GWS and Richmond: Opposites attract

In an AFL season where being surprised is the only constant, the most predictable outcome – GWS occupying a top two spot on the ladder – has come to pass, and the Giants look more dangerous by the week as we get closer to finals.

You don’t get a prize for putting GWS up the top in your preseason predictions – but hands up if you had Richmond sitting in third after Round 20. I can see one of you there, all the way in the back. And, sir, I think you’re lying.

The two clubs are connected in the form of Brett Deledio.

Deledio left Richmond last year, ostensibly to chase premiership glory in his footballing dotage after 12 excellent years at Tigerland for nary a finals win. He was to add another layer of experience and class to a Giants list already overflowing with both.

Missing the first 19 rounds of the season meant that we were yet to see how Deledio would fit in at GWS, presumably as a high half-forward, pinch-hitting as a versatile option leading from the goal square with the odd run off half-back.

We got a taste of what’s to come when he made his Giants debut against Melbourne on the weekend. His impact was okay. GWS would have won without him, but they looked all the more ominous for his presence in arguably their most complete performance of the year. It probably wasn’t a coincidence.

Deledio’s reputation at Richmond was of the highest calibre. For years it seemed the Tigers simply couldn’t win with him out of the side, or at least not against any team of substance.

To emphasise the point in 2016, Deledio played only 11 games for six wins. Without him Richmond lost nine of 11. In 2015 the Tigers won 14 of 18 with Deledio but only one of five when he missed. The stats did not read kindly for 2017 with him no longer on the list.

In many ways, though, Richmond are the anti-GWS. We could talk about the long, proud history of the Tigers, steeped in VFA and VFL traditions. We could talk about the soulless AFL franchise, the Giants.

(Image: AAP Image/Joe Castro)

GWS were handed priority selections and high draft picks when entering the competition right at the time when Richmond were at their most vulnerable, languishing at the bottom of the ladder. The Giants were preordained for success, almost as an executive order from the AFL. The Tigers have been the least successful team of the last 30 years.

GWS have the gilt-edged list dripping in the quality of midfield dynamos, silkily skilled running half-backs and a third-string key forward in Rory Lobb that would be the number-one man at many other clubs. Richmond had Ivan Soldo as its best option in the goal square on Saturday.

On the field the Giants and Tigers have diametrically opposed game styles.

GWS love nothing more than to cut opposition sides to ribbons with their blazing run-and-carry from half-back and through the midfield. Williams, Wilson and Shaw, feeding Kelly, Ward, Shiel, Coniglio, Whitfield and Scully, among others. When on, they make the ball sing and dazzle us with their pinpoint precision and perfect weight. They want to be good and, just as importantly, look good.

Richmond has risen to third on the back of grit and graft. With an understanding that the most dangerous football of the best teams is created from the back half, they have quadrupled down on forward pressure. They get the ball in quickly, directly and often dirtily – by any necessary means. But once in they give opposition defenders hell and no time or space to rebound with.

GWS were missing Jeremy Cameron, Jon Patton and Toby Greene in their win over Melbourne and still almost topped 100. Gulp. Richmond were missing Jack Riewoldt and still almost did the same against Hawthorn.

Good sides find a way to win when covering for their best players. Great sides can still look good doing it.

Clearly the Tigers are not a great side yet. The Giants are on track to be. One of the oldest axioms in footy is that a champion team will always beat a team of champions. The Western Bulldogs showed GWS this in their stirring preliminary final win last year.

This September we might just see Richmond get their chance to do the same.