The Tigers left their run for September spectacularly late last year.
After Round 13, they were a miserly 3-10 and, in true Tiger fashion the patience of the yellow and black faithful was running thin.
But then things began to turn around. Damien Hardwick’s boys made as desperate a lunge to the final eight as Red Cadeaux and Dunedin to the winning post in the 2011 Melbourne Cup.
Like Dunedin, the Tigers made the cut, beating the Swans by three points in Round 23 to scrape into the finals. Unfortunately, the dream came to an end the following week at the hands of a belligerent Port Adelaide.
It appeared that Richmond had played their final the week beforehand and were content to just be a part of the finals.
If Richmond are to be competitive in September in 2015, they will need to bring their A game from the first bounce of the season opener against Carlton on Thursday.
The Tigers showed that they have the skill and capability to win games in the second half of 2014, beating Port Adelaide, West Coast, Adelaide, Sydney and Essendon. These are good teams, and the wins against Adelaide and West Coast were impressively fought out at the fortresses of the Adelaide Oval and Patersons Stadium.
It just goes to show that when teams have nothing to lose they are often at their most dangerous, because they play their natural brand of football.
The much-maligned Jack Riewoldt was criticised for letting his tongue slip, blaming the Tigers’ patchy start to 2014 on Richmond’s attempt to play in the mould of premiers Hawthorn. The next week he responded with an 11-goal haul against Greater Western Sydney.
When Riewoldt’s back was against the wall, he, like Richmond in the latter half of 2014, responded.
At an individual and team level, then, Richmond know they are capable of bettering their 2014 season. And bettering it they must.
If not for the fans – who must age a decade every time they watch their beloved Tigers – for Alex Rance, Richmond’s All-Australian defender, who is yet to re-sign at the club.
After an outstanding 2014, Rance looms as one of the biggest trade stories of 2015. His refusal to extend his contract at Richmond has many believing he is seeking to move to a more successful club, in the same way James Frawley left Melbourne for Hawthorn.
Richmond cannot afford to lose Rance. At 25, he is entering the peak of his career and still has lots of football ahead of him. But if Rance is to stay at Richmond, he needs to be part of a happy and successful team from the beginning of 2015.
Only then will he be persuaded to re-sign.
If Richmond leave their run to the finals as late as they did last year, not only do they risk losing their first final as emphatically as they did against Port Adelaide, they risk losing their only All-Australian player from 2014.
It’s too big of a risk to take.
Like many Melburnians, I’ll be making my way to the MCG for the season opener to see Richmond take on Carlton. With all of the off-field pre-season drama shrouding the start of the 2015 home-and-away season, the opening bounce could not come a minute sooner.
Richmond will start as favourites, but recent history between the two teams suggests a Tiger win is not a certainty.
In Round 2 last year, Richmond looked to be comfortable winners against Carlton, but ended up watching their 37-point lead shrink to 1 point in the final quarter, before steadying to win by two goals.
I needn’t remind Richmond fans of the club’s deflating 2013 elimination final loss to Carlton, the team that finished outside of the eight but replaced the disqualified Essendon.
Hopefully the scoreboard reads a little differently at the end of Thursday night’s game. If not for the fans, if not for that brilliant theme song, for Alex Rance.
The Tigers can’t afford to lose because they can’t afford to lose their All-Australian defender. And he needs a reason to stay.
Darren
Guest
Macca - Rowe will play 2nd ruck. Defence rotates when he needs to do this. I also thought Casboult would play but I'm hopeful it is a sign of the new standards they are saying they have all committed to. At the moment he is obviously not seen to be in the best 22. Tonight we'll see how well the coach and playing group are gelling. Noises have been very positive all summer.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Sorry Macca, I should allow for your apparent undernourished sense of irony and impaired self-awareness and guess that'd you see gentle pokes at your Carlton proclivities as red rags for an argument. I presume they're not your fault. Although you gotta admit you do love to get on the painters whites, set-up the scaffolding and bring in the buckets of navy blue paint to most discussions you get involved in.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Once the season proper is underway (so from my next column on) that'll be my gig, Macca. Look out for it Tuesday week.
Macca
Guest
I have had a couple of articles published on here Ryan but in all honesty I never for a second contemplated that we wouldn't see an article on the Carlton Richmond game today. I understand the impact of the ASADA investigation but as I mentioned earlier we had Cam Rose calling on us to move on and discuss football but in the 15 expert article published since we have had 10 on ASADA and none on this or any other game of football. And up until Dalgety got involved I was nowhere near rage - just suggesting that maybe some game analysis might be warranted.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Macca I don't want to feed your rage by giving you an excuse, but here goes. To the best of my knowledge, the expert pieces for this week were delayed because of the handing down of the AFL Tribunal verdict on the Essendon case. Good luck talking about anything football-related on Tuesday, and it spilled into Wednesday. So if you want to blame anyone, blame Steven Dank. Either that, or you could try your hand at writing?
Macca
Guest
No nothing about what people should post, just an observation that on a site where we discuss the game of football a discussion about a game of football might be nice. If thats getting on "my horse" well I am happy to wear it. Now why don't you tootle back off to the love in - I think its your turn to apply the baby oil.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Macca I have no objection to you posting (within reason…no, no irony intended) what you want, where you want to, and that is the nub of it. You are the one who started getting on your horse about what people should post and what is a more valid thread, were you not?
Macca
Guest
Well Dalgety - given my posts and the responses to them are about the game tonight they would be removed with all the other posts about the game tonight. I am not forcing people to discuss the game nor am I having a conversation about tonight game with myself. In reality - Milo posted about tonights game, I responded, we had a conversation, TomC joined in that conversation and everyone was happy - except you. We also had Cam mention tonights game, I responded, & Neil joined in and then we had Greg mention tonights game to which no one responded (sorry greg) - so other than me venting my frustration about how disappointing it is that we have no roar expert article discussing the first game of the season there isn't any threads that I started that discuss tonights game. I do love the way you accuse me of making this thread all about Carlton while only wanting to post about my posts - are things that dull over at the Freo love in!
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
...and the count minus your posts and responses to them?...
Macca
Guest
Ohh you mean the article that was just ripped from AAP so in depth it listed the key match up as being between Alex Rance & Levi Casboult! Hmm Why hasn't that article attracted more discussion on the game? And I am not the only person who has started a discussion on tonight game here nor willfully joined in - as a quick count would indicate there are far more posts discussing tonights game than discussing free agency or Rances furture - which would indicate there aren't that many people wanting to discuss the bigger picture
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
No the preview panel article from today, which focuses solely on the Tigers & Cartlon game, which has one poster - a certain poster called Macca. I think if we take your posts and responses to out of any thread you get involved in Macca, it probably would reduce the post numbers substantially. But just maybe most people (outside of Richmond and Carlton supporters) don't care all that much about the preview of tonights game and at this stage are more interested in a broader picture in anticipation of the season to come. My comment on disrespect was a tongue in cheek response to the one you posted to Ryan Buckland, which centred around highjacking. Sailed right past you did it? And here I was thinking the winky-face would've given it away.
Macca
Guest
You mean the preview panel article from 2 days ago that despite discussing every game (therefore appealing to every possible fan) has attracted just 21 posts? I suppose what I find strange is that we have had numerous season previews, ladder predictions and top player lists all in anticipation of the season starting (we even had a article from Cam tellling us to stop focusing on ASADA and start talking about the game) and here we are just hours from the season starting, with just 1 game tonight and no game tomorrow and our experts want to talk about the prospect of Rance walking out on the Tigers and rehashing are Freo really too old - come one where is the actual game analysis? I can't see how an honest critique and a natural progression is disrespectful of Sarah. And if you remove the posts discussing tonight game from this thread (and our exchange) how many are left?
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Isn't that being disrespectful to Sarah? ;) Oh and the preview panel article provides a perfect place for discussing that game for those who want to.
Macca
Guest
That's exactly my point Dalgety - here we have the first game of a new season, the only game being played before Saturday arvo and this is the closest thing we have to an article discussing the game? I'm not making this thread about Carlton either, Milo, Cam Rose, myself & others have discussed the game tonight, which would seem a reasonably natural progression from what in all honesty is a fairly banal article about the Tigers need to win early games to encourage Rance to stay. If we can't find something better to talk about than players possibly leaving their clubs 12 hours out from the start of the season then God help us.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Maybe you can go over to that other thread and try and make it about Carlton too Macca?
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
I thought free agency was primarily to allow players greater say in where they play.
Macca
Guest
Me too TomC.
TomC
Roar Guru
He'd know better than me.
Macca
Guest
TomC - On this topic earlier in the week Cameron Rose had Grimes going to Menzel, Rance on Henderson and Chaplin to Casboult which left Batchelor on Jones - I was just taking his word for it. If we did go with Grimes on Jones he would give up 5cm & 9kg. Looking at the match ups you have listed reinforces my opinion - they all look pretty good for Richmond - however if you throw Casboult into the mix the blues get some nice mismatches going with Jone, Everitt/Bell and Menzel.
TomC
Roar Guru
Grimes or Chaplin, I'd think. As it is I suspect Rance will go to Henderson, Chaplin to Jones, and Grimes to mark Everitt or Bell when they're forward, and otherwise play loose. Although Hardwick might be tempted to send Rance to Jones. You'd back Rance to work well off him. Batchelor might play on Menzel. From memory the Tigers like to keep things loose at the back, though. Each forward might have multiple matchups at different times.