a conscious decision to never return for fear of the second time around never living up to the first.

It’s hot, real hot for April in Melbourne. The sun has the same intensity of Prelim Final day… there I go again, referencing the good old days just as my father has done before me. In football terms to be nostalgic is to be in a position of privilege.

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First Quarter

The umpires are not going to go quietly today, they pay two 50 metre penalties that from my vantage point on level two of the southern stand looked questionable. I wish they’d put the bloody whistles away.

The ball is pinging between the arcs, both backlines are super organised with neither team able to make the most of their forward thrusts.

My goodness Shedwards looks dangerous early, the better we have got, the better he has got. The bloke sees things two steps ahead of most others on the ground. I give my sister a nudge, “your boy is looking sharp.” She says she is modelling her game on him. I feel she has a way to go.

Hardwick, of the brown and gold variety, bursts through the centre, only Cotch stands in his way from a shot on goal. His ‘single arm’ tackle effort is so out of character most tiger fans in my neck of the woods turn to each other with furrowed brows. Hardwick misses, no harm is done.

We are handball happy early happy to take any option; a metre handball, a ten metre chipping kick. Our boys surge forward and run in waves but can’t quite find the synchronicity they need for an open avenue to goal. A fellow tiger behind me screams for us to kick it long, I take the bait. “Mate this won us a premiership so just (insert explicative) accept it.” It’s a cagey game at the moment, a chess battle, the two coaches know each other well. I can’t help but think their fingerprints are all over the opening fifteen minutes.

I am pleased with our composure, we are patient and errors by hand, foot or mind don’t seem to reduce our desire to take the game on. This a substantial shift in belief and mindset from so many tiger teams that have come before. For the time being our boys play in a headspace where the fear of failure has been tamed. That makes us a seriously dangerous football team.
Early on everything the bloke wearing the number four turns to gold, from 2017 to today it seems nothing has changed. By quarters end we have five individual goal kickers and a 17 point lead.

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Second Quarter

Early on in the second term something remarkable happens, George kicks a goal with his hand. Eventually the review system gets it right and correctly awards us a point but it serves as a moment when you can’t help but question the validity of technology in football.
It’s mid way through the second term and it feels like we are beginning to bust the game open with our spread from the contest. Just as the game begins to open up so too did the sky with the April sun finally working it’s way over the back of the Olympic stand to bath us in sunshine. It was hot, real hot. The only sensible thing to do was begin to the let the Great Northerns flow.

In an immediate response to our scoreboard Poppy from Hawthorn slots a goal. It would become a pattern for the afternoon. Far too often we goaled and gave up an easy one almost immediately.

Enter my favourite passage of play for the game. Dusty chips to George, George on the arc knows the distance is beyond him and handballs back to Dusty. Dusty never gets balanced and his shot on goal comes off Hawthorn hands. The debutant ‘Higgo’ claims the mark, he realises it’s touched, plays on and wheels around to snap the ball truly. He joins the first kick, first goal club and celebrates accordingly, running down the forward pocket with his arms held high over his head. It’s a celebration KB would be proud of. Then true to the pattern of the game Poppy kicked another and cancelled our goal out.

Astbury stops another Hawthorn attack. It’s a moment to recognise how good he has become. With Rance, Vlaustin, Houli and Dave we now have some serious talent in intercepting.

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Third Quarter

I bolt back up the southern stand stairs with a beer in hand. I sit down and the umpire slams the sherrin into the turf, my timing was impeccable. My brother in law plonks himself down next to me. He is sporting a 2013 Hawthorn premiership jumper. I am no longer envious of his guernsey I now have the equivalent for myself. In a break in play he leans across. “The tiger fans are getting cheeky, one lady on the way back up told me I would need more beer.” I no longer hope she is right, I feel she is. That is a significant shift.

Early in the third the Hawks are clearly on top, clouds bring some respite from the heat. For the first time I feel a little nervous.

Goals to Riewoldt and Grigg restore order, I scream “C’mon the Premier”, just because I can.

At the 18 minute mark there is an audacious passage of play that represents everything I love about the current incarnation of Richmond. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to go to the tape and find it. It’s a series of flicks, touches and team work that would make the Harlem Globetrotters proud. In line with this style of play Higgo volleys one out of the air to put us 34 point up. He has taken no time to find the pace of the game. In the words of Hardwick, “the recruiting team keep picking them so I have to keep playing them.” It is a wonderful problem to have.

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Fourth Quarter

I am confident, so much so I begin to plan my late lunch in Swan St. Hawthorn kick three on the trot and the Hawthorn cheer squad are working overtime. I note their flag policy. It seems at Waverley they have opted to go for size not quantity.

A string of handballs is finished by a Butler back heel. It is surge football at it’s best. It’s another passage of play with deft touches and team cohesion that perfectly reflects the current day Tigers. There is little resemblance to our teams of yesteryear. These Tigers are unique, I smile with pride.

At the 16 minute mark I am frustrated. It seems we still haven’t worked out the Poppy is knee high to a grasshopper. Lloyd rips his head off and Poppy makes us pay. The difference is now 20 points.

The final five minutes is painful, the result felt inevitable but we made it far closer and nervy then it needed to be. The coach said we lacked composure, I thought we had one eye on the clock and put the cue in the rack.

Post match Jack says its best, “this is our cauldron, this is our home ground.” We are now 10 games undefeated at the ‘G’ dating back to round 13 last year. We make the pilgrimage back to Swan St, for some reason it is open to traffic. I thought from last September onwards it got shutdown after every big Tigers win. Maybe next time

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The votes:
5 Cotchin – If there was a coal face he was at it, time and time again on he started the Tiger engine.
4 Conca – Amassed touches, had excellent centre square positioning and some vital centre breaks
3 Edwards – Oozes class, was instrumental early when the game was taking shape.
2 Short – Took the game on early with his run and carry from the back half. This set the tone for others such as Ellis and Houli to do the same as the game wore on.
1 Rance – The bloke is a God. If not for the number four he would be the best I’ve ever seen wear the jumper.
Honourable mentions: Nank and Jack. My goodness they are important to us. They battle manfully every week with very little tall timber to support them. God give them strength.

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By Andrew Hamilton [@Tiggerstales14]

Editor’s note: here is a blast from the past – solid TTBB supporter JD at the footy with son Noah, 2014, from our first season of the ‘new’ TTBB.

And here’s Noah at the G yesterday! Always great to see the TTBB family grow up!

Chris turns a few minutes before the game, asks if I can write a match report.
Borrow pen and paper, a season’s notetaking begins.

Q1.
Third goal to them. Is this what they call a ‘premiership hangover’.
“Have we hit a target with a foot pass yet,” asks one in the crowd.
Jarrod Garlett on debut kicks a fourth for them and our party, if not postponed, is delayed.
Wasn’t in the script, now five goals to none.
“When we gonna wake-up?”
Arms are crossed, lips pursed, among Richmond fans.
Jack gets us on the board. In in the push-and-shove, Jacob Townsend fights out of his weight division.
Jason Castagna’s first goal gets us out of our seats.
Dave Astbury (pencil him in for ‘All Australian’) backs into space – a defender’s burden – and our boys are taking no short steps. The game’s intensity is not shirked.
Picking fingernails.
Lovely night for it.
Autumn’s equinox.
Such a fast and expansive contest, this game of ours.
Townsend still has ‘the touch’. Whole careers are built on ‘the touch’.
A Dylan Grimes punch to the boundary line late in the first – all is as it should be.
What are the patches on the back of the Carlton shorts?
“Are you born ambidextrous,” asks a boy sitting with his father in seats behind

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The day after, I posted a tweet.
I’d be encouraged if I were a Blues supporter.*
*the things you say when your team are white hot.^
^not so Richmondy anymore.

Sir James (@JamieVtron62) replied:
I’ve found myself patronising Blues supporters too. So wrong in many ways.

JD (@JD_RFC_TIGER) added:
It was a different sensation being 5 goals down but still feeling we had this.

Sarah Brook (@Brook23Sarah) added:
Ran into an acquaintance on the way out wearing a Blues scarf – had to put on my magnanimous hat – an uncommon experience!

Jack Soward (@jacksoward) added:
I was uncomfortably comfortable. I laughed when we fell 5 goals behind just at the combination of free kicks / a bit of luck / Blues taking chances. I could tell we missed Houli, Prestia and co. but never felt like we would lose. 2018 is so strange!

 

 

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The votes

This season like no other begins as last year ended. With utter belief and confidence.

5 Dustin Martin – picked-up where he left off. Complacency? Nup.

4 Trent Cotchin – seven first-quarter possessions. Still hungry? Yep.

3 Jack Graham – thirteen tackles. Six AFL games for Richmond, how many has he won? All of them.

2 Alex Rance – because he is Alex Rance. Who is he? Alex Rance.

1 Jacob Townsend – votes could have gone to Jack, Kamdyn, Dan Butler, Josh Caddy, Castagna, almost anybody, but one of the night’s highlights (apart from seeing Reece Conca back in it, and Shai Bolton’s standing leap) was the hard-at-it intensity of this bloke. Four goals caught the eye, but it was also him crashing into the contest, knocking blokes out of the way, opening spaces for others to run into. The fairytale continues.
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