If you build it, they will come

We'll have prettier wins (I hope) before the end of the year but I doubt we'll have many more more important.

It was in front of a lot of people, a factor we haven't handled well in the Hardwick era. Taking the record to 4-7 in front of 70,000+, a stat that weirdly evens out to 4-4 in front of 80,000+. All more impressive, and important, by the fact we had four players with less than 10 games.

This was one of those games where miserable neutral fans go out of their way to tell you how ugly it was. As if we should care about the state of any game in which you defeat Essendon in front of 83,804 people. Newsflash: don't care one little bit. Winning ugly is OK by me and something at which Dimma and this crew are only just getting good.

That takes us to 3-0 in the McME Era (McBean, Menaue, Ellis) and leaves McBean himself 2-0 in front of over 140,000 people from two starts, Menadue's is 3-0 in front of 185,000 people. At this point it's fun to imagine Dimma walking through corn fields communicating with the heavens after the North loss. Compare those records to the fact it took: Titch 12 games, Newy nine and Dusty eight to salute. Titch lost by a total of 379 points before he played in a win. Still you could be Adam Tomlinson who played 21 before his first win, which was only against Melbourne, and now they've come good he has seemingly fallen out of favour and the poor bastard will probably end up at Carlton. Or maybe he will retire before he reaches 50 games so he doesn't end up on this dreaded table that not all that long ago was littered with Richmond players.

For a seemingly endlessly under-achieving club, Richmond players and supporters are very fortunate to be a part of such a wonderful stage as Dreamtime. Our record in the fixture has been ordinary in recent years while, damningly, we've been more successful in the return fixture against the Dons when the heat has been off. Had McBean, Menadue, Ellis and McIntosh been Hampson, Gordon, Lloyd and Thomas the win would have been equally as important but not so special. There is something really cool about winning big games and positioning ourselves for the future at the same time, not many teams have been able to do that as it's usually one or the other.

It is impossible to be anything other than thrilled for Titch. This fixture has thrust him into a position of leadership that I suspect he may not have sought, but his improvement as a footballer can be linked to his escalation as a leader. On a weekend where some of the football media and public has let themselves down by questioning Adam Goodes' right to be indigenous during Indigenous Round, the video of Titch and his family's story is the best thing I've seen the club produce, and they produce a lot of good stuff. When someone as relatively inoffensive and inane as Nathan Burke goes on the ABC (five minutes in to that clip FFS) and compares Goodes' war-dance to someone flipping the bird it makes you realise we've got a long way to go. But it's inspiring and makes me proud that Richmond ahead of the curve. To top if off Titch played a blinder night is one of the best players in the competition in the incredibly niche area of clearing the ball from a kick to a pack rebounding from 50. 

It's also the second week in a row that we've weathered the other team running at us in the third quarter and giving up only very limited damage. Wave after wave off Essendon attacks off half back were shut down and eventually they stopped coming. Our lot looked completely physically done towards the end of that quarter, but like the last three weeks, came again and kicked away in the last. Maybe there was something in all that talk about how fit we are coming out of pre-season.

One of the best things about the last three wins is the lack of panic when things aren't going our way. All of Collingwood, Port and Essendon have come at us and it's not that long ago that rolling over and surrendering the lead was the usual behaviour during this occurance. The Dons controlled the game for stretches of time but only managed eight goals. Our midfielders are running harder to defend and our key defenders are light years ahead of where they were this time last year in one-on-one marking contests than this time last year. Rance is a given, but Grimes and Batchelor have gone from liability against key forwards to rarely beaten, both are invaluable for their ability to play on small, medium or talls. Daniher and Carlisle got off the chain at different stages but given the amount of ball directed at them, 16 marks between them is hardly disastrous. Chaplin had as bad a 15 minutes as is possible to start, but recovered to play the next 105 in his usual calm and controlled manner, regularly freeing himself to be the spare and kill a contest.

While I'm on Daniher and Jake 'I kicked eight goals against the Bulldogs last year' Carlisle, how good to see the skipper get up in Daniher's grill as he was taking that shot on half time, and continue the verbal onslaught even though he kicked it before leaving Carlisle sprawled over the ground and our lot coming from far and wide the fly the flag. It was hardly Dermie and Hawthorn in the 1989 grand final but it was ace to see McBean and McIntosh right amongst it for many reasons but mostly because I can't stand Essendon.

The fact I can't stand Essendon is well placed because that looks like a playing list that is about to fall off a cliff. We all like Adam Cooney but what on earth is he doing there other than seeing out time? As much as we all like Cooney, nobody can stand Chapman and I'm equally baffled as to why they persisted with him for a second year. It's much like the last few RHCP albums in that you can't help but wonder if they've not made enough cash on their earlier work without taking a dump all over their legacy in their later years. Once upon a time Chapman was one of the best players in the competition but now he's just an angry old man who can't keep up with younger players and his presence (or lack of) hurt them on a few occasions last night.

One of the in-vogue phrases in footy is 'gut running' or as I like to call it 'running', however you choose to word it we have gone and got really good at it. Brandon Ellis, Grigg, Hunt and McIntosh all run out games as hard as they start them. Ellis especially was brilliant last night, regularly looking exhausted before dragging himself to the next contest at a good clip. His ability to look spent before willing himself on for another two or three goes is remnant of Judd and Cousins at their peak. Grigg, coming off a hot month but not as individually sensational last night, should take faith that my very casual football observing other half recognised him by name during the game much to my bemusement in what was victory for my continued faith in otherwise unfashionable Richmond players.

Speaking of hard running, Corey Ellis' goal that sealed the deal was something else and possibly the only time we've seen a sub have immediate impact. And thank you to Luke Darcy for reminding in commentary that he was activated as a sub and not running around against the rules.

Everybody played their role. Even the guys at the lower end of the possession scale impacted: Griff was hurting but continued to present though I doubt he'll be ready in time for Friday so god knows what selection we'll throw up without he and Vickery, Morris only had six possessions but his pressure acts were through the roof and that will keep him in Hardwick's (if not Twitter's) good books and the 22, McBean was far from disgraced by a player with 200 times the experience, Grimes was magnificent (spoiler alert) in killing their entries, Jack was happy to revert to decoy forward against the form key defender in the competition and Menadue runs as hard and fearless as possible for a skinny teenager.

Dimma as well deserves an abundance of credit, who for the second week in a row clearly out-coached his opponent and the strategies they have gone in against Port and Essendon have made the victories possible. It wasn't that long ago that we wondered if there was a Plan B and it seems that on the plane home from Hobart it was discovered alongside Plan C. They laboured with the footy last night and, as often pointed out, it was far from pretty but brutally effective. Essendon crave you kicking long in the forward line and we refused to give them that, but it sill helps when Carlisle is missing goals from dead in front.

From here we go to Fremantle with the pressure off and a week off to follow. It's the perfect scenario to have a ping at the stumps. I doubt they'll get it done but I reckon they'll make as good a go at it as anyone else against Fremantle so far.

Changes next week

If Griffiths isn't fully good to go they should give him the full two weeks to freshen up, he's going to be very important as we make a run at it in the second half of the year.

In: Lennon (as a high half forward)
Out: Griffiths (if injured)

It will be fascinating to see what they do if Griff isn't fit. McBean will really struggle to ruck against Sandilands (as anyone would) would so it might even be time to play Hampson. Probably best to hope that Griff can play.

The votes

5: Brandon Ellis
4: Shane Edwards
3: Dylan Grimes
2: Dustin Martin
1: Brett Deledio

Unlucky: everyone, but especially Cotchin, McIntosh and Vlastuin.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

14: Shane Edwards

12: Jack Riewoldt

11: Shaun Grigg and Trent Cotchin

10: Jack Riewoldt and Bachar Houli

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

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
8: Anthony Miles and Taylor Hunt
5: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Blitzkrieg Bop

Sunday 4.40 games are the worst and life is getting in the way, so despite that awesome performance this is a very shortened post.

We've had better wins under Hardwick but it's hard to think of tougher wins. Port threw their AFL subsidised kitchen sink at us in the third quarter and, despite everything that's happened in the last few years indicating we'd pack it in, we saw off their blitzkrieg.

Everyone did their bit. Jack was amazing (hi Mark Maclure) and the forwards took their chances when they came, Ivan battled all three of Lobbe, Ryder and Westhoff and more than held his own, the midfield hunted as one despite Cotchin getting worked over by Kane Cornes who I can't work out why he is retiring and the backline was tireless in holding back Port's advance. As the RTT lads said so eloquently, they were the real MVP.

From the start it was hot. You wouldn't realise from the scoreline but Port kicked off the match just as electrically as they did the final last year, only this time we were ready and eventually took ascendency. Then, unlike some games this year, we took advantage of the opportunities that came. If we'd did that against Melbourne and Footscray we'd be 6 and 2 and being talked up as the only Victorian hope. Even though we aren't 6 and 2, we are still one of only two Victorian clubs who have managed to salute the judges against Port at Adelaide Oval. Also, Port's score was the second lowest at the ground since Carlton last year and look at the last 24 hours they've just had.

It doesn't matter who has coached Richmond over the last 30 years, we've been at our best when we are hunting the player with the ball. On countless occasions we made a Port player think twice about how much time they had and forced a turnover or a kick to one-on-one. I assume that's what it's like watching Sydney every week and it must be lots of fun.

One play that stood out to me, was Rance pulling off a spoil running back with the flight that is all but impossible under the new rule interpretation. I was so impressed and gobsmacked that I couldn't help but be a little flat when Westhoff went one better half an hour later and managed to mark it in the same situation, but then he turned the ball straight over and we kicked a goal so I guess the joke was on him.

Port are down on form, but they were always going to hit back in the second quarter and when they waltzed out of the middle straight from the first bounce and found Wingard completely on his own in the pocket (how does that even happen from a centre bounce?) I was worried that this week was going to be back to good old 'close your eyes and think of England' and they were about to pound us senseless for daring to stick out heads up at their beloved Adelaide Oval with their singing and noise. But it didn't happen in that quarter or the third. How cool?

It is nice to see they can fill a stadium adequately enough to not need to roll out teal tarps, but I was still thrilled to spoil Kane Cornes' party. Good on him, 300 games is an amazing effort, but I wasn't a little bit sad to see glum looking Port players chairing him off. Other than Dyl pushing that poor bastard who was injured on the ground, we doubled it up with being entirely respectful about the whole thing. Which I think must be annoying if you are Cornes, because the last thing you want to see heading off the ground is the 22 blokes who just beat you in your last game. It wasn't as good as when Richo towelled up SOS in his 300th to the extent they had to quietly shift him forward to save further embarrassment, but it was right up there. Just imagine if we spoil that big dopey git's 400th party this weekend, it would be amazing.

A couple of final player shout outs. It was good to see Hunt and McIntosh run themselves back into form, and I literally mean run. When we are up and about their ability to run and spread with the ball and close space on opponents when they've got it a proper addition. If we are still around at the pointy end when everyone slows down a bit, those two could be very important and they are exactly the kind of players we've missed in our two brief glimpses at the finals so far.

Finally and snarkily, how good to see Matty White looking like an exceptionally ordinary footballer again after he played ten good games for us after a decade on the list, bolted for the money and then let Port players make him look good? He'll be running around at some godforsaken place like West Torrens before long and I'm content with being bitter enough to joy from that. He is a front runner of the highest order.

Changes for next week

In: McBean
Out: Vickery

I'd give Ellis one more go at it. He was very quiet but I'm not all that sure McDonough would offer much more on a really big stage. As far as I'm concerned Menadue can stay in the side for life after dropping that dagger from 50.

The votes

5: Jack Riewoldt
4: Ivan Maric
3: Taylor Hunt
2: Brett Deledio
1: Alex Rance

Unlucky: Everyone, but especially the backline, forwards and midfielders.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

12: Jack Riewoldt

11: Shaun Grigg and Trent Cotchin

10: Shane Edwards, Jack Riewoldt and Bachar Houli
8: Anthony Miles and Taylor Hunt
7: Dustin Martin and Alex Rance
6: Nick Vlastuin
5: Ivan Maric
4: Brandon Ellis and Brett Deledio
3: Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor
2: Sam Lloyd
1: Dylan Grimes

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
8: Anthony Miles and Taylor Hunt
5: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Getting Griggy With It

If you want a player that sums up the Hardwick Era to date, you don't need to look any further than Shaun Grigg. Often criticised, rarely given credit when it's earned, looks like a fish out of water when we can't get our style going but when he's on, the team is on. And, oh yeah, something about Moneyball.

Grigg went head to head with Scott Pendlebury this afternoon and beat him senseless. That's right, Grigg beat Pendlebury on a TKO, and that was the ballgame. When our guns got going late in the game Pendles couldn't, and that was the difference. Plenty of other water went under the bridge, but if Pendles gets off the chain and registers his usual 30 possessions that's worth plenty more to them than  the five points we won by in the end.

Today's result just rams home how fickle the industry and us as fans are. After everything went south against North last weekend it was hard to see a win anywhere on the radar, Dimma and Cotchin were being questioned by media and fans alike, Ty was on the outer and team selection was underwhelming. Fast forward a week and we've just knocked off Collingwood, Port and Essendon look gettable, Cotchin has put in one of the great individual Richmond quarters of the last decade, Ty is kicking clutch goals and we've just played Elton, McIntosh, Ellis, McBean and Menadue with eight games between them before today.

And without a single word of a lie, as I was typing this Spotify just threw up Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds which is probably the most fitting song there could possibly be.

I don't particularly buy into the one team has it over another angle, especially when you've had as big a turnover of players as we have in a relatively short amount of time. We hadn't beaten Collingwood since 2007 because Collingwood has been better than us in that time, often much better. A few hours later Menadue, McBean, Elton, Hunt, McIntosh and Corey Ellis have never played in a losing Richmond team against Collingwood, and that's all that really matters right now.

What was really interesting away from the field was Nick Maxwell, who is annoyingly a really good boundary commentator, talking about how Collingwood has got themselves up for games against us since 2009 when Kingy and Hislop declared WW3 and they brained us by 93 points. There are some really killer highlights in that clip, my favourites are Cousins walking over and standing behind the umpire, Nahas not really knowing what to do, Hislop with one of the great jumper punches of the modern age on Maxwell and Lids taking on two of them at once so unsuccessfully that for a brief moment it looks like two Collingwood players are boxing on against each other. Weren't they the good old days?

Back at the ranch, Cotchin today was the player and leader we know he can and desperately want him to be. He's got a habit of blowing out the cobwebs after either the team or he has been in the spotlight, so hopefully he can back it up again because that fourth quarter was other worldly. Including this piece of wizardry when he pick pocketed Seedsman who was threatening to send Collingwood forward. An underrated part of that clip is Ty dumping Nathan Brown over the line, hot on the heels of dumping Dane Swan over the same line. Neither was dirty but Ty just likes letting players know he's around and there is nothing wrong with that.

They're going to come up against much better teams than Collingwood before the season is done, but it was refreshing to see a much more mobile structure right across the ground.

Up forward, McBean and Vickery move quickly enough to be turn and transition back at goal where some of our other forwards (Griff) can get lost. That lets Riewoldt roam wherever he pleases when he's feeling it like he was today. Add in Brett Deledio, and off a sudden that's a setup that will get you 15 goals more often than not.

Down back, Elton is big and quick enough to potentially take on the gorillas in the long term and free up Rance, I'm not all that sure about anyone manning Travis Cloke in their second game but given the euphoria of a win that's not worth delving into right now. Grimes seems to have thrown off the handbreak in the last few weeks and trust his hamstrings again, today was back to the very best of his closing speed  and run and dash off half back. Maybe next year when we get his brother for a fourth round draft pick from Melbourne they'll set up as the most awkward defensive duo sense the Kellaway brothers.

In the middle we moved freely and directly for four quarters for the first time all year. Even in the first quarter when everything looked worse than Frank Lowy handing over a trophy, it was execution going forward rather than how we were actually trying to do. Brandon Ellis forgot how to kick for half an hour and we made Collingwood look good by gifting them easy goals in transition. 'Lowering the eyes' is one of the most overdone and tortured sayings in AFL, and at the risk of never being invited to be a part of Channel 7's commentary team we do it too much. For a few weeks we had over thought entries inside 50, looking for the perfect option for so long that we'd ignored three or four OK options. When you've got Jack Riewoldt playing, kicking to an OK option is, well, OK. Jack makes things happen just through his presence, and by getting it in quickly after quarter time they were able to create some chaos among Collingwood's half reasonable backline.

Somehow I've just gone and finished a paragraph that was supposed to be about our midfield by banging on about how good Jack is.

Of the kids: I want to see Corey Ellis in the 22 for good, that ground ball he delivered to Grigg on the wing was of a quality well above his pay grade. McBean didn't dominate the stat sheet but held his own and I really like the way he brings the ball to the front if he's not going to mark it, he and Ty will drive a few sides spare roaming the flanks over the next couple of years. We had plenty worse than Elton, and he looked more at ease than Astbury has since coming back from injury. Though Menadue didn't get a stack of it when he came on, he was in the right spots and probably learned more from that half hour than he would have in four VFL games, but he is built like David Bourke and I suspect we may not see him again until 2016 but I'm OK with that if Ellis and McIntosh are playing.

All in all, it was a dash of 2013's freedom footy with a shake of 2014's tempo. If they play like that for the rest of the year then they'll win more than they lose.

One final shout out to Stevie Morris, who despite not having a huge clue about how to play forward is making things happen. He hits the ball so hard and quick that he often forces it forward just through his presence. Sure, he scared the bejesus out of you, I, McIntosh and a cat when he played on with someone right next to him, but it ended up OK in the end. I'm not as anti the whole experiment as I was a few weeks ago but still keen for us to draft at least 43 forward pockets in November.

And how good to hear Bucks throw the toys out of the cot because Travis gets a few free kicks paid against him?

Changes for next week

In: Conca and Edwards
Out: Hunt and Menadue

Not that Hunt was all that bad but I'm pretty keen to get Conca back in the side. He gives them the dash Hunt is adding and is a little cleaner by foot. Menadue will be back one day, but at the moment I can't see him playing in the same team as Titch.

The votes

5: Shaun Grigg
4: Trent Cotchin
3: Jack Riewoldt
2: Brett Deledio
1: Dylan Grimes

Unlucky: Everyone, but especially Maric, Brandon Ellis, Houli and Rance.

Leaderboards

The Benny:

11: Shaun Grigg and Trent Cotchin

10: Shane Edwards, Jack Riewoldt and Bachar Houli
8: Anthony Miles
7: Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin
6: Alex Rance and Nick Vlastuin
5: Taylor Hunt
4: Brandon Ellis
3: Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths and Jake Batchelor
2: Sam Lloyd and Brett Deledio
1: Ivan Maric and Dylan Grimes

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
8: Anthony Miles
5: Taylor Hunt
1: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh


Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

11: Shaun Grigg

10: Bachar Houli
3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Road to nowhere

If Newspoll ran figures on coaching approval ratings I imagine Dimma’s numbers would be somewhere around those of Vladamir Putin's outside of Russia.

After North went on a tear and ended the context, exactly as they did last year. Hardwick trotted out the tried and true ‘20 minute lapses’ line, he trots it out that often that if in fact he was a politician you’d swear they must have internal polling that it’s what the people want to hear. If I hear anything remotely like ‘stop the goals’ then I’m taking to Punt Road with a flamethrower.

There is a different way to flip the lapses argument. Given they happen with more regularity than someone on a diet of Metamucil and prunes, is it fair if good teams only need to turn it on for 20 minutes to beat us? Someone should put that up for that god awful weekly video where he uses selected stats from two years ago to try and make himself us feel better about the fact that the ship is sailing along the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe and completely oblivious that the Victoria Falls are just around the corner.

While it is true that this time last year we were all bemoaning how awful everything was before they dramatically turned it around, but as unlikely as that seemed last year, it seems ten times as unlikely this year.

To be fair to Dimma and whoever else from our coaching staff is yet to leave for Brisbane without being replaced, they can’t exactly go out there and kick it for them. From Ivvy missing from dead in front and (insert player)’s fascination with hoofing it into the middle of the ground and into the waiting arms of Goldstein, Hansen or Tarrant you’d swear that they had it in for him.

The third quarter was about as bleak as I can remember. They were rudderless, leaderless, directionless and you may as well head here to cut out the middle-man.

Blow by blow, here are the things they managed to jack up in that quarter. These are only the ones that happened on camera, so who knows what kind of shenanigans were going on behind the play.

Sorted by time remaining.

19:45 - Ellis waits before kicking to Riewoldt, changing a one-on-one to a two-on-one.

19:28 - Maric completely outbodied by Goldstein in a ball up.

19:05 - Dusty overruns the ball and North clear from our forward line.

18:56 - Bachar gets caught ball watching and Boomer clears the ball up the wing to a free North midfielder.

18:43 - Cotchin scuffs a kick going forward, North clear defence easily.

18:33 - Tarrant breaks a Gordon tackle, and finds a loose man with a handball

17:57 - Ellis misses a relatively easy set shot.

17:46 - McIntosh over-commits in a two-on-one marking contest on our half forward flank, Wood clears easily for North.

17:32 - Cotchin fails to hit Gordon on the full from 25 metres, he recovers but more pressure on play than should have been.

17:28 - Gordon gets it back to Cotchin, who then fails to hit a completely free Riewoldt.

17:22 - Ball spills free from Cotchin’s missed pass to Riewoldt, Cotchin then tackles Thompson high and gives away a free kick.

16:47: Bachar misses a tackle on Ben Jacobs who kicks North inside 50.

16:43: Vlastuin tackles Lindsay Thomas high, Thomas goals from exactly same part of the ground that Ellis missed from. Thomas then gets stuck into Vlastuin, Miles is the only Richmond player who cares enough to fly the flag.

15:14 - Lachie Hansen somehow finds himself completely free 50 metres out from a Boomer kick in.

14:32 - Jack gets stuck behind Thompson and is out-marked in a one-on-one.

13:30 - Gordon bungles an inside 50, Tarrant marks uncontested.

13:10 - Bachar fails to effectively tackle Higgins on our 50, North clear.

12:52 - Morris marks uncontested in the middle of the ground, handballs to Vlastuin who is standing still and is tackled by Ben Brown. Luckily the ball spills to Chaplin.

11:52 - Maric wins centre bounce but palms ball straight to Ziebell.

11:22 - Grimes wins a free but turns over a 45 metre pass straight to Goldstein, North stream forward, ball ends up with Petrie who kicks a goal.

10:33 - Higgins marks unopposed 53 metres out, Rance gives away a stupid 50 metre penalty, Higgins goals.

10:10 - Deledio gives an (admittedly very hard) handball to Rance’s feet, Rance swamped by North players, Richmond clear from desperation but kick straight to Hansen.

9:12 - Martin floats a kick across the ground transitioning off half back, Goldstein spoils, ball ends up with Thomas who goals.

8:19 - Miles gets a free kick from the centre bounce, tries an impossibly hard 15 metre short pass and North gain possession.

7:58 - Houli tackles Thomas high.

7:44 - Thomas floats a pass into the pocket, Waite marks uncontested amongst three Richmond defenders, goals.

6:42 - Morris leaves a tough set shot from 50 just short and North rush a behind.

5:40 - Dusty gives away holding free kick against Boomer just outside 50.

5:22 - Astbury spills a mark deep in defence, luckily ball goes through for a behind.

5:00 - Grigg floats a kick out of 50 to the wing, Sam Wright (of all people) marks near uncontested in a pack.

4:56 - Titch gives away just about the stupidest 50 metre penalty possible, Wright goals.

4:22 - Miles floats a handball out of a pack, intercepted by Cunnington.

4:15 - McIntosh scuffs a kick inside 50 straight to Wright, who clears.

3:46 - Deledio scrambles a kick forward from the wing, Wright beats two Richmond players and clears the ball.

3:23 - Dusty completely misses Deledio on an uncontested handball, Lids recovers but in more pressure than he should have been.

3:14 - Deledio then turns ball straight over in the middle of the ground to Gibson.

2:43 - Maric floats ball into middle of the group coming out of inside 50 and straight Wright, who then passes to an uncontested Waite.

1:59 - Vlastuin slips and drops a chest mark from the kick-in, balls ends up with Thomas who goals.

1:45 - Cunnington out bodies two Richmond players at the centre bounce to win a contest ball and send North forward again.

1:22 - Maric wins boundary throw in convincingly to Titch who fumbles the ball under very little pressure, forced to scramble to recover footy to Miles who kicks under pressure to a Riewoldt two-on-one and Hansen marks.

0:19 - Thomas beats two Richmond players to a contested footy, sends North forward.

0:02 - Dusty goes one handed for a mark, spills ball and is saved by siren.

Richmond under Hardwick and Don Draper have more in common than you realise. The best bits have left me sitting agog and wondering how such things can come about, but always sensing it’s not long before I'll be screaming ‘what the f$%k are you doing?’ at the TV and wondering why Steven Morris (not actually out worst on Saturday) is playing up forward or Don is cheating on Megan.

Thought, at the end of the day I still like both of them despite the awful things they have put me through and hold out hope that things will turn for the better. Don only has one episode left, Dimma has two-thirds of a season. Come September, they’ll probably both be out of my lives and I'll be scampering for a replacement and sad about things didn’t work out.

At least Don will have good times with Sylvia to remember when it all started to go wrong, Nick Duigan probably didn’t even buy Dimma a drink after he did the deed.

Changes for next week

Who knows what they’ll end up doing, I’ve given up trying to get a read on it.

Ins: McBean, Vickery, Arnot, Dea, Thomas, Menadue and Lennon

Outs: Griffiths (assuming he’s crook), Newman, Morris, Hunt, Astbury, Gordon and McIntosh (who I like but looks cooked)

The votes

5: Anthony Miles

4: Jack Riewoldt

3: Dustin Martin

2: Nick Vlastuin

1: Jake Batchelor

The Benny:

10: Shane Edwards and Bachar Houli

8: Anthony Miles

7: Trent Cotchin, Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin

6: Alex Rance, Shaun Grigg and Nick Vlastuin

5: Taylor Hunt

4: Brandon Ellis

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

2: Sam Lloyd

1: Ivan Maric

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

10: Bachar Houli

8: Anthony Miles

6: Shaun Grigg

5: Taylor Hunt

1: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

10: Bachar Houli

6: Shaun Grigg

3: Jake Batchelor

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.

Born To Run

Remembering back to the glory days of 2013, Richmond played fearless. It was possession based but they played on where there was an opportunity and looked to go direct.

Then to address the (completely fair) criticism over us giving up easy goals the other way, it was tightened, too much. It’s still possession based but less direct and more time consuming. We used to hunt in packs on the run, but now it’s murder by a thousand short passes. If you have players to pull it off it would be a perfectly fine plan, but it’s abundantly clear to everyone, assuming Hardwick’s ‘we can beat anyone’ tirade is a smokescreen, that our list doesn’t have the depth to pull it off.

Despite the loss, I was encouraged to see that plan chucked in favour of run, play on and attack at all costs. In the end it didn’t work, but it should have. For once, we weren’t beaten because we were out coached, we were beaten because Geelong has Selwood and Hawkins who refuse to lose, while we’ve got a playing list that looks as if we’ve forgotten how to win.

Who’s fault is this? God knows. Of the tens of thousands of words written throughout the week only this great piece in The Roar leaves you any wiser. It isn’t just Hardwick or Cotchin, to pinpoint one problem is to do the situation an injustice, as Cam explained in that piece it’s a mix of things: a little bit of list management, development, game-plan, leadership and culture within the club.

One thing that we are just going to have to get used to is this list isn’t winning a grand final. Which is disappointing, but isn’t a surprise given:'

• a) the train wreck Hardwick inherited in 2010; and
• b) the compromised drafts that he’s had to deal within that time.

Given the state we were in when he turned up, it’s criminal that the highest pick he’s ever got his hands on was pick six. From there we’ve had to find value through shallow drafts at the same time expansion teams were handed picks through necessity, Collingwood and the Dogs went and got them through amazing list management and Melbourne gifted them because they’re a joke.

If it goes pear shaped for the rest of the year, and how good that pear shaped now means missing the finals instead of bottom four, changes will need to be made. That’s most likely Dimma, but unless it comes with a reasonable major restructure of the list and recruitment strategies, we’ll continue to tread water in the middle of the ladder.

Which all brings us up to a round five match that was widely billed as a ‘must win’ for Richmond. Thankfully we didn’t buy into that like when Plough would publicly declare games ones we just have to win, and generally just raised questions about what would happen when inevitably didn’t. But Brendan Gale weirdly did say that the media speculation around Dimma was ‘bullshit’ which it is, but that might come back to haunt him and will just be another example of why people in footy never give proper answers. Following quickly on the heels of when Jack agreed that things weren’t going swimmingly and he got chased to the train station by Matt Thompson which is still one the strangest things I’ve ever seen happen in footy and not far behind when he was concussed and tried to crawl up the stairs and sneak on the ground in that night we were robbed of a win against St Kilda when the umpire at the end pinged McGuane for that deliberate behind rule so disastrously that nobody has ever been nabbed on it since. Strange things seem to happen with Jack, that’s why we like him and boring people don’t.

Coming (back) to the actual game…. I don’t think it is as bleak as has been reported, and by reported I mean people going nuts on Twitter. Ideally we’d win, but we don’t really do ideally. Maybe I’ve just become so used to getting owned by Geelong that I’m glad we’ve made them earn it twice in a row. If we’d have had the confidence of a winning team we’d have run over them, but more importantly we torched set shots, especially early on which is becoming a really nasty habit.

What was really strange was that and makes this very hard is that, other than Bachar who was outstanding all day, almost all of our team drifted in and out of the contest. We looked god awful for a half and then all of a sudden the switch was flicked either by the coaches who must have realised we were pushing shit up hill or the playing group who’d decided they’d had enough of kicking sideways. It doesn’t really matter which because I think that everyone was onto our tactic of moving it in really slowly and bombing it to the top of the goal square and this traditionally is particularly disastrous against Harry Taylor.

Moving the ball in a hurry all of a sudden made our forward issues look a lot less daunting (funny that) but we are still a mess down back. Our inability to produce a small forward worth a pinch means that we now can’t develop small defenders to stop them at the other end. Just add that to the list of issues, is there even anyone in the VFL we could bring into do the job? Don’t answer that. For a club that generally plays a low risk style, the lack of defenders and defensively minded midfielders on the list is concerning.

Grigg beat Selwood senseless for three quarters but there was a sense of inevitably that he’d hit back when it counted, and he did. He and Hawkins have a fourth quarter ‘I don’t like losing beast mode’ that ours don’t. It’s to the point now where we have to do something drastic like offering to make Selwood the highest paid player in the competition and switch clubs, there aren’t many of him but we need one. I like that Rance threw the ball into his face though, that kind of stuff should happen more often.

I’m sure this is over simplifying, but I have questions over our strategy of repeatedly sending out Hardwick or assistant coaches to talk about how underrated and important to our structures Titch is. Because after playing against three teams who’d left him alone, Geelong sure as hell were very aware and addressed the situation. It’s like when you read articles about a city that has a security flaw that could be a potential target for terrorists and you think ummmm can you shut up? Carlton have a lot of issues, but you’d never hear Malthouse come out and say ‘we aren’t much chop but Kade Simpson is really important so if you want to make sure of an easy win lock down on him’. Sure, real clubs understand that, but teams that don’t do research (us) leave him alone game after game and he rips them apart.

One of the good things about playing the same way for the last 18 months is that we’ve got the potential to get teams on the hop if we mix it up. If we run at North as hard as we ran at Geelong in the second half we’ll give them something to think about. When we move the footy quickly Jack stops being confused about where he sits in the game plan and starts simply getting the ball, Corey Ellis found his feet as we did, Dusty and Brandon Ellis got moving forward instead of sideways and all of Grigg, Hunt and McIntosh stopped looking like liability by foot to hard running machines kicking into space. Right now I must sound like I’m writing after a hard fought victory, but I’ll take mini wins where I can after losing to Melbourne.

Lennon really struggled to get into the game, but I’m disappointed that he was the one subbed. Obviously it isn’t ideal to have a guy getting three disposals in a half, but he would have been more suited by the style of play in the second half. He looked like someone who’d got used to the speed of the VFL, but so did Ellis to start with, and I’m not sure what we’ll gain when they inevitably drop him, bring him back in six weeks and repeat the process. Meanwhile the use of Lloyd was baffling, they continue to treat him like a 19 year old who’ll come good. He’s not, he’s 25, and he won’t come good, leave Lennon on next time thanks. Ivan needs some help as well, he battled on as he always will but either Vickery needs to take more centre bounces or we need to play Hampson, which I’m up for just for the laughs.

Changes for next week

I had the luxury of watching the VFL for the first time this year and so for once there is a tiny bit of thought behind this.

In: Grimes

Out: Lloyd

I doubt Griff will come up after one week on a calf injury and as much as I’d like to have Morris out I just don’t see who comes back. Grimes is hardly the future but North will get it forward quickly and often, and I’m scared to think what will happen if we go in one defender short again. And it was super fun watching Astbury go forward because he went alright and we actually NEVER play anyone out of position and I enjoyed it to the extent that I most definitely need to get out of the house a lot more.

The votes:

5: Bachar Houli

4: Shaun Grigg

3: Trent Cotchin

2: Jack Riewoldt

1: Ivan Maric

The Benny:

10: Shane Edwards and Bachar Houli

7: Trent Cotchin

6: Alex Rance and Shaun Grigg

5: Taylor Hunt

4: Brandon Ellis, Dustin Martin and Nick Vlastuin

3: Kamdyn McIntosh, Chris Newman, Ben Griffiths, Anthony Miles and Jack Riewoldt

2: Sam Lloyd and Jake Batchelor

1: Ivan Maric

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award:

10: Bachar Houli

6: Shaun Grigg

5: Taylor Hunt

3: Anthony Miles

1: Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player:

3: Kamdyn McIntosh

Joel Bowden's Golden Left Boot:

10: Bachar Houli

6: Shaun Grigg

Greg Tivendale Rookie List Medal:

No votes yet.