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.

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.

Clenched fists, full hearts

You can't go around punching people, it's not on.

Ty shouldn't have done what he did. I wished he hadn't but, after the event, I'm not unhappy that he did.

It's a competitive field but my lowlight of this turgid season is the Cotchin-Macaffer brouhaha when our captain was rag dolled all night without the slightest indication that anyone was willing to do something about it.

Cox swung an elbow at Vickery and he got knocked out for his troubles. Ideal? Far from it. Necessary? Not even close. But as Dermie points out Cox has got away with that caper his whole career. As fine as that career is, he threw one too many elbows on Friday night.

Richmond needed to stopped being bullied to be relevant again. Perhaps it peaked at Cotchin-Macaffer and ended with Ty? It wasn't tough or courageous, but it could be a message to everyone else.

Ty will get whacked at the tribunal and rightly so. He's got more than a few factors working against him: he knocked him out with a punch (doesn't sound great when you put it like that), it was a Friday night, it dominated 24 hours of footy discussion and he took down Bambi. You take down Bambi at your own peril.

If Ty was Stefan Martin, Cox was Charlie Dixon and this had taken place yesterday, we'd barely have heard a murmur about it. But Ty is Ty, Cox is Bambi, if your aunty had balls she'd be your uncle and Ty is headed straight to the tribunal on Tuesday night.

If a free kick had been paid against Cox for the swinging elbow, which exhibited by the meek 'Deano, no' warnings, the umpire saw, it would never have happened. But that's no excuse for knocking someone out. It's bad umpiring though and they shouldn't be calling players nicknames, but that's a completely different rant.

It's a 4-5 week job that will see out Ty's year and is a good chance to get a jump on his pre-season with the usual shoulder clean up taking place in August rather than September. It could give Ben Griffiths a month to show everyone he's up to it and bump up his trade value from a fifth to a third rounder.

In the meantime, let the character assassination continue. Not many people like you Ty, but I do.

Votes

5: Brett Deledio

4: Dylan Grimes

3: Nathan Foley

2: Matt Thomas

1: Ivan Maric

Leaderboards

The Benny

28: Brandon Ellis

27: Dustin Martin

25: Trent Cotchin

20: Jack Riewoldt

18: Alex Rance

14: David Astbury

13: Shaun Hampson

11: Bachar Houli and Ricky Petterd

10: Daniel Jackson and Brett Deledio

8: Reece Conca and Anthony Miles

6: Steven Morris, Matt Thomas and Ty Vickery

5: Shane Edwards and Nathan Foley

4: Sam Lloyd, Dylan Grimes and Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

2: Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Foley and Chris Newman

1: Ben Griffiths, Orren Stephenson, Matthew Dea, Ivan Maric and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

13: Shaun Hampson

11: Bachar Houli and Ricky Petterd

8: Anthony Miles

6: Matt Thomas

4: Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

1: Orren Stephenson and Ivan Maric

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

1: Ben Lennon

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

11: Bachar Houli

4: Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

8: Anthony Miles

6: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Why don't you come on over, Vickery?

We won! It doesn't matter who against (it does) because we won.

And we played some kids. Huzzah!

Big thanks to the great man Tigerland Tone for subbing in on vote giving as I was unable to watch the game and from what I've heard, even despite the win, I'd prefer not to put myself through it. Even though my man Ty kicked four goals and everyone on Twitter still bagged him.

If you are the only Richmond fan on the Internets yet to watch the Nate and Jake video from last week, you need to rectify that immediately as it is tremendous.

Shameless plug: I'm running the City2Surf next month and raising money for Sylvanvale, who are a disability service provider in Sydney and New South Wales. They're a great cause if you can spare some hard earned, and still a great cause even if you can't. I'm coming from a pretty low fitness base and my legs are very tired, so I can assure you I'll be going through some pain between now and August 10.

Tone's votes:

Votes

5: Alex Rance

4: Brandon Ellis

3: Ty Vickery

2: Shane Edwards

1: Trent Cotchin

Leaderboards

The Benny

28: Brandon Ellis

27: Dustin Martin

23: Trent Cotchin

16: Jack Riewoldt

15: Alex Rance

14: David Astbury

13: Shaun Hampson

10: Daniel Jackson, Ricky Petterd and Alex Rance

8: Reece Conca and Anthony Miles

6: Steven Morris, Bachar Houli and Ty Vickery

5: Brett Deledio and Shane Edwards

4: Matt Thomas, Sam Lloyd and Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

2: Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Foley and Chris Newman

1: Ben Griffiths, Orren Stephenson, Matthew Dea and Ben Lennon

Blair Hartley Appreciation Award

13: Shaun Hampson

10: Ricky Petterd

8: Anthony Miles

6: Bachar Houli

4: Matt Thomas and Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

2: Anthony Miles

Anthony Banik Best First Year Player

4: Sam Lloyd

1: Ben Lennon

Joel Bowden’s Golden Left Boot

6: Bachar Houli

4: Shaun Grigg

3: Troy Chaplin

Greg Tivendale Rookie Medal

8: Anthony Miles

4: Matt Thomas

1: Orren Stephenson

Championship Belt:

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