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?