Tell me why? I don't like Mundy

When we've thrown away games in the past it has been a result of complete breakdown. Think Gold Coast in Cairns, the Brock McLean match and North Melbourne going to town on us after half time last year. It couldn't be put down to one thing, pretty much everything went pear shaped.

Troy Chaplin's glare after Mundy's mark and Jack's anger after the siren were focussed, we threw away four points through one stupid mistake. It sucks, but it's better than everyone standing around looking bewildered and glum. Of course this is terribly unfair on Bachar - Dusty, Jack and Cotch all had chances at kicking goals that would have made the difference, Lloyd has one single job but couldn't see it through and Griff missed the most Griff miss of all time. All of these things would have made the difference, and that in fact is the difference, this was on us through mistakes rather than breakdown. Those things are all eminently fixable and I'd be surprised if they happened again this week.

It's obvious now that no matter what the ladder looks like, everyone is chasing Hawthorn. And unless they have an off-day in prelim or grand final then we are likely all playing for second. That's the thing though, it's sport and sport has a knack of throwing up the unexpected. Who is to say they won't have an off day at a really bad time? It happened to Geelong in 2008. They could kick like we did on Saturday or they could ping a couple of hamstrings early in the prelim, it's just about making sure that you are still live and kicking to take advantage of that if or when it happens.

Fourth would have been easier had Bachar not gone for the glory kick to Lambert, but it would also have been easier had we not inexplicably lost to Melbourne. If we miss out on fourth by a game, that's the one I'm looking at. Weirdly though, fifth feels about right, we have unfinished business with fifth. I don't know about you but 2013 still stings me, win or loss I'm generally pretty good at moving on but that actually made me feel ill. It was the day when a decade of dull disappointment became genuine hurt. This squad seems to need to be lined up against the wall waiting for the firing squad before they perform at their best and what what better way to deliver retribution than in front of a full MCG in a win or go home situation?

For a glorious hour the dream Hampson-Maric ticket looked the goods before an ankle injury put a stop to the fun and games. Hampson's presence seems to have lit a fire under Maric and even when we was forced back to first ruck he took it up to Sandilands far more successfully than the last time around.

Since the game we've learned of an unfortunate injury to Griff, which is terribly timed for him but gives Vickery the opportunity to put his stamp on his position in a way that he hasn't since 2013. Hampson seems to be able to find an injury better than anyone, but if we can get a good run at the Hampson-Maric-Vickery tall trio then I reckon that'll go OK.

Our terrible conversion and Bachar's mistake have somewhat covered up the fact that we played really well. Hawthorn are on another level but I suspect that level of play will hold up well against most others and might even give them a shake on Friday night.

I've left this post so long that there isn't really much left to say about the game that hasn't already been said 100 times in the media breakdown. And given the shitstorm that has since engulfed footy it's another week where there hardly seems much point. Protip: don't boo anyone, it's dumb. Especially don't boo people when the origins of said booing are questionable at best and disgusting at worst.

And how cool that we are taking the lead?

Changes for next week

Hampson was hobbling around like I do after a job so I really can't see how he gets up before Friday, especially dragging that rig around.

In: Vickery and McBean
Out: Griffiths and Hampson

Lucky: Lloyd, so very lucky.

The votes

5: Troy Chaplin
4: Brandon Ellis
3: Anthony Miles
2: Kane Lambert
1: Ivan Maric

Leaderboards

The Benny:

24: Dustin Martin

22: Trent Cotchin

18: Bachar Houli and Anthony Miles

17: Jack Riewoldt

16: Shane Edwards, Shaun Grigg and Alex Rance

15: Brandon Ellis

14: Brett Deledio

12: Taylor Hunt

8: Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes and Troy Chaplin

6: Ivan Maric

3: Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor

2: Sam Lloyd and Kane Lambert

1: Steven Morris, Ty Vickery, Shaun Hampson and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

18: Bachar Houli and Anthony Miles

16: Shaun Grigg

15: Anthony Miles

12: Taylor Hunt

8: Troy Chaplin

6: Ivan Maric

1: Shaun Hampson

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

2: Kane Lambert

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

18: Bachar Houli

16: Shaun Grigg

8: Troy Chaplin

3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

2: Kane Lambert

The only time you will see Hampson and Ronaldo compared

What a world we live in when Richmond supporters feel comfortable expressing disappointment with a win. It isn’t that long ago when a win against St Kilda would have brought the kind of joy that watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the first time can replicate, but yesterday’s result seems to have been greeted with the reception one would expect James Hewitt would receive if he fronted up to Buckingham Palace and asked for a room.

I recently read a book by Alex James from Blur who wrote about the band’s handing over control of the quartet just before Britpop got up and going. Funnily enough, the guy went and bought himself a house in the country literally weeks before Country House went and blew the music industry apart. There was no il-will, he simply pointed out that if the guy had waited a few months he could have bought a much bigger house in the country. Undoubtedly, I am drawing the longest of bows here but my point is that while beating St Kilda is nothing to scoff at, there is a slim but not that remote chance that taking the foot off the pedal in the last quarter could cost us fourth position and the unique opportunity to be humiliated twice instead of just the usual once in the finals.

Frustration about letting them claw the margin back pushed to the side, there wouldn’t be of us who would have put their hand on heart and claim we would get through those three games without dropping one. In the same stretch our fellow bottom half of the eight aspirants have gone: 2-1 (Footscray, North and GWS), 1-1-1 (Adelaide and Geelong) and 0-3 (Collingwood). Unlike last year when we were desperately making up for lost time and soon to be reliant on Jack Ziebell doing incredible things, we are using this part of the year to set a platform from which to launch an attack at the big boys Hawthorn. Now it gets tricky with games against Freo, Hawthorn and Adelaide after which I suspect we’ll know more about exactly where we sit in the pecking order.

All in all, it was another forgettable game. We came out switched on but didn’t blow them away like we should have, we got serious for the second and third quarter and then let them erode the margin far more than we should have.

One encouraging part of the last couple of weeks is that we’ve tapped the much discussed depth without everything going pear shaped unlike earlier in the year and actually found a couple of players this time around. A swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that junk, but Lennon hinted at providing the creativity up forward that we have lacked from a medium sized forward since Browny and Lambert got busy and even managed to hit the scoreboard. On the flipside, McDonough looked miles off it and despite him being Twitter’s favourite that could be all she wrote unless we really get hit by the injury bus and Newman managed to snap a goal but the poor bugger is screaming mediocrity at the moment. Titch’s absence will likely buy him a few weeks, but every week Knights makes it through in the VFL without falling apart seems one closer to Newman’s final demise. Thank goodness he managed to get off this table when he did and how refreshing that Lynden Dunn heads that instead of the bad old days when Newy and Lids had nearly 100 games on everyone else in the competition.

The Gordon, Lambert, Lennon, Newman, McDonough, Morris selection roundabout will eventually sort itself out but the one question they’ll have to address is who is our best ruckman. Vickery’s suspension and Griff’s injury bought them this week but I thought it was fairly obvious that Hampson and Maric can’t play in the same 22, I don’t envy making the decision either. Do they go with Maric’s round the ground game and leadership, or Hampson’s dominant ruck work? Maric’s hitout numbers aren’t terrible, but Hampson does far more with them. Alternatively, Hampson’s field kicking leaves a bit to be desired and he still approaches marks inside 50 as if every marking contest is his first and when it gets to set shot stage he looks about as natural as Ronaldo did kicking the ball around on the G. Undoubtedly, Ivan has the credit in the bank but I’d love to see H and the rucks we are likely to face in the finals include Sandi, Nic Nat, McEvoy and Goldstein - all of whom have form over Maric. Whichever way they go, it’s a tough old decision.

While all the attention has been directed at Rance, Hardwick and Co have managed to build a settled and efficient backline that has only once this year given up more than 100 points. Not only are they stingy, they’re increasingly proving a source of attack. Vlastuin is unlikely to be the 20+ weekly stat padder we’d love him to but he seems more often than not to be on the right side of 15 now. Though at times he seems glacial like when he has the ball, Chaplin is finding his intercept groove again. Grimes and Batchelor have gone from fringe battlers to locked and loaded in the best 22 and Taylor Hunt has quietly stitched together a month of seriously good football.

Up forward we found a way to score goals. Jack, who must have been beyond distracted given the build up didn’t have his radar humming and none of Ty, Griff nor Titch was there but we still managed to find 13 goals from unusual sources in: Lennon, Vlastuin, Newman, Maric and Lambert. Against the really good teams it becomes more likely that Jack will be nullified by the better defenders so finding more guys who can hit the scoreboard between now and September is imperative and this was a pretty good start.

Lids was fantastic and his importance to our cause was perfectly summed up in the second quarter when we were faffing about with the ball inside our 50 and looked all the world like we were about to squander another goal before he simply grabbed it from a stray handball and hoofed it 15 rows back straight through the middle. No mucking around, no extra handball, just results. How far we go in this season and future years, might just depend on his achilles.

Final note

Good on both clubs in putting on such an occasion for a cause that was so close to the Riewoldt family. I didn’t know much Bone Marrow Failure Syndrome before it hit the news recently but it is a horrific disease that no person or family should go through.

Donate to the cause if you are able to.

Changes for next week

It’s increasingly hard to get a read on our injuries which I actually don’t mind but makes writing this section nearly pointless, but here is a stab at it anyway and a reminder that these are what I’d do rather than what I think they’ll do.

In: McBean, Griffiths and C Ellis

Out: McDonough, Newman and Maric

The votes

5: Brett Deledio

4: Taylor Hunt

3: Bachar Houli

2: Dustin Martin

1: Ben Lennon

Apologies: Chaplin, Grigg, Miles and Lambert.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

24: Dustin Martin

22: Trent Cotchin

18: Bachar Houli

17: Jack Riewoldt

16: Shane Edwards, Shaun Grigg and Alex Rance

15: Anthony Miles

14: Brett Deledio

12: Taylor Hunt

11: Brandon Ellis

8: Nick Vlastuin and Dylan Grimes

5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin, Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor

2: Sam Lloyd

1: Steven Morris, Ty Vickery, Shaun Hampson and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

18: Bachar Houli

16: Shaun Grigg

15: Anthony Miles

12: Taylor Hunt

5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin

1: Shaun Hampson

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

18: Bachar Houli

16: Shaun Grigg

3: Jake Batchelor and Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Stop! Hammer Time.

This tagline from that game was only ever going to one of two things: ‘Stop! Hammer Time.’ or ‘Stop Hammer Time’ and by the end of the night there was no room left on the Hampervan as he romped limped around the ground and gave us hitouts to advantage of the like not seen since Greg Dear in 1995. When he played last year Hampson was serviceable as ruck but no good in the dreaded forward-ruck role, which shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone seeing that was exactly his lot at Carlton. As the year wore on and Ivan rucked more and more, Hampson’s confidence unsurprisingly went belly up and his around the ground game suffered. He ended up getting thrown overboard after the Sydney loss and the next week we went off on the great nine game streak and the poor bugger has been left to rot in the VFL. Until tonight.

It’s not exactly an easy gig. Firstly, he came from Carlton hot on the heals of Grigg who five years into his stint at Richmond is still far from a fan favourite despite the fact he’s entrenched in our best 22 and playing some amazing footy. Secondly, he’s battling for a spot in the 22 with one of the most popular people on the planet, so if he does manage to get past Maric and into the 22 he is never going to be a favourite with the masses. Not quite to the extent of Adam Gilchrist debuting at Brisbane against Pakistan and getting all kinds of grief from the crowd because he had replaced Ian Healy but you get my drift. Queenslanders are incredibly odd but even they had probably left the angst behind when Gilly tee’d off for 81 runs in his first innings and then sending them to all corners of Bellerieve making 149 and helping us motor down a fourth innings target of 369.

I love Ivvy, you love Ivvy, we all love Ivvy and I’m not trying to say that beating Cameron Wood and Matthew Kruezer is the football equivalent of smacking around a bowling attack made up of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq but Hardwick and co. have a few questions to ask about who our best ruckman is, first against St Kilda and for the rest of the year. If Hampson’s knee is good to back up next week, and that’s a big if, he’s got my vote. Which should be comfort to him when he’s stuck playing in the freezing cold at some shithole like Frankston next week while Maric is getting run ragged by Tom Hickey.

What we do know though is that Ivan Soldo is the number one ruckman for the VFL team tomorrow and he has only played about 15 games of the sport in his whole life so god help us if something happens to both of them.

Being Richmond, this three week block of ‘should win’ games was never to going to be enjoyable or easy, but we are two thirds of the way to getting through unscathed. #bigboymonth might be slighly overdoing it but it is the time of year when the eight starts to take shape and with Collingwood and a few others around us leaving points on the table they will be an incredibly important 12 points come the pointy end of the season. Dropping the Melbourne (sigh) and Footscray (little bit of a sigh) games means that we can’t give up anymore gimmes and so far so good.

Earlier in the year when we were playing ordinary we were losing games, at the moment we are playing ordinary and winning ugly. Tonight wasn’t something to build the 2016 membership campaign around but it was four points none the less.

Perhaps I’m giving the selection team too much credit but I’ve found it interesting that Lambert, Newman, Morris and Gordon have got a run in these easier games. Some of those selections were forced through injury but could it be one last roll of the dice to see how they go? I didn’t hate Lambert’s game as sub and his run was important late, but Gordon battled all night and Newman and Morris looked exactly like a couple of small defenders who have been thrown forward out of desperation because we haven’t drafted anyone for that position since Andrew Krakouer in 2000. Carrying those four might work against GWS and Carlton, but we’ll get blown out of the water if we try and pull off such a swindle against Fremantle and Hawthorn in a few weeks. I can potentially be sold on Lambert if he can start kicking goals, but we’d have been better off with Lennon, McBean and Menadue than Newman, Morris and Gordon tonight. Whichever way they go, they definitely can’t carry all four and Gordon has looked OK when surrounded with good players so maybe he’s the one who can hang around.

All in all, I’d love to sit down with Hardwick for 20 minutes and ask him why he’s sticking with Morris and Newman despite all evidence suggesting that he stop doing so and then asking exactly the same question again when he started talking about character, leadership and how good they are around the club. All those things are really good, but it doesn’t count for much when they get nine disposals combined despite both playing a full game. Lambert was on for a quarter and he managed to find it 11 times.

We’ll likely need to find a replacement for Titch for the next month, which is terrible news for a range of reasons. Not the least of which because it will probably spare at least one of those two in the short term.

It truly was a terrible game. At quarter time when I did the inevitable flick over to the cricket Jimmy Anderson was bowling the most wonderful swing bowling and it was amazing to watch. As we all changed back to the footy after quarter time, we went back to being treated to Richmond bombing it inside 50, Carlton cutting it off and rebounding forward until some dud like Tom Bell or Jason Tutt turned it over or Rance treated Henderson as if he wasn’t there and the whole process started all over again. Time after time, we’ve had the ball in the wrong hands going inside fifty over the last couple of weeks. It’s all well and good to play Lids inside 50, but if that means that Gordon and Grigg are hoofing it in (not their fault, that’s their role) and on top of Jack’s head then we need to have another look at things. I suspect that part of the reason Newman is in the team is to fill that role but that is quite obviously not happening as covered above and much more explicitly on Twitter throughout the game. As we got going, Carlton tired and the game opened up in the last quarter we found some space and managed to get the ball in the right hands but too often this year we’ve struggled to win (or worse) games in which we’ve dominated the inside 50 count. And if someone could tell Dusty not to pass from anywhere within 60 metres that would be tops.

The one thing that hopefully everyone can agree on is that is an exceptionally ordinary Carlton team that’s playing above themselves on that mid-season new coach wave that we know so well. Gieschen comes to mind first with a dash of late season Rawlings resurgence after we finally gave Plough the boot. They’ve got some good kids, Cripps especially, but they are set up for a few years of pain and hopefully we can build on this streak of three and really lay down some hurt. I’d like to think that it crossed someone’s mind to make a pledge not to lose to them after that Elimination Final debacle but seeing they spent all summer talking about how they were desperate to get back to the finals before starting the next year 3-10 I suspect even if they did it didn’t mean very much. I’m still not sure I’ll forgive them for letting Nick Duigan kick four goals even if we won the next 150 against them so it’s all a bit of a waste of time thinking about it anyway.

Changes for next week

I’m not buying into the Watson and Stevo campaign to suspend Ty so he’s not listed here. Even though it is interesting that Watson seemed happy to hang Ty on national TV for a block after giving Hird a free-pass for jabbing up his son. I’m also assuming that Griff and C Ellis are at least one more week. It’s also 12.24 on Saturday morning and the VFL team starts playing at 12.12 (what a fantastic start time by the way) this afternoon so it’s probably just best to ignore this all together.

In: Menadue, McBean, Lennon and McDonough

Out: Newman, Morris, Gordon and Edwards

If Hampson can go again, let Maric earn his spot back the old fashioned way. Angry VFL Ivan would be a sight to behold.

The votes

5: Shaun Grigg

4: Brett Deledio

3: Alex Rance

2: Trent Cotchin

1: Shaun Hampson

Unlucky: Ellis, Jack, Vlastuin and Houli

Leaderboards

The Benny:

22: Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin

17: Jack Riewoldt

16: Shane Edwards, Shaun Grigg and Alex Rance

15: Anthony Miles and Bachar Houli

11: Brandon Ellis

9: Brett Deledio

8: Taylor Hunt, Nick Vlastuin and Dylan Grimes

5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin, Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor

2: Sam Lloyd

1: Steven Morris, Ty Vickery and Shaun Hampson

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

16: Shaun Grigg

15: Anthony Miles and Bachar Houli

8: Taylor Hunt

5: Ivan Maric

3: Troy Chaplin

1: Shaun Hampson

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

16: Shaun Grigg

15: Bachar Houli

3: Jake Batchelor and Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

A very dark week

Last week was a sad one for our sport, but more importantly the Walsh family.

Nobody should have to go through that, let alone in a public spotlight. Lord only knows what was going through Cy's mind at the time but I suspect he'd been haunted for a while. Domestic violence has many faces and the ugliness of it was again placed on our national agenda. If you suspect anyone in your networks, immediate or distant, is going through a hard time then please direct them to somewhere like Lifeline. 

Like everyone else on the Internet I had an opinion about whether the round should have gone ahead and if you asked me at 7:49pm on Friday evening I'd have said it should have been cancelled. But what better tribute to somebody who dedicated his adult life to AFL than Scott Pendlebury and Cyril Rioli exhibiting it in its best and purest form in front on 75,000 people at the MCG? Not to mention the onfield tributes from the players at the end of every game. Sport brings communities of people together and few sports do it better than AFL.

Over the weekend it was amazing to see our game stripped back to its core with no banners, songs or match-day experience. Personally I can do without anything before the game, get rid of the banners and songs full time. Our game doesn't need fabricated excitement, Pendlebury and Rioli create that on their own.

No match report this week, it doesn't feel right. It was a weekend to move away from analysis, ladder predictors and analysing who should get a gig next game and who shouldn't. There will be plenty of weekends for that in the future.

Listen to Jack and take the opportunity to tell those close to you that you love them.

The votes

5: Trent Cotchin
4: Dustin Martin
3: Alex Rance
2: Shane Edwards
1: Bachar Houli

Unlucky: Miles, Jack, Grigg and Batchelor.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

22: Dustin Martin

20: Trent Cotchin

17: Jack Riewoldt

16: Shane Edwards
15: Anthony Miles and Bachar Houli

13: Alex Rance
11: Shaun Grigg and Brandon Ellis
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 and 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:

15: Bachar Houli

11: Shaun Grigg
3: Jake Batchelor and Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.