Round 17 – Richmond v Collingwood: Reward for effort (Floreat Pica Society)

by Tony Scully

 

My thoughts going into round 17 were: Will the Tiggers get their nails clipped? Can the Magpies move into Spring early and Swoop to a famous victory?

 

Both teams somewhat stretched due injuries, but on balance Richmond probably worse off.

 

A warm but windy afternoon in Melbourne town but by the time the game started the ‘chill’ was already starting to move in.

 

Q1

 

Grundy v Chol at the first bounce. Nil all draw

 

Plenty of intent being shown and Collingwood seem to be having the majority of the ball but the errors are killing us. Isaac drops a fairly easy mark for his standards. Chekkers drops three chest marks. Kicking over our targets head, missing handball targets. Here we go again. Richmond goal  first and confidence is fading. Pies stiff not to be paid frees on a dropped ball by Chol and front on contact on Murphy. You make your own luck I guess but I just feel Richmond seem to be on the better side of the bad bounce/lucky receive ledger. In a dour first quarter there is not much to celebrate until Billy lays a great tackle on Bolton and goals to even the scores. Empty goal square costs us another goal! Bianco muffs a pass to Sidey which give Lynch an opportunity. Goal. Ollie gets a chance. Misses. Pies not making the most of chances. We’ve had it forward plenty for bugger all positive outcome. Madgen, panic out of the goal square lands in Lynch’s hand for his second goal. Dumb. Tiges 4 straight to the Pies 1 – 1.

 

Q2

 

More skill errors. Chekkers dropped mark, Billy gets caught by Cotch, Backward, Forward, Poor kicking. Umpires have put the whistle away. Grundy snaps….misses. Quaynor and Maynard very good. More Richmond chaos, another Richmond goal. I feel like we’re in it but the score just keeps getting worse. Poor kick Murphy to Adams costs another turn around. Nice play from Pendles at half back to Quaynor to Billy to JT. JT takes too long. Spoiled by Rioli. I’m not a fan of JT, just a footballer in my humble opinion, that being said he’s actually been pretty good lately. Both he and C Brown take too long to assess options.

 

Tiges are making the most of every opportunity  a goal from 55m from a midget a case in point. 6-1 to 1 -2 hope is fading. Cameron tries to chest mark instead of running at the ball and taking it higher up. Richmond spoil. Pies rewarded with 50m penalty to set up Billy for a much needed goal. Another good fast break set up by Pendles ends up with Billy muffing a bounce and fumble to lose the pill. Another chance goes begging. Maynard off with a shoulder. Hope it’s not a collarbone. Grimes intercepts again. Macintosh misses. Pies have their best sequence from Full back to Full Forward for a Cameron goal. Riewoldt marks and kicks his 700th to continue the Collingwood curse- Goals against in the dying seconds.  7 – 2 to 4 -3

 

Q3

 

Maynard back on. Another good burst through the middle by Crisp. Kick lets him down again for a behind. Baker then steals one for a goal back to 4 goals down. Crisp turnover again. Maynard repels but Castagna marks at 50 and kicks truly. Max Merrett comes to mind ….Slipping away from me. Sidey’s snap shot breaks the wrong way. Chekkers goals from a free. Bronx cheers for the Umpy who can’t bounce. Baker gets away with holding the ball. Grundy taps beautifully to two Tigers waiting goal-side unattended. Marlion Goals. Sidey set up for hospital pass from Goey. Chooses to preserve himself. Dusty almost kicks one out of mid-air. Phew! Maynard, once again, repels. Now Richmond start their own comedy show. Embarrassing turnover to let the Pies in for a JT shot on goal. Success. Hanging on by the skin of their teeth. De Goey’s attempted pass almost goes through for a goal. Jack done for deliberate. I just love seeing him sook it up. Grundy free on 50, passes nicely to Chekkers who hits the post. Damn those football gods. A minute and thirty to go and De Goey finds Chekkers 40 out directly in front. Misses. Another failed forward foray. 10 – 3 to 6 – 7.

 

Q4

 

Grimes just keeps winning his contests. Red hot ping-ponging ball at CHF for us . Maynard beats Riewoldt again  Good mark to Cameron who goals. We’re back to 14pts in arrears. Heart of a fool! Free paid downfield for ill-disciplined tackle. Castagna misses from 50. Scott Pendlebury, on the receiving end of good sequence, weights the ball perfectly to Billy over the back. GOAL! 9Pts. Pies look less fatigued than Richmond. Crisp starts another fast break , momentarily stopped in the middle with some comedy moves from both sides. Pies regain forward momentum and Bianco misses a very gettable running goal. Adams wins a free at CHF. Kicks truly from 45M. Future Captain? 3 Pts 10mins to go. Pendles steals the ball in the middle. De Goey one-on-one wins the mark and kicks the goal from a tightish angle. 3pts to the good. I’m out of my chair. Another Adams/Pendles clearance . De Goey beats Grimes (for the first time today) to pass to Murphy at CHF. Murphy kicks his first in AFL career. 9pts Tiges panic free against. Pendles takes the advantage and puts in down Chekkers throat. Insipid kick or deliberate but either way Grundy marks in the square for anther major. 15pts.7 mins to go. Still way too much time to go defensive. Maynard marks to relieve pressure. Lynch marks and nails it. Blood pressure rising.. 9pts Grimes repels . Tiges go forward great defence from Roughead and Maynard. Elliot caught by Grimes. Cameron wonderful defensive mark in the middle. Quaynor terrific one-on-one against Dusty. JT roves for a lovely snap. 2mins to go . Think we’ve got it.

 

YEP WE GOT IT. Another famous victory over the enemy

 

I thought our effort was great all day. That’s what makes the skill errors so frustrating. No reward for effort. But all of that turned around with about 10 mins to go in the third. We started hitting targets. Grundy took complete control. Adams and Pendles doubled to clear almost every centre bounce. Our defence was outstanding all day. Led by Maynard who I can’t recall losing a contest all day, Rough spoiled so many marking opportunities for Lynch and Riewoldt. Crisp did his usual line busting runs. Quaynor is pure silk. Even Madgen and Noble finished well. Forward line is still our glaring weakness but we look so much more dangerous when Billy and De Goey are down there. Chekkers was there-abouts all day but didn’t do what he’s paid to do. Kick goals. I’ve been really pleased with the Hyphen’s return to form, I thought he was cooked. His marking and kicking skills are so important to us. He’s a great link man. When Chekkers hurt himself during his first diving mark attempt , then Kelly went off replaced by Ruscoe, Noble took a hard knock, Pendles looked a bit hurt at three quarter time, Maynard off with a shoulder, someone, I can’t recall who, went off with an ankle I thought we were going to run out of men and rotations. They held strong and ended up grinding the Tiggers into the dirt.

 

 

The Votes

 

3  Pendles  Everything little thing he does is magic  (Thanks Sting)

 

2 Maynard  He doesn’t show pain generally. That shoulder hit must have hurt a lot. He came back as if nothing had happened

 

1 Adams  Toils away inside. Does all of the hard stuff. Shows the youngies what it takes. And…scored the pressure goal that, I think, clipped nails of the Tigger

 

 

Honourable mentions to Hyphen, Quaynor, Roughead, Billy, JT and Cripy

 

 

Go Pies feel free to swoop again!

 

==

 

RICHMOND           4.0    7.2    10.3    11.5    (71)
COLLINGWOOD    1.1    4.3    6.7    13.9    (87)

 

GOALS  
Richmond: Lynch 3, Baker 2, Collier-Dawkins, Bolton, Martin, Riewoldt, Castagna, Pickett
Collingwood: Elliott 3, Thomas 2, Cameron 2, Pendlebury, Mihocek, Adams, De Goey, Murphy, Grundy

 

BEST  
Richmond: Bolton, Grimes, Short, Graham, Baker, Lynch
Collingwood: Crisp, Adams, De Goey, Maynard, Elliott, Pendlebury

 

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
Collingwood: Kelly (quad)

 

SUBSTITUTES
Richmond: Jack Ross (unused)
Collingwood: Trey Ruscoe (replaced Kelly)

 

Crowd: 29,437 at the MCG

 

==

The Tigers (Covid) Almanac 2020 will be published in the coming weeks. It will have all the usual features – a game by game account of the Tigers season – and will also include some of the best Almanac writing from the Covid winter.  Pre-order right now HERE

 

 

To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au  home page click HERE

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.

 

Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
One-off financial contribution – CLICK HERE
Regular financial contribution (monthly EFT) – CLICK HERE