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Richmond coach Terry Wallace’s final AFL match in charge ended with a whimper as his former club the Western Bulldogs stormed to a 68-point win at Etihad Stadium on Friday night.
The Bulldogs strengthened their hold on a top four berth with the 24.13 (157) to 14.5 (89) victory, as they booted 13.7 to 2.3 in the second half to overturn a two-point deficit.
It gave Wallace his 60th loss from 99 matches at the helm of the Tigers over four-and-a-half seasons, with one of his assistants to be named as caretaker coach on Saturday.
The Tigers players gave their coach brief hope of finishing his career with an upset win with a stunning finish to the first half.
After trailing by 27 points at the 25 minute mark of the second term, Richmond found some unexpected spark to pour on five goals in eight minutes to end the half with their nose in front.
Their burst came courtesy of a burst of midfield dominance, with Daniel Jackson and Nathan Foley winning the ball out of the centre several times in quick succession.
But, as has been Richmond’s story in many of their matches this season, their competitiveness faded after the long break.
The Bulldogs were clearly fired into action by their late first-half lapse, coming out with far greater intensity in the third term.
They piled on 7.4 to 0.2 in the third term to take a 42-point lead at the last change and force Wallace to enter his last quarter as an AFL coach with next to no hope of victory.
The Bulldogs took charge in all areas of the ground.
Tagger Liam Picken, who had blanketed Richmond star Brett Deledio in the first half, compounded the damage to the Tigers when Deledio started the second half in defence.
Picken snuck away from Deledio to kick two of the first three goals of the quarter.
Midfielders Daniel Cross and Ryan Griffen, who both had quiet first halves, both made big contributions to the match-breaking onslaught, as did pacy little man Jarrod Harbrow with prolific run and drive from halfback.
Griffen set up the second goal of the term with a weaving run through the midfield, followed by a pin-point pass to Mitch Hahn.
He scored the fourth himself with a 55m bomb after the Tigers coughed up the ball coming out of defence.
It was one of three goals the Bulldogs scored for the quarter through Richmond’s inability to move the ball out of their backline, with the Tigers wilting under the Dogs’ fierce defensive pressure across the ground.
While the Tigers scored the first goal of the last term, the Dogs responded with the next four to cruise home.
Midfielders Matthew Boyd and Adam Cooney were solid contributors throughout the night for the Bulldogs, while young midfielder Shaun Higgins made a handy contribution with three first-half goals and Josh Hill kicked four, including three in the last term.
Wallace said while he would have liked a fairytale finish, the pain of losing was not as great when he knew he would no longer be coaching.
“I don’t think I’m quite as ashen-faced tonight as when I’ve sat in this (press conference) room on quite a few occasions over the last few years,” he said.
“When you’re trying to keep it together and it’s your livelihood and you’re fighting the fight and riding every bump with the guys and trying to impact it as much as you possibly can, it’s a draining experience.
“Tonight wasn’t that … you knew there wasn’t realistically sheep stations hanging on the end of it.”
Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said his men slackened off slightly before halftime, but regrouped during the break.
“I thought our pressure really dropped off, I didn’t think we won contested ball and that last 15 minutes of the second quarter we were out-tackled,” Eade said.
“That was something that we didn’t want to happen, so we spoke about that as a team that we need 22 contributors, we need to work together and for each other.
“I think that dropped away, I think a few players when we got four goals up were fanning out and hoping to get on the end of it and getting away from the way we wanted to play.”
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