Footy Fix: Tenacious Tigers run the gauntlet and fight the good fight - but the house always wins

For a while there, it looked like Richmond were back.

For the first quarter and a half on Anzac Day eve, the Tigers were all over Melbourne in just about every conceivable way. They outhunted the Demons’ imposing on-ball brigade for the hard ball, they moved the ball superbly in transition from defence to attack, and their final kick inside 50, so often a thorn in their side this year, was hitting the target more often than not.

We’re used to seeing flashes of brilliance from the Tigers this year, but something about this felt more sustainable. Maybe it was the tactics – there was an element of control, of method to the madness, that you don’t often see with Richmond’s spurts of supremacy. Maybe it was the fact the Demons looked short of a gallop, particularly behind the ball, for the second week in a row.

Whatever the cause, Damien Hardwick knew his charges’ only chance of storming the MCG was to be bold, to attack the corridor, to aim to hit up targets rather than kick long and hope. It was tremendously effective, and on another day, against another team, might have done the trick.

Ultimately, though, like so many of the Tigers’ surges this year, it wasn’t to last. The reality is Melbourne are just plain better than Richmond right now. Their backline is more sound, their midfield more dynamic, and their forward line, limited though it is, capable of kicking a winning score once the supply became overwhelming.

It’s not a cause for alarm for the Tigers, unless of course you still think they’re capable of winning a premiership this year. They did nothing to suggest they won’t be annoying for many a good team this year, and don’t discount them scrapping enough wins to fall into eighth and yet again be the ‘you wouldn’t want to play them in finals’ team.

But premiership contenders don’t let Jacob van Rooyen, impressive though this fourth-gamer is, boot three final-quarter goals from three contested marks with the match up for grabs.

Good teams don’t let Max Gawn tap through a sealer from a long ball right to the goal line that needed to be defused.

In the end, those four goals were the difference, and the sum of Richmond’s woes at the moment.

Yes, Josh Gibcus and maybe Robbie Tarrant will return, but neither could be expected to do much more than Noah Balta did at the MCG for the previous three quarters. Those of us who saw the Tigers reliving the glory days this year, myself included, have had a bit of a reality check these past six weeks.

The positives for the Tigers are numerous: Samson Ryan and Ben Miller did a tremendous job, Ryan especially as makeshift ruckman against the Max Gawn-Brodie Grundy duo of nightmares; while comfortably shaded in the hitouts, he did for the most part compete well enough to stop Gawn palming it down the throats of Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver, which he’s been known to do against inferior big men.

Tim Taranto had comfortably his best game in yellow and black – the numbers were similar, but the composure when kicking forward was an added bonus. Keep things up, and he’ll no longer be seen as one of the game’s worst kicks.

Jayden Short’s return across half-back after a month out was seamless, and the impact he had on the Tigers’ play was profound. It was no longer solely up to Daniel Rioli to drive them forward out of defence, and with the side emboldened to take risks and live dangerously, Short’s precision kicking opened up avenues inboard that no other Tiger could reliably hit.

Up forward, Noah Cumberland drifted out of the game once the Tigers put their chief small stopper Michael Hibberd directly to him, but with three goals by quarter time his goal nous and tackling pressure made for a formidable combination. Just as impressive to Hardwick as those three majors would surely have been his two first-quarter tackles inside attacking 50, helping swarm the Demons at every turn to prevent any fluency in their rebounds.

Whether exacerbated by the Tigers’ speed of ball movement and dare, or just another off night in what’s becoming a concerning trend, the Dees’ usually miserly backline couldn’t cope.

Without sufficient pressure up the field to force hacked kicks, mostly due to the Tigers beginning most of their attacking forays rebounding from defence rather than around the ball or bursting out of centre bounces, Steven May and Jake Lever were liabilities early on. Conceding just eight points from defensive half turnovers to the main break, they weren’t dying by the sword just yet, either.

May has seldom looked as unassured in Demons colours as he has in the last two weeks, to the point where you’d be forgiven for wondering if the calf injury that delayed his start to 2023 is still lingering.

He’s late to contests in a way he just wasn’t last year or the year before – one such incident, giving away a free kick and nearly a 50 to Daniel Rioli after arriving a second after the Tiger had marked on the wing, was particularly egregious for both its lateness and the fact it took May out of the danger zone.

Sure enough, the Tigers quickly moved it on, Ryan marked inside 50, and snapped through a goal. Deciding when to go and when to retreat has been May’s specialty in recent seasons, and its absence on Monday night was truly alarming.

It took until early in the second term for the Dees to register their second and third intercept marks for the match; by that time, the Tigers had six marks inside 50. Those are un-Melbourne-like figures.

Not helping May’s plight was his match-up on Jack Riewoldt, who at 34 years of age remains the smartest key forward in the game. He’s not a player you can treat lightly, and certainly not one for whom May could comfortably sag off and back to out-read with the ball coming their way.

Riewoldt is remarkable. Every disposal he has has an impact, precisely because he knows the limitations of age and seldom leaves attacking 50. He hardly bothers with defending turnovers – he backs his teammates to get the ball to him wherever he leads. It’s a gambit that comes up his way most of the time.

Lachie Hunter and Jacob van Rooyen of the Demons celebrate a goal. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

A prime example came in the second quarter: Riewoldt reacted far quicker than May to get on the end of a kick targeting the 35-40 metre range from goal, rather than the top of the goalsquare as is the norm. Riewoldt arrived five metres to the good of the best full-back in the game, took the mark, and booted yet another goal – his 400th at the MCG.

With four goals for the night, and six shots at goal from eight kicks, Riewoldt was the most impactful forward on the ground. He could honestly keep doing this until he’s 60.

In the midfield, too, something remarkable was brewing: the Tigers, without Toby Nankervis and up against not just Gawn and Grundy, but Petracca, Oliver and Jack Viney, were thrashing the Dees at the coalface.

By half time, the Tigers had shaded the clearance count 16-15, and 8-7 from the centre. Between them, Oliver, Petracca and Viney had just four clearances; Taranto had four himself, and Hopper three. The Dees’ only reliable source of a clean breakaway was Grundy shovelling Ryan out of the way, gathering under pressure, and banging it on the boot.

The Tigers wouldn’t have been able to dictate the pace of the game without controlling the ball from stoppages; that ascendancy, and the relative ineffectiveness of the Demons’ clearances, meant good looks for their forward line, and easy balls for their backs to mop up. The result was eight of the first 12 goals, and a distinctly rattled Simon Goodwin.

It was captivating – but it couldn’t last.

Slowly but surely, the Demons began to slow the pace of the game down. Their midfield was still copping a pounding – Oliver had just two clearances to three quarter time – but the move to start Gawn forward and Grundy in the ruck paid dividends.

Not only did Grundy’s bullocking work at least prevent the Tigers breaking away as cleanly as they had been, but Gawn was titanic. In just ten minutes, he’d plucked three contested marks, allowing the Demons to turn defence into attack at a stroke. Opposed to Balta for most of them, they were serious grabs.

Up forward, repeat deep entries put the Tigers’ defence under pressure for the first time, which Kade Chandler in particular took full advantage of with three crafty goals.

When Vlastuin slipped over in the final term to allow a walk-in Chandler goal for a Demons lead, it seemed unlikely the Tigers had the energy to respond.

Christian Petracca, damaging but kept in check for much of the night, ended with 12 inside 50s, finally overpowering the Tigers’ midfield in the final term with a series of penetrating kicks inside 50. That, in turn, brought van Rooyen into the game, and his hands proved sticky.

Defensively, the Tigers couldn’t continue their manic forward forays, and by the end were reduced to the sort of high, aimless bombs the Dees eat up. At quarter time, they had five goals from 12 inside 50s: they’d managed six from 49 from there, and just three after half time.

Eighteen to eight contested marks, six to Gawn and three vital ones to van Rooyen, told its own tale: the Tigers badly missed Toby Nankervis’ presence as an intercept marker behind the ball to defuse long bombs. Having struggled to get going, Lever ended with five intercept marks, with the Tigers unable to avoid him early in the last quarter in particular.

It’s a bullet dodged for the Dees, whose last-quarter dominance this season is papering over some cracks. They butchered Sydney and the Western Bulldogs late to turn tight affairs into routs, while they salvaged pride against Brisbane and got the chocolates tonight. There are still weaknesses to exploit for good teams – but you’d best aim to be five goals up at the final turn.

For the Tigers, they’re 16th on the ladder but better than that. 1-1-4 isn’t a start to inspire confidence, but of their next eight games only Geelong and maybe St Kilda present as all but unwinnable. 7-1-6 and a week to rest up, with Tom Lynch to return, would spring some hope ahead of a very difficult finals stretch.

But that’s about all they can hope for. The Tigers can match it with anyone… for a time. They ran the gauntlet and it paid off – but in the end, the house always wins.