I came to the couch with a fair amount of trepidation about this one. The Tiges have been mainly winning but never looking entirely convincing. And Wet Toast has been the form team of the competition. So I figured that this encounter would really be the test of whether our Tiges were timing a run of best form for the business end of the season or whether we were just kidding ourselves. Many of the games I’ve watched this year have been frustrating spectacles. Our boys have often played in fits and starts, without great fluency and polish. Also, I’ve frequently had cause to wonder why it’s apparently so bloody difficult to kick the ball between those big sticks (see useful diagram attached).

So, right from the first bounce, this game was a pleasurable revelation. The Tigers played with a sustained confidence and intensity that, to my eye, far exceeded anything produced in earlier games. We seemed to have the game predominantly on our terms, so that the blue-and-yellow blokes were frequently corralled, harassed and forced to chase their tails. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Also, for the first time in ages, we somehow managed to kick goals.

The highlights of course were Dusty’s outrageous curler launched from the disused pie-stand somewhere beyond the right-hand forward pocket and then, later, big Noah’s long, long bomb from the centre square. Approaching the end of the game, I was amazed to note that we’d managed to kick 14 goals and only three behinds. I would have sustained this amazement right to the finish if freckly Jack hadn’t momentarily forgotten the old adage that there’s no ‘i’ in ‘team’ and butchered a straightforward close-range shot with a needless bit of smart-arsery.

Overall though, this performance begs the question: why can’t we kick at goal with this level of proficiency every week? Let’s hope that this might be the game that banishes the yips from our collective boot!

Aside from all the above, these are the things I most appreciated:

• Noah Balta playing with such flair and authority (even if this did include his inadvertent sinking of a knee into Josh Kennedy’s temple early in the game);
• Our two-prong ruck division largely nullifying the brilliance of big Nic Nat;
• Our tall blokes in the forward line working hard to frequently bring the ball to ground, so that our smaller blokes could pounce on the crumbs and those acclaimed Wet Toast defenders never got to dictate terms;
• Cotch’s manic efforts to win the contested ball at the centre bounce and around the stoppages;
• Fridge Graham’s frequent and imposing efforts to chase, tackle and extract the ball from traffic.

Mainly though I thought we just looked like a bloody good team, with everyone meshing together to become a force greater than the sum of its parts. For the first time in this weird year of football, I’m prepared to believe that our team is a genuine chance to go all the way. But of course, we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves…

Benny Votes

5. Noah Balta
4. Trent Cotchin
3. Jack Graham
2. Bachar Houli
1. Dustin Martin

Leaderboard
26: Martin
22: Bolton
14: Vlastuin
13: Short, Grimes
12: Balta
11: Cotchin
10: Lambert
9: Baker, McIntosh
7: Prestia, Riewoldt, Graham
6: Soldo
5: Higgins, Eggmolesse-Smith, Chol, Houli
4: Caddy
3: Lynch
2: Pickett
1: Castagna, Aarts

NEXT TIME BRING A KNEE-RUG
A week ago I was with family and friends kicking the footy around on the immense salty crust of Lake Eyre, twelve metres below sea level and 1,500 kms away from the MCG. (Actually, the nearby town of Marree has its own MCG, a modest oval of dust and gibber. But it’s a long time since Marree managed to field a team, probably as far back as the when the old Ghan railway stopped running in 1980.)

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Back in Melbourne, a friend calls to say they have a spare ticket in a fancy part of the Great Southern Stand where I’ve never been welcomed in the past, perfectly positioned on level 2. The seats have built in drink holders and there’s a bloke who holds the door open when you head to the bar. That said, there’s an icy wind blowing misty rain across the ground and I realise too late that I should have brought along a knee-rug. (This might be one of those coming-of-age moments where one acknowledges a new level of maturity, in this case the embrace of being an old codger.)

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I arrive just as Sydney Stack shimmies around a couple of opponents and spears through a lovely goal at the city end. Young Syd plays with such endearing confidence, and I can see why he’s so quickly become a crowd favourite. Meanwhile, the opposition go one man down when Coniglio collapses with a knee injury. My friend Mary tells me that ‘coniglio’ means ‘rabbit’ in Italian, so we’re disappointed now that we won’t get to make any Easter themed jokes about the Rabbit and the Egg contesting a loose ball on the half-back flank.
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Nevertheless, throughout the afternoon I greatly enjoy calling out Derek Eggmolesse-Smith’s excellent name whenever he gets the ball. (Incidentally, the atmosphere on level 2 does seem a bit too genteel, so I feel obliged to holler in my most raucous voice whenever the urge takes me.)
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The Tigers effectively win this game in the first quarter, kicking four goals to nil. Jack Riewoldt celebrates his return to the team with one of these, after marking a beautiful long pass from Tom Lynch. We see a few instances of this linking between our two big forwards throughout the afternoon and hope that this augurs well for the forthcoming ‘business end of the season’. The wet conditions don’t make it an ideal day for tall marking players but, despite this, Lynch pulls in a few rippers throughout the day. He’s such a big, strong unit, seemingly growing in confidence as the season goes on.
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I confess that I’ve been slow to warm to our prize recruit. I’ve been put off by his preppy good looks and by the shabby saga of his desertion of his former team, even though one can’t really blame anyone for wanting to depart the Gold Coast. But now I’m coming around. I have to admire the way he’s fronted up for every game of the season, even though he hardly trained in the lead up. He’s stuck to the task, and despite some flat patches, he now seems to be striking top form at precisely the right time.

Our team have their running game up and going, linking beautifully with handballs and deft kicks to take the ball the length of the ground. It’s only when we get inside our attacking 50 metre arc that things too often come undone, a failing lamented by the coach after the game. There’s always room for improvement.

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Momentum ebbs and flows throughout the remaining three quarters of the game, the opposition sometimes coming back at us before the Tigers inevitably respond and steady. Our lead gets out to six or seven goals at one stage, finishing up at around the same four-goal break we set up in the first stanza. For the GWS franchise Jeremy Cameron is always a threatening presence, and we’re glad he’s missing more shots at goal than he’s kicking. Toby Greene does an excellent job in his role as pantomime villain, the player we love to boo whenever he touches the ball. He touches the ball 34 times, so the pantomime has plenty of life throughout the afternoon. The best moment is where he gives away a (quite soft) free kick at the top of the Tigers’ goal square in the final quarter, gifting Titch Edwards a free goal immediately after Kane Lambert has snuck through a lovely curling banana from the forward pocket. I’m sad to see our one-time superstar Brett Deledio looking but a shadow of the player he once was. He’s still a stylish mover, but his ability to impact the game seems greatly diminished.

Less elegant but much more effective is our man Kane Lambert, stepping up on three occasions throughout the afternoon to kick vital goals that shift momentum back in a Tigerly direction. There’s nothing flashy about Lambert’s game but he’s a tireless worker, and I reckon he ends up being the best player on the ground.

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Our defenders are as staunch as we love them to be, combining beautifully to repel most opposition forays. (Reading the stats after the game I see that GWS narrowly won the inside 50 count, but the quality of our defence meant that they never ever looked like winning.) Bachar is in superb form, running the ball out of defence all afternoon, and Dylan Grimes puts in one of characteristically effective Inspector Gadget performances. I enjoy the Tigers’ mix of players that exude style and class – Shai Bolton being the most conspicuous in this match – and others that play the game in a less conspicuous but no less effective manner. Lambert might be the best example, but Prestia, Ellis and Broad also fall into this category. I have that feeling again that the Tigers are a really strong team, building momentum as a host of good players return from injury. The fact of a player as good as Josh Caddy running ‘round in the reserves this weekend reinforces the notion that we suddenly seem to have an abundance of talent. With several challenging games to come in the remainder of the season, we’ll soon know whether this optimistic perception is justified.
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Benny Votes
5. Kane Lambert
4. Tom Lynch
3. Bachar Houli
2. Dylan Grimes
1. Shai Bolton

Leaderboard

Houli 33
Martin 28
Edwards 22
Vlastuin 21
Grimes 20
Stack 18
Prestia 17
Lynch 16
Lambert 12
Ellis 11
Cotchin, Bolton 7
Castagna 6
Nankervis 5
Baker, Broad 4
Chol 3
Ross, Naish 2
Rioli, Balta 1

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There are some things about the annual Dreamtime Game that always impress me. I’ve attended a few of these matches over the years and loved encountering different Aboriginal mobs that have travelled from afar to attend the event. There’s a different kind of excitement amongst the crowd, with lots of people for whom a trip to the G is a very special event. One of the other things I admire is how the Dreamtime Round concept has worked to extend mainstream understanding of different Aboriginal cultures and identities. The fact that this land we call Australia actually encompasses a vast number of distinct Aboriginal cultures is still a novel concept for many people, so initiatives like the AFL’s indigenous players map are really valuable. (The 2018 edition can be accessed here)

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For this particular Tiges vs Bombers Dreamtime encounter I found myself in Perth, in the traditional land of the Whadjuk people. Parochial TV programming meant that the game wasn’t on free-to-air, so I was obliged to download the annoying AFL Livepass app. in order to watch the match on my phone. (Paying good money to listen to the boorish ramblings of James Brayshaw was too much to bear, so I watched the game sans audio.)
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Our boys in yellow jumped fast out of the blocks (a bit like Connor Menadue in last year’s Grand Final sprint), with manic ball movement and ferocious tackling that frequently caused panic amongst the mob in the red sash. It’s always exciting when our team is so clearly switched on right from the get go. Dan Butler’s tackle on Michael Hurley was a particular first-quarter highlight, as was Josh Caddy’s miraculous ability to repeatedly place himself in a dangerous position in front of goal.
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I didn’t mind seeing us concede a goal to the excellently named McDonald-Tipungwuti just before quarter time, but it was more alarming to see the Bombers stringing a few more sausage rolls together in fast succession in the second stanza. Happily, normal service then resumed and, from this point on, pretty much all the play ran in a Richmondly direction. The most exciting dimension of the Tiges’ game in 2018 is our ability to run in waves, moving the ball from one end of the ground to the other with breath-taking fluency. Titch Edwards is always one of the slickest cogs in the machine, and tonight he was simply magnificent. As usual, his handballs were lightning-fast, but in this game his foot skills were also exquisite. His deft soccer kick into the path of rampaging Josh Caddy late in the second quarter was truly spectacular – the play of the game, in my humble opinion. (Watching the replay on the AFL website afterwards, I was doubly glad to have watched the game without Bradshaw’s inane comments at this point.) It’s his ability to see opportunities and then to act in a split second that makes our Titch such an incredible player, often with the result that commentators are too slow to notice his sleight-of-hand manoeuvres. If he’s persistently underrated then this must be the reason why. Tonight though, there was no doubting his genius, and he was clearly best-on-ground.
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Menadue got to reprise his road-runner routine in the third quarter, sprinting down the corridor in open space and goaling on the run. Meanwhile, it was terrific to see Callum Moore playing with enough confidence to suggest he might actually be able to make the big leap from VFL to AFL footy. He looks to me like one of those blokes where the critical factor is all between the ears. If he really decides he belongs at his level then perhaps he can consistently play accordingly. The jury is still out, but tonight he was full of promise.
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Our back-end players were solid all night, and I was especially impressed with the attacking flair of Jayden Short and Reece Conca, both playing with Bachar-like dash. Coming into this game, the Bombers had looked like a resurgent team, but the match played out in manner where the gulf in class between our boys and theirs was just immense. It’s an exciting time to be a Tigers fan!
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Benny Votes
5: Shane Edwards, 4: Josh Caddy, 3: Alex Rance, 2: Nick Vlastuin, 1: Dustin Martin

Coming up next, the 2018 season wrap and the winner of the Benny is revealed.

The clapper got a good work out in the first half of the game!

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A FIRST-HALF BLITZ AT DORKLANDS

They do try to create a sense of occasion, those folk at the Dorklands stadium, but, really, it’s a hopeless task. This barn has all the atmosphere of a 24-hour chemist shop, complete with flat lighting and garish advertising, including, strangely enough, many a chemist shop commercial blaring from those large screens. (I’m sure I’m not the only person hankering nostalgically of that bygone era when the scoreboard was a big black box, inhabited by blokes in dustcoats opening and closing little hatches to arrange white painted numbers on bits of tin. Instead, we now have these monster televisions WITH THE SOUND ALWAYS TURNED UP TO ELEVEN.)

Anyway, after a whole lot of rigmarole with some poor bloke singing a song and playing his guitar alone in the middle of the paddock, and then some more guff where we were all encouraged to wave our mobile phones around in the dark, a football game eventually got underway. And it started well too, with one of the umpires being immediately bowled over in spectacular fashion by a stampede of leather hunters. I reckon that if you’re kitted out in a pea-green shirt and lime-green socks then, really, you’re asking for it. We all roared our appreciation of the moment.
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Way up on the top deck, where they send general admission ticket holders at the Dorklands, I was surrounded by Saints fans bitching and lamenting in much the same manner as us Tiger supporters were obliged to do for so many years in the not-too-distant past. Watching St.Kilda players commit error after error, I did feel the occasional sympathetic twinge. As we know only too well, a footy season can feel like a Siberian odyssey when it’s still only mid-July and your team is playing that badly.
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The advantage of the top deck vista is of course the ability to admire the spatial dynamics of the game. You can see how a good team can open the game up with a sharp diagonal kick that moves the ball forward but also creates space for teammates to run into. From this perspective, it’s easy to see one of the reasons that Dustin Martin is such a great player, regularly slicing the game open with sharp kicks across his body. Given that he’s working at ground level, without the perspective that I’m enjoying from the top deck, it’s amazing how he manages to do this so consistently. It’s a wondrous thing to behold. The other thing evident from high up is the remarkable endurance running of linking players like Prestia, Edwards and Lambert. They’re up and down, and across and back all evening, and the momentum maintained by Prestia especially in this match was fantastic.

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Meanwhile, I’m feeling sympathy for Jason Castagna who, attempting to redeem himself after last week’s horror show in front of the goals, came no closer to getting one to sail between the big sticks this time around. So much of this difficult and demanding game plays out above the shoulders, with the difference between a champ and a chump being a matter of confidence and belief. On the up side, I was happy to see Cotch, Higgins and Grigg bring up the two flags, given their failure to do so in recent times. I’m sure Castangna’s personal drought will break before too long.

This game was largely done by half time. The Tigers were magnificent in the first two quarters, managing to score with great efficiency. Given our tendency to waste so many opportunities in the forward zone of recent weeks, this was great to see. By contrast, much of the second half of the game was a far less exciting affair. The ball zinged up and down the ground, but both teams turned it over regularly and highlights were harder to find. Many of us were hankering for the mercy rule in the final stanza, by which time all fizz had gone out of the contest. Junk time seemed to extend for at least twenty minutes and, at Dorklands, that somehow feels like an eternity.

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Benny votes:

5. Dion Prestia
Incredible running, coupled with an ability to trap the hard ball and then get it out into space. One of those players whose best work is so quick that it’s sometimes easy to miss. Kicked three goals too, as well as another one that didn’t count ‘cause of an annoying call from one of those pesky boundary umpires in the ridiculous green outfits.

4. Dustin Martin
Dusty was back to his tackle-busting, scythe-kicking best. Made a few errors, but these were more than off-set by several moments of sheer football genius.

3. Jayden Short
Provided terrific run all night long, and executed many a beautiful, raking drop punt. Always seemed to pop up as one of the links in our most spectacular passages of play. (No goals this week but is he a back man after all, so we really can’t expect him to kick ‘em every week.)

2. Toby Nankervis
Fantastic mobility around the ground, ceaseless endeavour and quite a few surprising moments where he exhibited the agility of a man half his size.

1. Jack Riewoldt
Amazing athleticism and selfless team play, punctuated by four sausage rolls off his own boot.
Notable mentions to the rest of the backline (Grimes, Rance, Astbury, Vlaustin and Broad), all of whom performed glorious and courageous acts.

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