Some wins are better than others

A couple of minutes into the third quarter of what seemed a lost cause, a few desperation acts breathed life into our lineup, and eventually the match.

It started on the wing from a boundary throw in where Sam Reid went third man up, because everyone does that against us, won it down to Kennedy who would usually waltz forward but was immediately set upon by Miles. This forced a scrambled handball to Reid, who again was immediatley set upon by McIntosh forcing another rushed handball to Derickx. Who, being Derickx, floated a kick 40 metres forward only for Dyl to drop back in front of Tippett and wore another Sydney cheap shot, received a fifty metre penalty and put another dent in Sydney's famous 'no dickheads' policy. All while raising the very serious question of 'Who knew that Tom Derickx was still on an AFL list?'.

A couple of minutes later, the skipper kicked that goal and we were off the races.

It gets a little bit embarrassing that whenever we beat anyone half decent it immediately triggers a raft of 'best win in the last 20 years?' discussions but this one is up there. We travelled to a ground that we haven't won at since 2004 and beat a seriously good team after giving them a five goal start.

Where it ranks among Richmond's wins is debatable but one thing that isn't was is that it was Jack Riewoldt's finest moment to date. Jack has kicked bigger bags but none more important, six goals against Ted Richards and Sydney is akin to 15 against others and it shouldn't really matter but the fact it was on a Friday night makes it much sweeter. That we get more than our share of Friday night games can be a blessing and a curse, I wasn't watching but can only imaging the bollocking being delivered our way by whoever Fox Footy rolled only for us to ram seven goals in a quarter and be in front half an hour later.

For the first time this year I was in attendance and boy was it a glum experience for the first hour. After the second quarter it had all the markings of one of those god awful games where the other team puts on a 15 minute burst and Dimma doubles up with one of those 'we just need to eliminate our bad lapses' press conferences that make me want to move to Mongolia.

Then something happened and we flipped the game on its head. What made it more impressive is that in the middle of our third quarter burst they got that ludicrous interchange infringement and that took the ball from a #Tyme set shot after a fantastic mark running backwards that will no doubt be forgotten immediately by everyone on the Internet next time he messes something up. Thankfully Nick Smith got the guilts up and dramatically sprayed the set shot to miss everything. I get that you can't have blokes running on and off willy nilly but what a harsh penalty that is but I suppose we weren't complaining when it went our way against Fremantle at Docklands in 2010 which is a night I remember fondly because I was sitting right near the bench and heard some of the funniest crowd banter of all time every time Sandlilands came off the ground. Back then they had a ridiculously oversized orange flag to signal said infringement which meant that it was still an over the top reaction but at least there was a bit of pomp and ceremony about it. It genuinely looked as if the interchange steward was announcing someone from the Royal Family had arrived.

This may seem unbelievable given the fact I manage to write anything between 100 and 1500 words every week but I very rarely watch a replay, even the really big wins. This weekend I'm up to my third watch of the second half and in one of those I even sat through the first half. What has struck me each time is how grumpy Sydney were. Goodes is one of my very favourite football people but carried on like a complete knob all night, Buddy ran past the ball to bump Titch just before Tippett clipped Grimes, both of whom will miss weeks and as a unit they seemed super keen to start a rumble at any opportunity. By and large Richmond are an incredibly inoffensive team unless you support them, so I'm not sure of the reasoning behind declaring WWIII but they were obviously rattled to start with and then completely off the ball in the second half so it seemed to work in our favour. It's one thing having scrubbers like Zak Jones and Tom Mitchell burning up energy in scuffles but when your best players are doing it that usually spells trouble.

Since we got our shit together, we've put together a seriously good six week body of work and have settled into a much tighter and defensively accountable game plan. It's a shame for Morris because it wasn't his fault he was being forced to play a position beyond his capabilities, but we were much better off with Lambert's creativity up forward despite the fact he didn't record big numbers.

Our defensive pressure was again a huge part of the win. The only benefit of my crappy seat in the pocket was getting a prime view of Nick Vlastuin's control of the contest and constant thwarting of their advances in the last quarter. Rance's game has been much discussed so I don't need to add much here, but what a delight for us to be able to watch him for at least another four years? For too long the best defender in the competition tag has gone to the blokes like Scarlett who don't actually play on the big guns so watching the best forward and defender go at it was worth well beyond the price of admission, and I'm very glad that he'll be at Punt Road instead of backpacking through Europe next year. Alongside those two, Grimes, Chaplin and Batch keep getting the job done without fanfare and Taylor Hunt continues to pitch in where and when needed.

Strangely, I find these posts much easier to write after a loss rather than a win. Especially so when I wait a couple of days to do so because by now basically everything and anything that needs to be said has already been done so on Twitter or in the press.

What I will add is that it was again a pleasure to watch them get it done in Sydney and that the way Richmond players engage with the crowd following a win continues to impress. Long after the siren the group was still working the Richmond fans in the crowd,  none more so that Jack. There can't be a player who has been more poorly received by media types relative to the effort he puts in and the admiration from his supporters. He is quickly raising up the ranks of my favourite ever Richmond player and I suspect one day soon he'll scoot past #12.

Changes for next week

Based on the assumption that Gordon cops a week for a crude elbow which slightly impacted our ability to take the good guy moral high ground. This is also without seeing a second of the VFL or reading anything more than the box score which looked pretty morbid as usual.

In: Menadue
Out: Gordon

The votes

5: Jack Riewodlt
4: Trent Cotchin
3: Alex Rance
2: Anthony Miles
1: Ty Vickery

Unlucky: Loads, but especially Vlastuin and Deledio.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

18: Dustin Marin

17: Jack Riewoldt

15: Trent Cotchin and Anthony Miles

14: Shane Edwards and Bachar Houli

11: Shaun Grigg and Brandon Ellis

10: Alex Rance

8: Taylor Hunt, Nick Vlastuin and Dylan Grimes
5: Ivan Maric and Brett Deledio
3: Troy Chaplin, Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor
2: Sam Lloyd

1: Steven Morris and Ty Vickery

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

15: Anthony Miles

14: Bachar Houli

11: Shaun Grigg

8: Taylor Hunt
5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

14: Bachar Houli
11: Shaun Grigg

3: Jake Batchelor and Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Dusty, Dusty, Dusty

‘Dusty, Dusty, Dusty’ three little words (or one little word three times?) that gave meaning to a season, capped a winning streak, saved us from another summer of ninth jokes and sent us to our fourth finals campaign in over 30 years.

If you haven’t watched it since you probably aren’t a Richmond supporter and I’m not sure how you stumbled across this blog but welcome anyway, and here it is:

There are just so many things about this that are perfect and the goal itself is just a small part of it. As I wrote at the time, Sydney had less on the line but still came at us hard. On the back of eight wins: St Kilda, Brisbane, Port Adelaide, West Coast, GWS, Essendon, Adelaide and St Kilda again, it all threatened to count for nought unless we could hold on for grim death against Sydney.

I was fortunate to have been there. We have had so few ‘that was a big moment and it counted for something special’ moments and I'm thrilled to have been there for this one. Especially given at the time it looked like Sydney were going to take control of the game, like everyone expected them to, and watching it unfold sober and in person was basically torture.

This isn’t a match report so I won’t go into detail but basically we got the jump and they grinded their way back into it. Given that we jumped out to 33 points it’s strange that I don’t remember them taking control to get back in it, I remember it like death by 1000 cuts. They had all the run, were within two points, had kicked nine of the last 14 goals and then it happened.

Frame by frame:

• Newman hoofs it 55 metres to the right back flank.
• Ivan has poll position but Luke Parker comes over the top and spoils.
• In amongst three Swans (Malceski, Reid and Parker) Titch emerges with a clearance, somehow keeps it in and keeps the ball going 50 metres up the wing where Dusty is waiting in one-on-one with Richards.
• We get a dash of luck and the ball bounces unexpectedly over Richards who turns and loses his footing on an incredibly sketchy piece of Homebush turf and Dusty is away.
• Dusty gathers the ball and runs back at goal.
• ‘Dusty, Dusty, Dusty’
• One bounce.
• Runs his measure.
• Steadies.
• 20ish metres out.
• Richmond supporters all over the world pause.
• Goal.
• Pandemonium.

24 seconds was all it took, three kicks in the very definition of coast to coast.

There are three things beyond the goal itself that I want to explore further.

Shane Edwards is fantastic, we know that and everyone else is just catching up. But his clearance from the back flank was something else. The camera work isn’t flash, but it looks the world like Titch has managed to somehow read Parker's spoil and hits the ball moving. From there he has half a second to 1) gather, 2) get the ball to foot and 3) brace for Sam Reid trying to knock him into next week. That he manages to get a kick away at at all is a minor miracle, that he managed to get it fifty metres to a one-on-one contest should have lead him being Time’s person of the year for 2014.

Next is Nathan Gordon, again the camera work is sketchy but my guess is that he is at least 25 metres away when Dusty sets sail. Dusty is moving at a reasonable clip but somehow Gordon has closed the gap to 10 metres when the goal is kicked. There was no reason to run that hard, Dusty was never getting caught and it was late in a tough, tough game but run he did and it hugely impressed me.

Finally, how lucky are we that Huddo is commentating instead of Dwayne Russell? I can't imagine watching that clip as many times as I have if Dwayne was screaming something about a chaos ball coming in and then Dusty kicking the firestarter.

The goal has become such a moment that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t actually a winning goal, there was still nearly TEN MINUTES to play and they pulled it back through Sam Reid 128 seconds later. From there it was squeaky bum time and in a very un-Richmond like fashion we held on.

How excruciating can two minutes of play actually be? I know they’ll win, I know that the result can’t change ten months later so why am I riding every bump and willing every pass to hit a target? The glorification of Dusty’s goal has left some massive moments in that period of play a little underappreciated:

• Rance went as close as possible to giving away a free kick without actually doing so.
• Grigg’s clearance from a ball-up in their 50 was huge
• Rance and Chaplin’s ability to read the incoming ball is something else.
• Ben Griffiths’ took one of the great contested marks of the modern age on the wing.
• Alistair Lynch wanted us to kick it backwards even though Sydney had manned up right around the ground.
• Vlastuin’s scrapping clearing rebounding kick somehow went 45 metres.
• Jack is the first player I’ve seen look directly at the bench and ask how long is left while holding the ball.

The Internet folk at RFC must have had an absolute ball and banked all their targets for the next six years inside a week because there was some great video bouncing around.

The clip of Richo and Molloy riding it home is fantastic:

And this bit in particular of Mick Molloy summed up my reaction, a 50% mix of relief that we didn’t screw it up and joy that we didn’t screw it up.

If I had to guess, I’d say I’m to blame for at least 200 of the 2,542 views on that clip. As someone who’s grown up through a really crappy Richmond era, that clip is like crack and I can’t get enough of it.

In terms of home and away highlights, Dusty’s goal for me sits next to Maxfield’s goal against Essendon in 1995 which was built on the back of a spoil by Chris Bond and a bonkers good gather and handball by Matthew Dundas of all people.

It turned eight wins into nine, and was documented brilliantly by the club.

It was such an amazing evening to be in the stands for, let’s just not talk about what happened a week later hey?

Friday Night Frights

Unfortunately life got in the way, I was away for the weekend and now it's too far gone to write anything substantial and to be honest it wasn't even worth writing something substantial about.

If I was going to write something, it'd likely be very similar to what Chris wrote over at TTBB has so why reinvent the wheel?

One thing though, that's the second game in a row in which Ivan has been smoked and alarm bells are ringing. It's time to start planning or at least thinking a succession plan. Over the next month he faces Mike Pyke, whoever is next in line to Shane Mumford, Cameron Wood and Billy Longer, all of whom present much friendlier challenges but won't change the fact that Ivan isn't going to get any younger or start jumping any higher (or jumping at all?) over the next 18 months.

Changes

In: McDonough and Newman
Out: Ellis and Menadue (with a very fortunate Kamdyn McIntosh)

The votes

5: Anthony Miles
4: Dustin Martin
3: Troy Chaplin
2: Nick Vlastuin
1: Dylan Grimes

Unlucky: Nobody

Leaderboards

The Benny:

18: Dustin Marin

14: Shane Edwards and Bachar Houli

13: Anthony Miles

12: Jack Riewoldt

11: Shaun Grigg, Trent Cotchin and Brandon Ellis

8: Taylor Hunt, Nick Vlastuin and Dylan Grimes
7: Alex Rance
5: Ivan Maric and Brett Deledio
3: Troy Chaplin, Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor
2: Sam Lloyd

1: Steven Morris

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

14: Bachar Houli

13: Anthony Miles
11: Shaun Grigg

8: Taylor Hunt
5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

14: Bachar Houli
11: Shaun Grigg

3: Jake Batchelor and Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Fyfe Scmyfe

It was the ballad of one man, 26 disposals, six clangers, his headband, at least three unpaid holding the ball decisions and Basil Zemplas.

Apparently there was another team who kicked eight goals in the first twenty minutes, were the first visitors to win in Perth this year and knocked off a club that people were starting to wonder were beatable. Not that you would have known any of this with Basil and Dennis fawning over Fyfe.

North Queensland aside, we travel OK. Fremantle and West Coast have won 14 of the last 17 games at Subiaco, we've pinched two of the other three. Friday night comes on the back of a really good win against Port, a win against Brisbane and five from seven on the road last year. Clubs have got much better at travelling and it isn't as daunting as it once was but some teams are better than others and we fall into that category. And that's a credit to the club in how they handle logistics, planning and that kind of boring but important stuff that nobody really talks about.

During Hardwick's reign we've often complained about one quarter of footy being the difference, but during this run of form it has been a good thing. The Essendon full match grind aside, these wins are built around an eight goal second quarter against Collingwood, a three goal to nothing first quarter against Port Adelaide that was much better than it looks when I put it like that and last night's eight goal opening against the best defensive team around. We've doubled down on this by stopping the bursts coming the other way even though single person watching last night was waiting for Fremantle to make a run.

The first quarter was sublime and Fremantle either didn't see it coming or couldn't adapt, in round ten it doesn't really matter which. As obscure Ross Lyon records tumbled all over the shop, Basil and Dennis dug their heels in to the point that the highlights are bizarre because they're constantly doing their stack over how well Fremantle are playing while the scoreline most of the night has them 30+ points down.

One of the most impressive things of the night was how they were able to adapt the plan from last week and then throughout the night. After grinding for the full two hours against the Dons, they came out all guns blazing. Back in the dark days (a month ago) the ability to adapt was missing. I suspect the change stems throwing off the shackles in the second half against Geelong, they failed to get over the line but Hardwick and the players fired a few warning shots that they weren't simply going to sit back and watch their season unravel without doing something about it.

Fyfe got going a couple of times, but I loved the way we rolled the dice and let him roam free. No doubt he's a good player, but much like Dangerfield circa 2013-14 it has become so fashionable to talk him up that the everyone has talked him into being the best player around. Meanwhile Pendlebury has been playing at that level for six years and nobody says a thing. Following a week of discussion over who were going to use to tag him, they answered it with nobody. Rolling Fyfe and Dusty head-to-head without them spending more than five seconds next to each other. The ball went up and they both headed off to the race and for mine, Dusty had his way with him. Especially considering Fyfe has that circus freak palming it down his throat, and how hard can it be playing midfield when Sandilands is giving you first look at the footy at every single stoppage?

We are entering a golden age for midfielders where they're developed so well at junior level and, unless you are one of the eight poor bastards drafted by Melbourne each, it's possible to be star by the age of 22 rather than doing a five year apprenticeship and peaking at 28. Last night the top four possession winners on the ground (Dusty, Brandon Ellis, Fyfe and Neale) are aged 23 or under, this wasn't a couple of teams on the rebuild, it was a couple of teams who should be thereabouts at the pointy end of September. How cool?

Speaking of Dusty, because Basil and Dennis didn't I feel obliged, what a game he played. This time last year there were genuine questions over his ability to play full-time midfield and an otherwise mediocre season by him was saved by a few clutch goals late in games (who needs an excuse to watch this anyway?). Not anymore, he has well and truly arrived and is playing four quarters repeatedly no matter who the opposition.

About halfway through the third quarter I'd started on the whole 'how many goals a minute do they need?' calculation. Fremantle were probably never going to catch us but about ten minutes into the last quarter they had got within 21 and it was looking a bit iffy, before Cotchin found space to get a set shot from the boundary about fifty out. He missed an impossibly hard kick but the time he took (around a minute from mark to kick) completely changed the game. There are captain's goals and captain's marks, but that could be the first ever captain's time off the clock. Following that change of tempo were in control it wasn't much longer until Titch kicked the sealer and the Dockers never looked like it again. The play itself to get it to Cotch was sensational, from what looked like a dead stoppage Miles manufactured a handball to McIntosh who got it onto Lids who, though most obvious thing was to bomb to the square where Gigantor was undoubtedly waiting, somehow spotted Cotchin in the pocket out the corner of his eye twenty metres away and dutifully hit him laces out.

The part that has been the most fun for me over the last month has been the diversification of our list. In every part of the ground we've got players who can step up if others are having an off night. The midfield, which not all that long ago looked Cotchin or bust, now has four (Cotchin, Martin, Edwards and Ellis) stars with a strong supporting cast. The forward line which looked Jack or bust has been refreshed with Deledio's shuffle and last night we got a look the first look at the big three across four quarters and it impressed. Down back though is where this run of wins is being generated, Grimes and Batchelor have stepped up from fringe players to form players, Chaplin and Rance have their Ying and Yang duo going on again, Houli is getting off the chain and doing the hard stuff when he's required and Vlastuin has made the spare man role his own in what is still a very short career.

On top of all of this, when a first year player has a first half of the kind that Corey Ellis last night it gets you excited about the future both near and distant. What a difference a month and a few wins makes.

Oh, how we cringed and laughed awkwardly when Hardwick said 'our best can beat anyone', while it's only round ten he must be feeling vindicated. That doesn't make the losses earlier in the year less frustrating but it sets a little bit of context. The Dogs have shown since they can have a day out against anyone, North was just a dirty day and the 22 we put out against Melbourne would have been mangled last night.

I would have taken 6-4 at the start of the year without hesitation, but the breakdown of wins and losses is puzzling to say the least. They've got a couple of tough games to come but if they can split those (at worst) then they'll be well positioned to have a crack at a home final or maybe, just maybe, a dip at that fourth spot which at the moment doesn't have a really clear owner. Gerard Whateley says a lot of things each week, and every now and then one of them hits the spot. When he was chatting with Ivvy this morning he described playing Fremantle as an 'audit on your list', an audit that last night we passed with flying colours.

Dimma has been proven correct that our best can beat anyone, what we need to fix now is that our worst we can lose to anyone. We aren't going to be as up as we were last night all that often and managing the gap between our best and worst will likely dictate how far this season goes.

The votes

5: Dustin Martin
4: Bachar Houli
3: Dylan Grimes
2: Brandon Ellis
1: Steven Morris

Unlucky: Everyone else

Leaderboards

The Benny:

14: Shane Edwards, Dustin Martin and Bachar Houli

12: Jack Riewoldt

11: Shaun Grigg, Trent Cotchin and Brandon Ellis

8: Anthony Miles and Taylor Hunt
7: Alex Rance and Dylan Grimes
6: Nick Vlastuin
5: Ivan Maric and Brett Deledio
3: Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor
2: Sam Lloyd

1: Steven Morris

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

14: Bachar Houli
11: Shaun Grigg

8: Anthony Miles and Taylor Hunt
5: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

14: Bachar Houli
11: Shaun Grigg

3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.