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Friday Night Lights – Qualifying Final v Geelong at the MCG

11/09/2017 By Sean Ross 6 Comments

There is a bunch of us Richmond supporters in our early 30s who have only known misery from their football club. We all have jobs, some have mortgages, some children. We generally get along OK in life and don’t ask for much other than to sit back on the weekend and observe a set of circumstances of which you have absolutely no control and enjoy it. We’ve adopted NRL, NBA, EPL and NFL teams and cheered when they won but deep down knew that we’d much prefer it to be Richmond. I even have a theory that Richmond supporters are the best at pretending they care when Victoria wins the Sheffield Shield and the only bridge too far is caring about who wins a Big Bash game.

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There is a bunch of us Richmond supporters in our early 30s who have only known misery from their football club. We all have jobs, some have mortgages, some children. We generally get along OK in life and don’t ask for much other than to sit back on the weekend and observe a set of circumstances of which you have absolutely no control and enjoy it. We’ve adopted NRL, NBA, EPL and NFL teams and cheered when they won but deep down knew that we’d much prefer it to be Richmond. I even have a theory that Richmond supporters are the best at pretending they care when Victoria wins the Sheffield Shield and the only bridge too far is caring about who wins a Big Bash game.

We’ve had glimpses, flashes and signs of promise but all have gone as quickly as they came. Last week’s build up to Friday didn’t feel like the other glimpses, it promised to be different. Richmond this year has had a calmness about it that has been missing during even the best of times in recent years, this wave of momentum feels timed and sustainable. It felt like it could have even survived a slip up on Friday and everything would still be OK.

But then the night came and the slip up didn’t.

For some reason, night games at the MCG just feel bigger. The backdrop of a night sky makes you feel like it’s the only thing happening in the world, and with 95,000 people watching on Richmond played like there was nothing else in the world. It was a delight to host Geelong at our home ground for such an occasion but weird they decided to leave their forward line back down the highway.

In the stands it was primal and on the ground it was savage, I’ve never heard such crowd noise nor seen such onfield pressure. When people have asked me how it was over the weekend I’ve only been able to mutter something about ‘really good and very loud’, that’s about where I am at for the moment.

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Chatting with Richmond fans in the lead up to the evening there were three scenarios:

  1. We shat the bed
  2. We played well and lost, or
  3. We played well and grinded it out.

Five minutes into the first quarter we were able to rule out door number one, but door number two was still a very real and scary option. Little did we know, and even less could we expect, that a door number four was on the horizon: we’d do it easy.

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During the match I was too terrified to process anything more than the scoreboard and Dusty having the ball but on watching the replay (three times and counting) there were loads of moments that jump off the screen.

I could write tens of thousands of words Demonblog style and break them down one by one, but few were better than Ellis clattering into Dangerfield in the second quarter. Both had eyes only for the ball and while Ellis was greeted by five or six mates urging him on, Cam Guthrie and his shocking haircut simply walked straight past Dangerfield as if it was the most basic of training drills. He was obviously preoccupied with getting the post match lines right in his head about how hard done by they were for having to travel 70 kilometres to play the biggest game of the year at a first world ground.

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All year long the praise for Richmond has been qualified and followed with ‘but they’ll need to find a second tall forward for the finals’. It would have been easy and must have been tempting to bring in Griff once we had a couple of runs under his belt. Instead Dimma and co stuck to the script and backed in the game plan.

The comparisons to the Bulldogs of last year have increased as the year progressed and will likely click into overdrive now that we are down to the last four. For me though the narrative is similar but the stories are very different. The Bulldogs took an unconventional forward line into the finals last year because of injuries, Hardwick has taken his unconventional forward line into the finals this year because it works.

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Jack and Nank deserve more love than they’ve received externally, as both continue to pull double and triple shifts to make the setup work. Jack plays both full and centre half forward and in an industry determined to measure key forwards only by goals kicked he offers a full suite of services. Nank’s worth is summed up through the words that are often muttered after his name in commentary ‘has worked tirelessly tonight’, that should be his nickname.

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Our season has been viewed through the prism of Dusty and on Friday, as he has many other times this year, he did the brilliant things that made the difference.

But this wasn’t a win placed solely on his shoulders, it was like a game of pool where 21 people set up the game winner for him and he knocked them in on a hot streak. With six minutes to go in the third quarter he’d been only fair and we were grinding it out, by the ten minute mark of the last quarter he’d gone for the throat and it was over. I’ve played pub pool with blokes like that, they’re off buying drinks and talking to girls and but manage to find their way back to the table and win the game when needed. You really want them on your team, and you hate playing against them.

Picking a Dusty highlight this year is like picking your favourite Rolling Stones song but the shake and bake on Tom Stewart and bounce down the wing is shooting quickly to the top of the charts. Who knows what is to come this season or for the next seven for that matter but the occasion and, my god, the noise when he took off down the wing will be very hard to top. The ball ended up with Prestia in the square, the siren went not long after and the decibel level shot off the charts again as they gathered for the huddle.

It was special moment in what was a very special night and Martin Scorsese makes the Richmond movie (or Dusty movie) that’s the bit he’ll play Gimme Shelter over.

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The last quarter was, to put it simply, perfect. The slow buildup maximised pressure and despite the fact we’d been the better team for just about the entirety, the lead was narrow enough for Dangerfield to have dragged back on his own if he stopped kicking it out on the full for a few minutes.

Nick Vlastuin on radio said that he wasn’t sure when to be happy and relax, which is fantastic to hear because none of us ever do so why should they really?

For me on the night, it was the Lambert goal which looking back at the replay is completely ludicrous given the time still to play out but given Geelong had kicked four goals for the night until then it was probably fair enough. Then the dam burst, only this time the flood of goals ruined their night instead of ours.

I don’t know how dam walls usually burst, but when it did everyone was lining up for a crack. Including the skipper, my goodness the skipper and his perfect hair, who hit a contested footy at pace and on the spin and kicked the goal that made up for three elimination finals.

The guy who has copped it from everywhere from years who now leads his band of brothers into a preliminary final. That was a moment I’ll never forget.

As covered by the RTT lads Friday night doesn’t even the ledger for the last thirty years, but the promise of the next three weeks hints at the debt being repaid and then some.

Two more.

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The votes [double points for finals]

10: Nick Vlastuin – Dusty blew them away but it was the first half of grinding that built the stage for him. He has been a very good player for a while now but this might have been the night the rest of the footy world took notice.

8: Dustin Martin – What is there left to say? He did it when it needed to be done, we’ve got the best midfielder in the league.

6: Alex Rance – ‘Taylor stitched up him a month ago’ they said. They probably should have played Taylor on Friday then. Wait, what? He was playing?

4: Dion Prestia – He’s never going to be the cleanest because of where he wins the ball, but he did the hard yards that we’d lacked in finals of recent years.

2: Josh Caddy – Fought hard early, run hard late and got one up over his own mob and extra points for obliterating Mackie in the second quarter. Our Mr September?

Deepest of apologies to the captain who I’d have loved to worked into the votes but I couldn’t manage it.
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Leaderboard

64: Martin
42: Cotchin
35: Rance
31: Grigg
18: Lambert, Houli
17: Riewoldt
16: Astbury, B. Ellis, Vlastuin
15: Grimes
13: Prestia
11: Nankervis
10: Riewoldt
8: Caddy
7: Rioli, Townsend
6: Castagna
5: Butler
3: McIntosh
2: Menadue
1: Bolton, Stengle, Graham

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2017: Caddy, Grigg, Hampson, Houli, Hunt, Nankervis, Maric, Miles, Prestia and Townsend.)
31: Grigg
18: Houli
13: Prestia
11: Nankervis
7: Townsend
8: Caddy

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2017: Shai Bolton, Dan Butler, Ryan Garthwaite, Jack Graham, Ivan Soldo, Tyson Stengle)
5: Butler
1: Bolton, Stengle, Graham

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot: for left footers
(Eligible 2017: Batchelor, Chol, Corey Ellis, Grigg, Nankervis and Houli).
31: Grigg
18: Houli
11: Nankervis


Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season
Potentially eligible 2017: Castagna, Chol, Moore, Stengle and Soldo.
6: Castagna
1: Stengle


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

126: Cotchin
105: Lambert
90: Grigg
89: Nankervis
85: Martin
84: Prestia
79: Rioli

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Sean Ross 11/09/2017Filed Under: benny, front

Benny Round 13 v Sydney at the MCG

23/06/2017 By Sean Ross Leave a Comment

Last time I was handed the keys to TTBB was after the most unlikely of Richmond performances as we peeled off a three quarter time deficit, running rampant in the last quarter against Melbourne. This time is seemingly straight out of the Richmond-Hardwick playbook, and the handback of what most clubs would deem a match winning lead.”
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The Predictability Factor

Last time I was handed the keys to TTBB was after the most unlikely of Richmond performances as we peeled off a three quarter time deficit, running rampant in the last quarter against Melbourne. This time is seemingly straight out of the Richmond-Hardwick playbook, and the handback of what most clubs would deem a match winning lead.

Unfortunately a lack of time this week means there won’t be any huge amount of analysis in this post, if you are after that then head over to The Roar for Cam Rose’s article about the Groundhog Day situation we find ourselves in.

What I will say is the sense of inevitability at the G on Sunday was all encompassing. We played some great footy in the first 45 minutes before Sydney worked us out, but once Lloyd turned the footy over and they scored late in the second quarter it seemed like we’d seen this movie before, more than a few times, and knew exactly how it was going to end.

From a glass half full approach, these things used to happen in a 20 minute burst (hello North Melbourne games) but Sydney took three quarters to achieve what we all knew was going to happen. Is that progress?

Sydney worked us out mid-stream and planned accordingly. I’m not the first person to observe forward structure is lacking, Jack is doing too much overtime and we need a second target. That Sydney team is big enough, ugly enough and have been around the traps long enough to adapt and force us to go up the wing, knowing that we didn’t have the get out option.

Things look like they might be a little bit different against Carlton on Sunday if we play Maric Snr, Ivvy isn’t going to be the great circuit breaker of our time but he should structure us up going forward and mean that it isn’t Jack or bust.

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My votes

5: Alex Rance – Sydney is my favourite Rance game of the year because it’s the one time we get to see him go full defensive against Buddy. I love Buddy, I will always love Buddy, but my goodness it was great to see Rance beat him senseless.

4: Trent Cotchin – All the attention is on Dusty but the captain is putting together a fine body of work in 2017 and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s leading the B&F. He ran himself into the ground in the last quarter to try and push back against the tide, unfortunatley he wasn’t able to overwhelm the Swans midfield on his own.

3: David Astbury – Not all that long ago we used to watch Astbury waiting for the worst and now he has learned from the best. The chatter will keep asking him for go forward but there is no way in my mind you split up that duo.

2: Josh Caddy – I assume when we pitched to Caddy the brief wasn’t ‘come to Richmond and play some kind of quasi CHF role’, other than Jack he was the only one who could hold the ball in a contest.

1: Shai Bolton – Little bit chuffed I get to give the first TTBB vote to Shai. He set us alight in the first quarter and it won’t be the last time. We got Bolton with the compensation pick for Vickery and in ten minutes he kicked as many goals as Ty has managed all year. Strap yourself in, he is going to be so much fun to watch.

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30: Cotchin
25: Grigg
24: Martin
22: Rance
12: Houli
10: Riewoldt
9: B. Ellis
8: Astbury
7: Conca
6: Grimes, Nankervis
5: Castagna, Astbury
4: Rioli
3: Lambert
2: Butler, Vlastuin, Prestia, Caddy
1: Bolton

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2017: Caddy, Grigg, Hampson, Houli, Hunt, Nankervis, Maric, Miles, Prestia and Townsend.)
25: Grigg
6: Nankervis
2: Prestia, Caddy

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2017: Shai Bolton, Dan Butler, Ryan Garthwaite, Jack Graham, Ivan Soldo, Tyson Stengle)
2: Butler
1: Bolton

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot: for left footers
(Eligible 2017: Batchelor, Chol, Corey Ellis, Grigg, Nankervis  and Houli).
25: Grigg
12: Houli
6: Nankervis


Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season
Potentially eligible 2017: Castagna, Chol, Moore, Stengle and Soldo.
5: Castagna


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

77: Cotchin
54: Lambert
51: Martin
48: Nankervis
45: Houli

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That happy moment when anything is possible.

Sean Ross 23/06/2017Filed Under: benny, front

Benny Round 5 v Melbourne, MCG

25/04/2017 By Sean Ross 9 Comments

It’s impossible to write about last night without mentioning the wonderful occasion the fixture has become. 85,000 isn’t just a crowd, it’s a bloody big crowd, and from my brief AFL Tables research this morning it’s the biggest home and away crowd Melbourne have played in front of since 1962.Though the evolution of Anzac Day into Anzac round sits uncomfortably and our role in it seems more than a little like an attempt to cash in, you can ignore that kind of attendance on a rainy Melbourne night so it isn’t like it’s going anywhere and I may as well embrace it. The fact it seems to annoy Eddie is just an added bonus.
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Votes and notes by Sean Ross, founder of The Benny
It’s impossible to write about last night without mentioning the wonderful occasion the fixture has become. 85,000 isn’t just a crowd, it’s a bloody big crowd, and from my brief AFL Tables research this morning it’s the biggest home and away crowd Melbourne have played in front of since 1962.

Though the evolution of Anzac Day into Anzac round sits uncomfortably and our role in it seems more than a little like an attempt to cash in, you can’t ignore that kind of attendance on a rainy Melbourne night. It isn’t like it’s going anywhere and I may as well embrace it. The fact it seems to annoy Eddie is just an added bonus.

You can’t fault the time and effort that has been put into the pre-match ceremony and the points of difference that are made available in a night time fixture. There is something magic about that many people sitting in the dark in silence during the Last Post with only their thoughts and reflections for company. Deafening silence is a weird concept but that’s the best way to describe it. That the same 85,000 people spent the next two hours screaming deliberate whenever the ball went near the boundary only adds to the importance of the silence before it.

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The game itself and, more importantly for this blog post, Richmond, finally lived up to the stage. For whatever reason we had stunk up games against Melbourne for the three years before, the first following Tom Hafey’s passing and then the two first chapters of this fixture. In three games we hit the fixture out of form, Melbourne hit the ball far harder and the scoreboard told the rest of the story. With an average margin of less than five goals, the collective scoreboards flattered us because we had never really got close to them.

In an era where players and teams are judged and analysed through efficiency, tackle counts and pressure acts the role of ‘bogey teams’ is under appreciated and if we dropped this one we were quickly headed to that area with Melbourne. Try and tell me Carlton weren’t in our heads for the first 4 years of this decade.

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So with all that water under the bridge, at three quarter time I sat in the Olympic Stand wondering why I’d put my hand up to do the TTBB votes against Melbourne of all teams. A team we hadn’t beaten for three years while they weren’t any good, and now that they’re OK it looked like we may never beat them again.

During the last break it was hard to see how we’d manage to roll over them. We needed to find four goals and stop them from scoring, to that point we’d managed only seven in 90 minutes and they’d had little trouble finding one in transition whenever we pressed up on them. Chatting to a mate I optimistically put the chances of us running over them at around the 10% mark, I figured something was up with Spencer given Watts had been rucking but I didn’t know Melbourne were two rotations down otherwise I would have bumped it up to around 25%.

What I hadn’t, nor had most Richmond folk on Twitter (by a reflective look at my Twitter timeline), factored in was that Melbourne, so incredibly chirpy until then, would shut up shop as soon we made a run at them.

How it progressed from there shows that sport is quite often not fair.

The (far) worse team for the first hour and half got a roll on and pinched it. Given the number of times we’ve been on the receiving end of that it shouldn’t have felt so good, but my goodness it did. When Jack kicked his last to put us in front and the heads of the Melbourne players dropped in unison there was an air of invincibility, that glorious feeling that you’ve just hit the lead and the other mob aren’t willing or able to grab it back. How many times have we been on the less fun end of that feeling?

I’m generally a pretty awful person when it comes to following sport. In most other aspects of life I’m perfectly nice, but the sight of thousands of MCC members heading for the car park after Caddy kicked the sealer provided enough warmth and joy to get me through a Siberian winter. Package up the video of that mass evacuation and put it on the club site and I’ll watch it more times than Dusty leaving Ted Richards sprawled on the turf at Homebush and flying into an open goal. Sit down and stick it out you pillocks, there was only two minutes left.

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They’re an interesting team Melbourne. They have a lot of really good young players but more than a few stinkers still hanging around, while we have less really good players but mostly our players are OK enough to get you through. What they are stacked to the gills with though is front runners, Jones and Viney are everything you want when things are going right: chippy, confident, fierce at the ball, ruthless and effective. They terrorised us at the clearances for three quarters (to the point where I can’t have been the only person wondering why we didn’t pick Miles. But they must both have either ran out of puff from not shutting up all night or headed off early to get a jump on the MCC members because I can’t remember seeing either in the last quarter, and to think our skipper is the one who cops grief. What they do have though is a couple of young midfielders coming through who are eye wateringly good. If they can keep Oliver and Petracca fit and developing they’ve got a platform to really cause some chaos in the years ahead, so even though the tables have turned for now I don’t expect this one to be a Brisbane like winning streak.

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It will be left for others to dissect the first three quarters so please forgive me for solely focussing on the final stanza and a few names jump off the page.

Houli provided clean hands and poise that had been lacking from anyone in a Richmond jumper. Hardly an effective line of possessions was strung together without his involvement. Dusty looked more than a little hobbled for the first three goals but either pushed the pain out of his mind, played through it or got an injection that I want in on and produced some of his finest bollocking when it was needed most. In defence Rance and Grimes owned the back half of the ground, let very little past and only let Hogan hit the scoreboard through intervention from officialdom.

Jack was the difference, and it had to be Jack, following three weeks of double time playing both full forward and centre half forward. It’s very rare that a 22 person team walks off the ground victorious and you can point at one person and say ‘they wouldn’t have won without them’. A few times a year Jack gets into a zone where he can do no wrong and it doesn’t matter who he’s playing on because he knows he is better than them. When Jack is in that zone it doesn’t matter how the ball comes in, he’ll zig and bring the ball to ground or zag and get it on the second grab. Not only would we not have won without Jack, we likely would have lost convincingly, because it would have been a whole lot more than a four goal margin at three quarter time to overcome.

When he’s in that zone he doesn’t miss, and that last set shot was kicked with ice running through his veins. I love him.

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We are quite spoiled as Richmond fans to play in front of so many big crowds despite a lack of success that rivals the French military, in just one of the last 11 years have we failed to have a game that has drawn more than 70,000 people. When Richmond kick a goal to the Punt Road end in front of a big crowd it’s like a drug, you want to tap that feeling and never let it go. If it’s that good from the stands I can only imagine what it’s like on the ground and, though I have nothing empirical to base this on, I can’t help but suspect that feeling is why we’ve managed to keep players over the years. You only have to hear Prestia speak to realise it’s a drawcard for those from elsewhere.

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So where does all that leave us now? I think it’s pretty clear that this isn’t a superstar 22 but they’ve committed to a game plan that, after years of schlepping 18 months behind Hawthorn, just might be ahead of the curve. For now we’ve beaten who we should and there isn’t a heap more you can do than beat the five teams you’ve been fixtured against in the first five rounds.

To me, it’s the first time since 2013 we are fun to watch. Winning lots of games in 2014 and 2015 was fun, but how we played wasn’t. Collectively the forward line is attacking the ball like men possessed and the mosquito fleet are mopping up anything that Jack misses. The midfield is a group again instead of just Dusty and Cotchin. The backline, who would have been within their rights to set up a picket line, start singing Solidarity Forever and refuse to go to work last year, are no longer constantly under siege. They have the time and space they need to defend but also attack.

Watch the club highlights from the last quarter, the five goals are the result of build up play up the ground. It may not have seemed it at the time given we were all emotional wrecks but they’re fun goals to watch. In the back half of last year every goal seemed to be a result of something resembling the suffragette movement. We had to beg, borrow, plead and fight for everything.

Now Shaun Grigg is palming off volleyball taps to Dusty as we peel off a four goal deficit in the last quarter in front of 85,000 people. More of that please.

Of the new guys, neither Caddy or Prestia has set the world on fire but their impact is felt across the 22, as they release Dusty forward, Cotchin doesn’t have to be at the bottom of every pack and Caddy in particular has a very happy knack of kicking goals at important times despite Luke Darcy bottling the call.

Big Nank was a cult hero before he played a game because he attacks the ball with a ferocity we’ve lacked. His rucking is a developing art and bigger tests from opposition will come. When he gets touched up by more established players, and he will, it will be important to remember that he is yet to click over 20 games.

These three arrivals combined with the emergence of Butler and Castagna mean there is also something resembling depth at the club. Not so much in the key forward stocks but we have midfielders, half back flankers, half forwards, small forwards, rucks and defenders ready to go if and when called upon. It’s a long season and we’ll need them.

Chances are that Adelaide will get away from us and the ‘who have they beaten?’ chorus will quickly transition to ‘reality check’.

And you know what? You can’t really blame the media. The big four sell papers, deliver traffic and for a good while now we’ve been the only one of the big four you’d walk across the road for if they were playing across the street. It’s better to be talked about than ignored.

We are 5 and 0, and we aren’t going to win the flag but we’ll have some fun trying.

Embrace it, thrive on it, enjoy it.

Go Tigers.

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The votes

5: Jack Riewoldt: Could it have been anyone else? Until now he has saved his very worst for Melbourne, but this was his very best.
4: Bachar Houli: A beacon of calmness and poise when everything around him was chaos.
3: Dylan Grimes: Last on the stats sheet but far from last in effectiveness, killed everything that came near him.
2: Alex Rance: He even started doing that thing where he beats forwards senseless and then out marks them for added humiliation, paired up with Astbury to brain Hogan.
1: Toby Nankervis: Wasn’t playing against much but that’s hardly his fault, his tap work in the last quarter was sublime and his silver service to Cotchin helped set up Jack’s sealer.

With thanks to the TTBB crew for letting me dust off the keyboard!


The Benny Leaderboard:
14: Grigg
9: Martin, Cotchin
7: Conca, Houli
6: Riewoldt
5: Castagna, Nankervis
3: Grimes
2: Butler, Vlastuin, Rance
1: Prestia, Rioli, B. Ellis

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: for players who have joined Richmond from another club
(Eligible 2017: Caddy, Grigg, Hampson, Houli, Hunt, Nankervis, Maric, Miles, Prestia and Townsend.)
14: Grigg
5: Nankervis
1: Prestia

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: for anyone who was yet to debut before round 1
(Eligible 2017: Shai Bolton, Dan Butler, Ryan Garthwaite, Jack Graham, Ivan Soldo, Tyson Stengle)
2: Butler

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot: for left footers
(Eligible 2017: Batchelor, Chol, Corey Ellis, Grigg, Nankervis  and Houli).
14: Grigg
5: Nankervis


Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:
upgraded from the rookie list during the current season
Potentially eligible 2017: Castagna, Chol, Moore, Stengle and Soldo.
5: Castagna


Maurice Rioli Grip of Death Trophy:
The club’s top tackler, across AFL and VFL teams
28: Cotchin
22: Vlastuin
22: Prestia
21: Grimes
19: Martin

Sean Ross 25/04/2017Filed Under: benny, front

Benny Round 8 v Sydney at MCG

17/05/2016 By Sean Ross 1 Comment

Votes and notes this week by Sean Ross, originator of The Benny. What a difference a shot after the siren can make, hey? I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve gone from draft watching back to the trusty ladder predictor all on the back of a 49 metre kick at goal. Didn’t Lloyd club it? As soon as it left the boot it was never missing, quite the achievement after two hours of playing against Sydney.

Votes and notes this week by Sean Ross, originator of The Benny

What a difference a shot after the siren can make, hey? I don’t know about anyone else but I’ve gone from draft watching back to the trusty ladder predictor all on the back of a 49 metre kick at goal.

Didn’t Lloyd club it? As soon as it left the boot it was never missing, quite the achievement after two hours of playing against Sydney.

We won without Cotch and weren’t reliant on Deledio, Dusty and Jack to get us over the line, though each were very good.

Maybe that’s the win that gets things going, and maybe it isn’t. I’m inclined to side with the later option but I’d love to be incorrect.

Right now I’d love them to be fronting up at the G again this weekend but alas, we are off to Perth to front a wounded Freo.

My votes:

5: Ben Griffiths. It was the game we hoped he had in him, but I’d given up on ever seeing. He hit the ball hard, worked back towards goal and kicked truly. Maybe Sheeds’ 50 game apprenticeship rule still holds true. 

4: Brett Deledio. He threw his hat in the ring to be captain, and I suspect he enjoys running out as skipper whenever he gets the chance because he sure played like one. Got us going from the very start and don’t we look a better team with him playing well.

3: Jack Riewoldt. As much as I love watching dual Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt play, I am thoroughly enjoying future Brownlow medallist quasi half forward midfielder Jack Riewoldt. If Griff (or Ty) can become the guy full time, Jack will be able to do more of it.

2: Shaun Hampson. Stats wise unimpressive, but hit outs and presence wise in the middle he was immense. He’s playing like a guy who is the first choice ruckman in a team for the first time in his career.

1: Dustin Martin. Hasn’t he worked into the season nicely? I’d love to see him up forward more often and that might be possible with Cotchin back, but he has assembled a very nice body of midfield work over the last few weeks.

Unluckiest: Anthony Miles, didn’t stop getting the footy.

Unlucky: Alex Rance, another great battle with Buddy and his last few minutes were better than sex but Buddy still managed to get five goals on him.

The Benny
22: Riewoldt
11: Cotchin, Rance, Houli
10: Martin
8: Miles
7: Hampson
6: Lloyd, Deledio
5: Lambert, Castagna, Griffiths
3: Townsend, Short, C. Ellis
2: Rioli
1: B. Ellis

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award
11: Houli
8: Miles
7: 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 our beef industry correspondent Corbo.

 

Sean Ross 17/05/2016Filed Under: benny, front

The Benny has a new home

22/03/2016 By Sean Ross 1 Comment

Important note: If you are looking for the TL:DR version, flick on down to the bottom for a very special announcement regarding The Benny.

To paraphrase our dear leader: ‘There has never been a stranger time to be a Richmond supporter’.

Undoubtedly this is the best Richmond playing list in my lifetime. The 1995 and 2001 versions were plucky and courageous, but great sides they were not. In 2013 we were growing, in 2014 we had growing pains and in 2015 we had built but the foundations proved a little shaky.

Hardwick is outwardly emotional but manages to keep his strategic cards frustratingly close to his chest. Looking at the makeup of the playing list, I can’t help but think the end game of his rebuild was the 2016-18 stretch. That isn’t to say that we’ll fall off a cliff after, rather if it’s happening, it’s happening in the next 36 months.

So, why am I not looking forward to this season? Because we’ve been to the well three times, and the well has been dry. We aren’t even little Timmy who nobody believed was in the well, we just upped and threw ourselves down it from an extraordinary height. Whatever you do, don’t watch that. No really, don’t.

I’m going to try and unpack a few of the reasons why this season is going to be super strange.

Although I wouldn’t have done it, I can see a few reasons why they got in early and re-signed Hardwick before a ball was bounced in anger. This is all assuming that 16 other clubs weren’t ringing his agent 24/7 to pinch him from us, 16 because we know that Collingwood are thrilled to pieces with Bucks. Watch that one, it’s much more fun.

Firstly, he and the playing group are ludicrously tight. They obviously look up to him as a mentor, leader and friend. Can’t you just feel old school coaches cringing? He’s very much part of the new generation of coaches who know how to work with Gen Y. Yelling, screaming and demanding people be better (hi Brendon Goddard) has, thankfully, gone the way of the dodo. A coaching contract is hardly a bullet proof vest, but it will shield Hardwick and the players from from old mate Robbo. His impact on us not losing anyone of note to date from free agency should also not be ignored.

Secondly, it just might be that he can coach. I know it sounds crazy but stick with me here? After inheriting an absolute train wreck of a list in 2010, Richmond have gone 52-38 over the last four years, hardly a shambolic strike rate. Three actual finals and two games against Melbourne who treat games against us like their grand final aside, his record stacks up.

So again, why aren’t we more excited? Because it’s all a phony war until we one that counts.

The most frustrating is that right now, with this list, we shouldn’t be aiming at simply cracking week two. There should be bigger fish to fry, but I’d be stoked to find a yabby.

Most definitely how we didn’t want to start the year was by doubling down on insecurities with an early season injury purge. Learning to win without Lids won’t be a bad thing but I’d have preferred to do that in round 18 rather than round one. Nor is our only (Shaun Hampson revival pending) viable ruck option limping into the season with a tight 30 year old back. Throw in Yarran, Conca and Grigg and that’s hardly flying out of the blocks in good health after three years of relatively good luck in that space unless your name is Chris Knights.

The glass half full view of things is that it is potentially a chance for the group to develop something that has proved to be lacking – resilience.

Rightly, wrongly or somewhere in between. The one person who won’t benefit from Hardwick’s contract extension is Cotchin. 2016 shapes as a referendum on his captaincy, a brutal examination for a 25 year old still finding his way. Against all the evidence that suggests otherwise (workload, injuries as a kid, played his best footy four seasons ago) I think (hope?) he’ll find his groove again. It’s undoubtable that the captaincy comes unnaturally to him but nine possessions in front of 90,000 people can’t have sat well with him over the summer.

For some reason the narrative of the pre-season is that 2016 will be an even one with 13 teams gunning for the eight.

For mine it’s going to be anything but that. A huge number of teams are either embarking on or still working their way through a rebuild and Father Time dictates that the real big dogs have to start coming back to the pack.

If they’re up for it, there is a chance Richmond can crack the top four of the ladder and then god help us find themselves in a prelim.

The question is, are they up for it?

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

The future of The Benny

Way back in 2013 I took the Internet and started writing about Richmond, taking inspiration from the always brilliant Demonblog.

For the 9 people reading back then you’ll remember that I started off with a particularly weird and ultimately confusing voting setup that didn’t include Cotchin, Deledio, Riewoldt or Martin. The only logical explanation is that I was six pints deep when I thought up such a niche system and when 2014 I promptly ditched it in favour of somewhere where I could give votes to, you know, the best players on the team.

The highlight of this was when some bloke jumped on Twitter and called me a blind *%$ (the really bad one) after Jack kicked seven against St Kilda and I didn’t give him any votes.

Some weeks were easier to find time to write than others and all was going relatively well until Sunday 13 September 2015. After North beat us I opened the laptop more than once but just couldn’t type anything. The site still sits there waiting to be updated, but it’s not coming.

Unfortunately work means that I can’t commit to doing the site justice on a weekly basis this year. But after chatting to Chris and Dugald, I’m stoked that TTBB will be crowdsourcing The Benny for 2016 and beyond. My only condition was that I could come by and do a week every now and then, though I’ll have to work really hard to get Ricky Petterd into the votes seeing he has retired.

If you are ever thinking about kicking off a writing habit on the Internet then I couldn’t be a bigger advocate. Even better if you don’t have illusions of being one of the 45 sports journalists in paid work from 2020 onwards, it’s way more fun when you aren’t worried about the person reading being on the other side of a job interview in the near future.

But for it to roll over, I suppose that means I have to put the full stop on last year’s votes. Over the weekend I sat through the game for the first time, which I wouldn’t suggest to anyone, and came up with the below.

5: Jack Riewoldt
4: Anthony Miles
3: Dustin Martin
2: Alex Rance
1: Chris Newman

With finals votes counting for double the final tallies ended up as….

Leaderboards

The Benny
37: Dustin Martin
33: Anthony Miles
31: Alex Rance
27: Jack Riewoldt
26: Trent Cotchin
25: Bachar Houli
23: Brett Deledio
18: Shaun Grigg
17: Taylor Hunt
16: Shane Edwards
15: Brandon Ellis
13: Nick Vlastuin
12: Troy Chaplin
9: Kane Lambert and Ty Vickery
8: Dylan Grimes, Ivan Maric and Kamdyn McIntosh
6: Jake Batchelor
5: Ben Lennon and Chris Newman
3: Ben Griffiths
2: Sam Lloyd
1: Steven Morris and Shaun Hampson

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award
33: Anthony Miles
25: Bachar Houli
18: Shaun Grigg
17: Taylor Hunt
12: Troy Chaplin
8: Ivan Maric
1: Shaun Hampson

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player
9: Kane Lambert
8: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot
25: Bachar Houli
18: Shaun Grigg
12: Troy Chaplin
6: Jake Batchelor
5: Chris Newman

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal
9: Kane Lambert

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

And all that leaves the honour board:

The Benny
2015: Dustin Martin
2014: Brandon Ellis

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award
2015: Anthony Miles
2014: Anthony Miles

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player
2015: Kane Lambert
2014: Sam Lloyd

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot:
2015: Bachar Houli
2014: Bachar Houli

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal
2015: Kane Lambert
2014: Anthony Miles

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

In short, eligibility criteria for the medals are as follows:

The Benny: free-for-all.

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award: have to have joined Richmond from another club.
Eligible 2016: Chaplin, Grigg, Hampson, Houli, Hunt, Maric, Miles, Townsend and Yarran.

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player: not just new draftees but anyone who is yet to debut before the start of this season.
Eligible 2016: Broad, Butler, Castagna, Chol, Marcon, McKenzie, Moore, Rioli, Short and Soldo.

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot: for the leftys of the group, and not talking politically.
Eligible 2016: Batchelor, Chaplin, Grigg and Houli roll over from last year but will need to check footed status of new players and update down the track.

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal: upgraded from the rookie list during the current season.
Eligible 2016: Castagna, Chol, Marcon, Moore, Short and Soldo.

Sean Ross 22/03/2016Filed Under: benny, front

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