Round 6 – Melbourne v Richmond: We Can Say That We Were Warned

WE CAN SAY THAT WE WERE WARNED

 

 

 

Practice matches are for spectators as well as players.

Back in March I availed myself of various learning opportunities when I ventured to Casey Fields on Melbourne’s distant south-eastern fringe, where I watched Richmond take on the Demons in a pre-season hit-out.

I tested myself on number memorisation for new players Seth Campbell, Tyler Young and Steely Green. I exercised restraint when a nearby Melbourne supporter taunted Cotchin after he clashed with James Harmes, Trent leaning in with a stiff forearm to the throat of the Demon utility as he lay on top of him. As you do. The incident resulted in a free kick and 50-metre penalty.

“Yeah, Cotchin! Good play Cotchin!”

All meant for the yellow-and-black persuasion standing on the grass around him, of course. He continued with his repartee, rejoicing in a rapid zig-zag move through the midfield resulting in a running goal to Ed Langdon.

“Yeah! Now that’s how you play football, Tiges!”

I remain silent, despite longing to ask our assailant how he enjoyed toppling out of last year’s finals in straight sets. Let it wait, for this was not the time to engage in a bout of verbal fisticuffs. Not while your team was being outclassed to the tune of 50 points in a practice match out in Cranbourne East.

Which leads me to the most important practice of all for dyed-in-the-wool supporters. We need to re-acquaint ourselves with the reality that everyone’s team loses sometimes and that these defeats occur even if you end up winning the flag. And Melbourne are expected by most pundits to be right in contention once the whips starting cracking in September.

Now we encounter the Demons in the regular season. We’re six rounds in and the Tigers are on the slide. This slide is very long and very steep and there’s no solid rubber surface to break our fall like the ones you find in children’s playgrounds. It’s as if we’re about to topple into a deadly spiked pit in an Indiana Jones movie. We’ve lost three in a row and have only one win and a draw from the first month of footy.

The Punt Road clubrooms resemble an emergency ward on a busy Saturday night. Richmond have been cruelled by injuries. Lynch is out for several months with a foot fracture. Max Gawn returns for Melbourne after recovering from a knee complaint and we have no recognized ruckmen to contend with both him and his sidekick Brodie Grundy. Nankervis and Soldo are casualties and Biggy Nyuon was injured in the seconds. Graham, Tarrant and Gibcus are sitting in the stands alongside them and the indispensable Nathan Broad has a week remaining of his four-week suspension.

I don’t see how Richmond can win tonight.

Gawn is opposed to the raw Ben Miller in the ruck at the commencement of proceedings. Richmond supporters around me have a sharp intake of breath as he glad-hands the ball to grateful on-ballers in Jack Viney and Lachie Hunter at the first two bounces. It’s happening just as we feared. And yet Miller and Samson Ryan try valiantly to at least get in big Max’s way by jumping early. The Tiger midfielders know that the ball is heading to navy blue and red guernseys and they make sure they’re in the general vicinity for the drop. Taranto, Hopper, Bolton and Prestia get to work and actually win their share of clearances.

The Melbourne defensive interceptors in May, Lever and Rivers are like Venus flytraps if kicks are lobbed high in their direction. So the Tigers keep the ball low, short pass to teammates and vary the angles by which they enter their attacking zone so they can bypass the Demon talls. They also advance through chains of rapid, risk-taking handball. There’s a reprise of the fanatical pressure that characterised Richmond’s dominant years. Cumberland launches himself like a rocket-propelled grenade in attack and has three on the board by the first break. The Tigers lead by that margin. Halfway through the second term Cumberland and Riewoldt accost Jake Lever and he’s caught in possession. Riewoldt converts from the resulting free kick and suddenly Richmond are up by 25 points.

The Melbourne members are under considerable stress. After losing to Essendon last week they’re starting to think that they won’t actually live long enough to see their team win a grand final at the MCG. Predictably, they blame the umpires. I’m amused, but I don’t allow the scoreboard to deceive me. For I still don’t believe that the Tigers can win it. I’ve returned to the fatalism that afflicted me throughout the years that Richmond struggled in exile at the foot of the table. It’s like we’re striding along the dry course of the Diamantina River in Queensland without a care in the world. But the rain’s been falling up north and it’s only a matter of time before the flood waters arrive to sweep us all the way to Lake Eyre.

And sure enough, the Demons start to get the game back on their terms. Petracca, Oliver and Viney lift. It could be the pressure, it could be fatigue, but long kicks into attack are picked off by May and Lever. Melbourne are more potent when they move the ball. Oliver goals after the three-quarter time siren to reduce Richmond’s lead to a mere two points.

The Tigers lurch into the familiar territory of failing to take their opportunities when the game is there to be won in the last quarter. Miller takes a shot but doesn’t get close. Melbourne hit the front for the first time since early in the opening term when the ball spills free in a marking duel in the square, Vlaustin slips and Kade Chandler pops it through. Chandler’s major is the third in a series of seven unanswered goals on either side of three-quarter time. The Tigers are desperate but wasteful. Martin fires wide on the run and both Ryan and Baker fail to capitalise on deliberate shots from short range. The floundering Tigers score six behinds in a row while the Demons can’t miss. Melbourne’s new cult figure Jacob van Rooyen has been unsighted until now. He brings the ecstatic Dees supporters to their feet with three contested marks and three goals in the last term to kill any lingering Tiger resistance. Richmond’s 25-point lead is reversed to a 25-point deficit. For the third time this year they’ve led at the final change and failed to bring the four points home.

We may have been vanquished again, but we remain at our stations in the outer. We stalwarts applaud a final major to Dusty when he gathers the ball, gives the don’t argue to Jake Hibberd, handballs to Cotchin, receives it back, thrusts his hand in Hibberd’s chest again and side-steps Langdon before sending it home for Richmond’s final goal of the evening.

I wonder if the antagonist from Casey Fields is at the match tonight. No doubt he’d be enjoying himself and offering choice advice to the Richmond fans in his vicinity. We can say that we were warned.\

 

 

MELBOURNE    2.2   6.2    10.5   15.6 (96)
RICHMOND      5.2   8.4    10.7   11.12 (78)

GOALS 
Melbourne: Chandler 3, van Rooyen 3, Fritsch, Jordon, Langdon, Neal-Bullen, Oliver, Petty, Pickett, Viney, Gawn
Richmond: Riewoldt 4, Cumberland 3, Hopper, Mansell, Martin, Ryan

BEST 
Melbourne: Viney, Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Lever, Sparrow
Richmond: Short, Riewoldt, Taranto, Martin, Hopper

INJURIES 
Melbourne: Nil
Richmond: M.Rioli (hamstring)

SUBSTITUTES 
Melbourne: Bailey Laurie (replaced Trent Rivers in the fourth quarter)
Richmond: Hugo Ralphsmith (replaced Ben Miller in the fourth quarter)

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