So Richmond end the decade as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the AFL, much as Geelong ended the noughties in the exact same fashion.
The similarities between this incarnation of the Tigers and the Cats of back then are eerie.
Mark Thompson became head coach of Geelong in 2000, just as Damien Hardwick did at Richmond in 2010.
Both coached their sides to three finals series in their first six years, but without ever threatening for the flag. In 2005, the Cats finished fifth after the finals series. In 2015, the Tigers finished fifth after the home-and-away rounds.
The future was bright, and they were two sides on the rise.
But the seventh years in charge for both Thompson and Hardwick were their worst.
In 2006, Geelong actually won their first two matches and were on top of the ladder. Four losses in a row followed, and they plummeted out of the eight, where they remained for the rest of the season. It was the era of Sydney Swans and ugly footy – and the brightness had gone out of their game.
For Richmond in 2016, it was even worse. After their standard opening-round win against Carlton, it was then six losses in a row for the Tigers. They never rose higher than 11th in a season where they played some of the most unattractive football imaginable.
A decade apart, calls for the sackings of both coaches were loud and frequent. Board challenges were mounted. Newspapers ran out of ink with the frenzied coverage. Each day brought a new angle. The fan-bases, starved of premierships for multiple decades, were demanding change.
Read: Cam Rose in 2016: Damien Hardwick must go
Read: Josh Elliott in 2016: Hardwick might get the chop
Ever since the inception of the VFL in 1897, and subsequently the AFL from 1990, sacking coaches has been as much a part of football as kicks and handballs. More often than not, it was a blood sport.
Coaches never got seven years to take their teams into premiership contention, especially when they failed to make the finals in their most recent campaign. Bomber and Dimma were surely gone.
But the leadership at Geelong and Richmond were made of sterner stuff. Stability was the buzzword each time. Frank Costa and Brian Cook backed Thompson in, as did Peggy O’Neal and Brendon Gale with Hardwick.
The respective football departments were re-shaped. Neil Balme was brought in both times to head them up. The senior coaches kept their jobs. Their focus was narrowed. They could go back to doing what they were good at.
At the Cats, Gary Ablett Jr was told in no uncertain terms he was nowhere close to living up to his talent. At Richmond, Dustin Martin had a poor finals record but had discovered mindfulness and was ready to go. They became the best players in the competition.
(Adam Trafford/AFL Media/Getty Images)
No-one could have predicted the turnarounds of each team would be so swift and so triumphant. In both seasons, the other club was a key to the eventual success.
In 2007, the Cats were going just okay in the early stages of the season, but suffered a shock loss to North Melbourne down at Kardinia Park in Round 5.
It was the spark they needed. The next week Geelong took to the winless Tigers with no mercy – they kicked 35 goals on the way to a 157-point win. It was brutally efficient, and started a 15-game winning streak.
In 2017, Richmond weren’t the dominant force the Cats were ten years earlier, but won their first five matches to kick off the season on the way to a third-place finish. The Tigers hadn’t won a final since 2001. Under Hardwick, they had lost three elimination finals, twice as hot favourites. Geelong were Richmond’s opponent in the crucial first final. The Tigers duly saluted by 51 points.
As we know, premiership droughts were broken. Forty-four years for the Cats, 37 years for the Tigers. The city of Geelong was at a standstill for a week. Moorabool Street was rocking. In Richmond, Swan Street was a happy riot. Fans that couldn’t get into pubs broke into bottle shops and started drinking beer off the shelves.
Yet, still the similarities continued.
Hot favourites going into 2008 and 2018 respectively, the two teams performed accordingly. Geelong lost one game. Richmond finished two games and 15 per cent ahead of its nearest rival. They were Winx odds to go back-to-back, but it didn’t happen. Luke Hodge haunts Cats supporters still. Tigers fans will always shudder when they hear the name Mason Cox.
With lessons learnt about getting ahead of themselves, redemption was the order of business in 2009 and 2019.
Geelong had St Kilda setting the pace all season, culminating in what is widely considered the greatest home-and-away match of all time. Across the year they were Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star in the 1986 Cox Plate. The Cats were down at each change of the grand final, but found a way as champion sides do. The Matthew Scarlett toe-poke will never be forgotten.
Richmond weren’t even in the eight after 14 rounds, beset by injuries. At one stage they had eight of the previous year’s top 11 in the best and fairest missing. Peeling off 12 wins in a row to claim a storied premiership, they came home like Kiwi in the 1983 Melbourne Cup. Marlion Pickett’s blind turn was the signature move.
Two great clubs did it in different ways, but got the same result.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
Champion teams need a thumping grand final win on the CV. Geelong in their era and Richmond now hold two of the top three biggest grand final margins of all time.
We know what the future held for the Cats post-2009: Bomber Thompson burning out, Ablett departing to Gold Coast, a preliminary final loss amid the fall-out between the two, then a new coach and a premiership after they’d been written off by all and sundry.
Three flags in five years was a worthy return for their dominance over that period of time.
The Tigers will get back Alex Rance next year, and will get a full pre-season for the first time out of Tom Lynch, Marlion Pickett and Sydney Stack. Their VFL team won the premiership too, after three years at the top of that ladder. The future looks bright.
The other big similarity between these two teams is that they played a unique style based on attacking handball. No-one else played that way. No-one else could. Both sides played the corridor whenever possible, even though the era was defined by defensive ball movement and boundary use for most teams.
It’s a style of play that thrilled the fans and made them proud. Winning is always fun, but winning attractively is joyous.
Magic men like Stevie Johnson and Shane Edwards. The best two key defenders of the century in Matthew Scarlett and Alex Rance. Corey Enright and Dylan Grimes alongside. Ablett. Martin. Bartel. Cotchin. All four Brownlow medallists. Tom Hawkins and Jack Riewoldt up forward. Speedy small forwards aplenty on both lists.
Geelong created a dynasty with their third flag. Richmond still has to do the same. But based on how history has repeated thus far, you’d be a brave person to back against them.
Bangkokpussey
Roar Rookie
Swings and roundabouts. If the Eagles face a "huge" disadvantage then by definition they receive a huge advantage every second week at home, plus a final or 2 if good enough. Yes, the MCG tenants get an advantage and should play less games there. Geelongs' home ground advantage is skewed because it never plays the top teams at Kardinia park. Apparently it doesn't seem to bother the Swans there though. Do people think Geelong supporters really prefer to see the bottom sides or just interstate sides at Geelong rather than Richmond/Hawthorn/Collingwood? Doesn't every team want to play the best teams at home? Yes there will always be winners and losers in a competition that cannot support the same amount of teams in each state in a country the size of Australia. That's the reality that some supporters cannot accept. Finally, it would be nice to have a discourse without continually talking about poor WA/interstate travel on just about every AFL thread regardless of subject matter?
Bangkok Pussy
Guest
I think there is little daylight between Richmond and Geelong when their best players are in. Hawkins, Duncan and Clark were the 3 main player outs that hurt Geelong. I dont think Rohan out made a lot of difference. Personally I don't rate Dimma that highly. I think Caracella coming from the Cats to Richmond was the difference in Richmond being up 2 premierships rather than also rans. Leon Cameron is another one. If Clarko had had that team and the talent they've been gifted, they'ed be on a fivepeat by now. Scotts' biggest problem is his penchant to pay around with a winning formula. Moving one of the best full backs in the competition to the ruck or wing is lunacy IMO.
RT
Roar Rookie
Powa, you are the one who said they can't win away, so why don't you come up with something to demonstrate your point instead of criticising me for proving you are wrong.
Powa
Roar Rookie
such a small sample of games outside of VIC, the only good team from that list is brisbane
RT
Roar Rookie
When were Collingwood dominant? It must have been before I was born.
RT
Roar Rookie
This year Richmond lost interstate to GWS and Adelaide. They beat Port and Freo with 8 of their top 10 or so players out, beat Gold Coast and smashed Brisbane in a final. That is a 67% strike rate and most importantly included a final. But don't let facts get in the way of good story, will you?
Powa
Roar Rookie
even collingwood won more away games when they were dominant, and they were very much a only good in melbourne team
Powa
Roar Rookie
they cant win away, they are the worst dominant team this century, the hawks, west coast, sydney and geelong all could win away, stats dont lie: the tigers arent as good as the 4 afore mentioned teams
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
Will accept your knowledge on the impacts of flying and that the AFL should be scheduling Vic teams for games away from the usual locations. Not sure I’ve any sympathy for time spent transferring and in airports though. They’ll be in lounges like me and have ample opportunity to work.
sven
Roar Rookie
theres an awful lot of clutching of straws by supporters of teams that didnt win the flag trying to denigrate richmonds success this season
Dave
Guest
2 premierships in 3 years and quite possibly more success to follow! ‘Tigers are a bad team’...what a flog comment from a 1st prize winning peanut who has no idea!!
6x6 perkele
Roar Rookie
In a few ways I agree with you anon as personally I don’t need a footy player or sportsmen to be a good bloke to rate their achievements as it’s likely I’ll never know them, I just need them to be brilliant at what they do. It does come across as the latest mini book advice from the Harvard Business school imo.
Powa
Roar Rookie
geelong could win away though, the tigers are a bad team away
Nolzie
Roar Rookie
Unless you were a professional athlete during your time racking up long haul flights your personal experience doesn't count for much. There are numerous scientific papers on the negative effects of flying and athletic performance. Travel fatigue, exposure to mild hypoxia, disruptions of routines, plane noise, prolonged sitting all of which can effect athletes for up to 2-3 days after travel when 2 or more time zones are crossed. These might sound like small things but in a competition is close as ours is a team being off by very little can make a large difference. It isn't the flight time alone, although that is the most measurable time. The waiting in the airports for planes, especially if they are delayed. Time to and from the airport. I understand that the layout of our league means that things are difficult geographically with a large portion of the teams located in Victoria but an extra home game for the interstate sides slightly mitigates the extraordinary travel disadvantage. Even small changes to the fixture, like getting Collingwood or Richmond to fly to Tasmania to play instead of giving it to teams that are already flying 4 times as many hours could slightly change the evenness of the competition. The AFL is only interested in what makes the most amount of money, which means that we have a handicapped competition.
GGG
Roar Rookie
Slane such thinking is flawed. What you are suggesting is that we need a competition where every team is geographically equidistant apart, to make the “travel aspect” fair. Sorry but that’s absurd. So again to use the epl as an example, there are more teams based from London than other areas, so clearly they travel less also. An even better comparison is the usa for nfl or nba given the size of that continent, where there are also parts with a higher concentration of teams and others that are more isolated. Geography is essentially a fixed variable- the afl cant change it, but they can at least level the playing field by making the teams play each other home and away. I do agree however that there are probably too many teams based out of melb, but good luck changing that.
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I can see you’re upset but he has a point albeit not one well made. Do you think the group who floated WCE into the AFL unaware of the geographical challenge? Or thought there’d be 2 Vic sides? I suggest not. They went in with eyes wide open to the challenge. Finding a way to moan about the challenge incessantly is pretty tedious in my humble (and largely impartial) view
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
GGG, playing each other twice will not level out travel. As long as there are 8 clubs in Victoria, teams there will travel less no matter how much you juggle the draw. In Australia, if you want a national game based on an existing regional comp, it will always be thus. Start again and limit each state to 2 teams and it’s a different matter. Good luck with that though
anon
Roar Pro
How long does everyone think the players will continue this great bloke routine they're all playing? No-one at the club misses an opportunity to show how great a bloke they are. It's almost like a game of one upmanship at this point. Right now they're winning because of talent and style, not being good blokes. It's easy to get everyone up and about, motivated when the system clicks. What about when they face some adversity and nice bloke Dimma needs to send a rocket up some of his nice bloke players? I even read an article about how this nice guy routine will be applied to the business world. Obviously all dreamed up by a HR department.
sven
Roar Rookie
ever heard of COLA ?
Geoff Parkes
Expert
Excellent piece thanks Cam. Nicely drawn together. Hope you had a ball on Sat - even being in Tokyo that dominating performance was an absolute buzz.