To the Emerald City

In around 44 hours (who's counting?) Richmond will take the field with their 2014 destiny in their owns hands. Win and in.

Around nine weeks ago, I was copping grief from mates who barracked for Melbourne.

Seem that two months is a long time in football.

You can put away calculators (though this flow chart is exceptional), if we beat Sydney we'll play the next weekend, most likely against Port Adelaide who aren't much chop and would be beatable.

The game against St Kilda was as good as could be expected for both sides. Percentage didn't matter for us and the stupidest possible thing the Saints could do was win and slide down a few spots in the draft.

We jumped them, ended the game 15 minutes in and then made sure we: a) did not embarrass Lenny in his last game before becoming a 2015 premiership assistant coach at Richmond, b) not get injured, c) win and d) fall into eighth spot (love you Pods). This bloke had a bit to do with it as well.

You may have noticed that my output has diminished fallen off a cliff and the offer stands that if anyone wants to pick up this site - get in touch, because it's all yours for 2015. In the glory days of 2013 I really enjoyed the writing and engaging, but unfortunately working hard enough to pay for Sydney rent (have you seen the prices?) has hampered my ability to give this the time and effort that you fine Richmond supporters deserve.

Promise I'll churn out some gold in the remaining five weeks of this year before we win the flag though.

Win or lose, Saturday afternoon should be a cracker. If we lose, I want to go down swinging before working out what the hell happened in the first three months of the year. If we win, we can wait another week before working out what the hell happened in the first three months of the year. Either way, we need to work out what the hell happened in the first three months of the year. Because, what the hell happened in the first three months of the year is, in many ways, more important than what was happened in the last two months.

I'll be there (I'm 3-0 in person this year, go me), and on the train home I'll either be bopping along to Blur or The Smiths, those crazy Brits sure did mix things up from music era to era.

Go well lads, it's #tigertime.

Votes

5: Jack Riewoldt
4: Anthony Miles
3: Bachar Houli
2: Ben Griffiths
1: Troy Chaplin

Leaderboards

The Benny

36: Brandon Ellis

31: Trent Cotcin

27: Dustin Martin

25: Jack Riewoldt

19: Brett Deledio

18: Alex Rance

17: Anthony Miles

14: David Astbury and Bachar Houli

13: Shaun Hampson

11: Shane Edwards, Troy Chaplin and Ricky Petterd

10: Daniel Jackson

6: Steven Morris, Matt Thomas and Ty Vickery

5: Nathan Foley

4: Sam Lloyd, Dylan Grimes, Ivan Maric and Shaun Grigg

3: Ben Griffiths

2: Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Foley and Chris Newman

1: Orren Stephenson, Matthew Dea, Nathan Gordon and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

17: Anthony Miles

14: Bachar Houli

13: Shaun Hampson

11: Ricky Petterd and Troy Chaplin

6: Matt Thomas

4: Shaun Grigg and Ivan Maric

1: Orren Stephenson and Nathan Gordon

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

1: Ben Lennon

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

14: Bachar Houli

11: Troy Chaplin

4: Shaun Grigg

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

17: Anthony Miles

6: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Championship belt:

Incumbent	Winner	Streak	Wins
NA	Cotchin	1	1
Cotchin	Astbury	1	1
Astbury	Riewoldt	1	1
Riewoldt	Astbury	1	2
Astbury	Petterd	1	1
Petterd	Ellis	1	1
Ellis	Conca	1	1
Conca	Martin	1	1
Martin	Riewoldt	1	2
Riewoldt	Martin	1	2
Martin	Martin	2	3
Martin	Miles	1	1
Miles	Martin	1	4
Martin	Cotchin	1	2
Cotchin	Rance	1	1
Rance	Houli	1	1
Houli	Deledio	1	1
Deledio	Deledio	2	2
Deledio	Miles	1	2
Miles	Cotchin	1	3
Cotchin	Riewoldt	1	3