When the Saints led 20-5 at quarter time most of us thought it was going to be short-lived.
Then, by halftime, when the scores favoured St Kilda 33-12, we assumed Richmond would do what it has always done and wrestle control back in the third term with a Dustin Martin momentum-shifting snap that would kick start a flood of goals.
It didn’t happen.
Tigers captain Trent Cotchin tried to influence the contest with aggression, tackling, and pressure, hoping it would have a ripple effect on his men, but that didn’t happen.
At the start of the last quarter the Tigers faced a 36-point deficit. If any team could come back from six-goals it would be Richmond. That didn’t happen.
When the final siren sound Richmond had only scored two goals against a team sitting in 12th position and only managed a total of 22 points – their lowest since 1961. The Tigers couldn’t get out of first gear.
For most of the match they looked flat. It was un-Richmond like. They’ve been the benchmark team for pressure and defence over the past five years and have shown they can win from any position: even in last year’s Grand Final they mowed down a 15-point Geelong lead in a tight affair.
Last Friday night Tigers fans waited patiently for their former juggernaut football club to correct the scoreline.
But it didn’t happen.
The wheels haven’t quite fallen off the Richmond wagon but the 40-point loss to a middling St.Kilda has put a blowtorch on their patchy form and it’s hard to imagine – at this point – that the Tigers will become three-peat premiers by the end of this year.
This year was always going to be a hard nut to crack for Richmond. With virtually the same team for the last five years, only making small changes and tweaks, the list is starting to break down and hit the wall with injuries. Any premiership contender needs a full healthy list and key personnel; the Tigers haven’t had that for large periods this year.
(Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
On the flip side, they’ve had some great luck in having few injuries through their premiership runs. Sorry Tigers fans: it had to happen at some point. And yes, it could mean Richmond won’t win the flag.
Missing from the Saints game were players like Toby Nankervis who could have influenced the game against Paddy Ryder. Tom Lynch would have given Richmond another tall, contested-marking beast option inside 50.
David Astbury’s ground-level heroics weren’t there. Nathan Broad, Noah Balta and Mabior Chol now face injury concerns. Nick Vlastuin might have a cork.
You can sense Damien Hardwick feels like the three-peat dream is slowly vanishing. It’s definitely less vivid than the start of the season. But the dream isn’t dead yet.
“We’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. There’s no doubt about that. At the moment we’re too inconsistent. We’re off the pace,” he said. “We just have to make that we play our brand and bring our brand week in, week out.”
It certainly feels that way. That Richmond can flick a switch and make games evaporate in ten minutes of intense pressing, slick and quick ball movement and chaos goals that are hard to defend. That’s been the Tigers’ signature brand of footy. But as we saw against St.Kilda, it’s not as easy as it once was to shift into beast mode especially if their opposition is up for the fight.
We’ve seen flashes of old, unstoppable Richmond. Against the Giants they were down by 21 at the main break and won by four. Dusty Martin bagged 4.2 and had 28 touches. During the Dreamtime game they fell behind by four points against Essendon in the last quarter, only to turn-it-on during a ten-minute goal blitz where they kicked 7.1 to win by 39. Martin, again, kicked three goals with 27 disposals.
Dustin Martin. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)
When games have hung in the balance, it’s been an inspired Martin who comes to the rescue with a goal on cue. The Brownlow Medallist has kicked 16 goals this year, leads the Tigers for centre clearances and inside 50s. What we’re learning is that Martin can’t do it all and his performance alone can’t win them a third premiership in as many years.
The things Richmond have excelled at, the things that made them an elite group, have dropped off. They are ranked ninth for points against; in previous years they were far more stingy and were ranked 17th, 15th, 17th, 16th.
Another sign of their leaky defensive structures, this year they’ve conceded 80 points or more in nine out of 14 games. Historically they’ve been able to keep teams below 80 at least 60 percent of a season. This normally wins them games.
Something needs to shift. Someone needs to step up. It’s going to take Trent Cotchin, or a leader like him, to light that fire in a calm and steady fashion. But they need to get on a roll. And they need to do it now.
Richmond are 3-4 in their last seven. The stop-start nature of of how they are playing right now won’t be enough of a platform to push them into three-peat territory. The somewhat easy run home won’t be enough to grant them access to finals.
From a distance it looks like the Tigers ship is capsizing from too many issues working against them. They are vulnerable. They’ve lost their fear factor. It’s not impossible to think that Richmond can pull off the unthinkable, but they need to be at their brutal best from here on in to defy history and sadly, for Tigers fans, they are a long way from it.
Dusty does Danger
Roar Rookie
Angela the MCG home ground thing has been the biggest excuse every Richmond hater uses and the reality is it is a crock. If it was that big the Demons would have won a further 10 premierships given the fact they have been playing there since Moses was a boy. And what about the other 3 teams. You have to bury that one.
Dusty does Danger
Roar Rookie
Maybe Carlton might have won one by then. 5 spoons in 20 years is a good effort!
Dusty does Danger
Roar Rookie
Called it before round 1. Virtually no chance of winning the premiership because: 1. Shortest preseason ever 2. Not enough depth - 4 players pinched from them playing in run on teams elsewhere. 3. Lack of fresh draft picks 4. They are a great team only with their best 22 fit and on the park 5. Salary cap tight and no room to bring in experienced players. 6. Mentally more so than physically exhausted by the COVID year. Hopefully they won’t make finals rest, recoup and regenerate for next year with 2 first round picks.
Dusty does Danger
Roar Rookie
Good one Sven. I reckon Dusty and the Tigers live in a lot of Roar posters head rent free. Especially Cats and Power followers. As spanner said we’ve achieved plenty to satisfy our thirst can’t be too gready. The system doesn’t allow it anymore.
Dave
Roar Rookie
Good list, and would probably perform better too. Never understood why Caddy is out of the side, he is a good player, unlucky to keep been overlooked at the selection table. Castagna definitely should be dropped, no doubt there. Would love to see MR jnr get a call up, he must be getting pretty close. Hope Hardwick swings the axe this week! There should be at least 3-4 changes IMO.
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
Yeah it's a fair step. But unless you know the water you can easily miss the next rock.
sven
Roar Rookie
fair enough .... but its a fair step away from your prior claims of tiges being afl pets & pampered to the point of incredulity by umps & fixturing, your making the statement without anything to back that up is what piqued my interest initially
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
The Jedi learned from me.
Good for laugh all my family dog supporters so don’t mind bulldogs
Chanon
Roar Rookie
Look if Tigers fall over follow the dogs! But l do understand it’s hard watching crappy teams!
Clear as mud
Guest
Wow. You must be a Jedi. I'm out there calling for a new coach and mass sackings and you have sensed a disturbance in the Force.
clear as mud
Guest
yay we might even get a game in Geelong!
Clear as mud
Guest
This would have been my team: F: Ralphsmith Riewoldt Martin HF: Stack Pickett Naish C: McIntosh Ross M Rioli Jnr HB: Mansell Lynch Baker B: Grimes Astbury Caddy Fo: Coleman-Jones Bolton Cotchin-Cotchin I: Edwards Collier-Dawkins Miller MS: Martyn
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Stay with me though; you Richmond boys have got little else to maintain interest. Remember, you can always come back at me if Freo don't finish ahead of the Tiges. I sense your diminishing faith in your boys.
Clear as mud
Guest
None with the sufficient quality of thought and evidenciary basis to warrant taking up more of your valuable time.
Clear as mud
Guest
drop one. that would be enough. Houli. Castagna. Short. just off the top of my head
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
Yeah sure.... but really unless you are running the show every thing you ever say can only be a theory so why bother saying anything at all. The closest you can get is that if something looks like dog .... I really appreciate these insiders who at least refer to such phenomena. It's not like such theories are in any way wild at all if you understand the business mentality. They are kind of negligent if they don't seek to gain some advantage in the promotion of the game through the news cycle. We know the stock in trade for media is the creation of victims and spreading of fear of the outside world. Just about every story on the nightly news is riddled with both. For the AFL to break into the cycle they have to play along or get left in the great unaired. It's the way of the world bro.......
sven
Roar Rookie
yeah but theres also a couple out with injury ... what do u want, drop the lot ?
sven
Roar Rookie
fair enough i thought u were talking about the '12 granny & i didnt recall anything unusual re the umpiring that game. admit i dont follow as closely as perhaps u do so cant comment on where u refer to what the media blokes are saying. still dont agree they would go so far as to direct results in a granny, certainly cant agree with any allegations there was any preferential treatment of the premiers of the last few years that ive been watching..... heard an interview of one of the people working for NASA during the Apollo missions to the moon where he stated that there were too many people involved with the whole thing that its impossible for the truth to not have been revealed by now if they did indeed fake the landings. that sums up my view on a lot of the conspiracies people love banging on about
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
I was talking about the Hawks V Sydney game this year. A lot of people were totally bewildered how obvious the favoritism against Sydney was. Dermott Brereton even now is still shocked. After the Jeremy Cameron howler (what's a word that's worse than 'howler'?). It was looking a bit like "Free kick Sydney". So making a statement game against the Swannies stopped those tongues wagging. Anyway we know there exists an unspoken "rule of the week' culture amongst the umpires. Wayne Campbell has alluded to it on radio. Even seasoned commentators like Dwayne Russell kind of accept it as part of the Talk Back controversy promotion. It's kind of good for everyone to keep us all guessing about where the line is on the rules this week. To all intents and purposes it looks like that's just how the AFL like to operate. Create controversies so they can get that spot in the news headlines. Good luck to them if they are smart enough to get away with it. I don't see why I should have to pretend it's not happening when it's kind of obvious. If I go too far sometimes or connect some dot's or not then I figure that's half the fun of blogging. It's a great format. The mainstream guys largely have their hands tied to a point and so even though they may question some things they can't really be seen to put it altogether as a marketing thing.