Tiger’s keep getting up

RICHMOND vs. SYDNEY – ROUND 14

“Ooh, bugger!”

The replay looked ugly. Deledio’s arm bent at a very awkward angle, pinned between the tackler and the turf. As he went off clutching his arm in pain, it looked like Deledio might miss weeks, and our chances of winning against the Swans would be severely depleted.

Not that I hoped for much anyway. Because transitory periods of dominance (or lack of) were not really a Sydney thing, a match against the Swans seemed like a good barometer. I was predicting an improved performance on Round 3 (a 55 point loss), but ultimately I thought the more mature bodies of the Swans would overrun us.

I was very pleased to be proven wrong.

It was a positive start – Richmond showed great endeavour in terms of tackling and pressure, dominating the tackle count early. Nason’s early sliding goal showed he’d been paying attention to the soccer, while Tambling’s inaccurate handpass to Cousins suggested maybe he’d been watching it too much. Moore’s resultant goal put Sydney back ahead. Then it was all Jack – Riewoldt twice, and Kieren in between. Riewoldt’s first came from a spectacular screamer on Roberts-Thomson, and the second from a pinpoint pass from Collins. “He’s one of the best kicks in the competition,” said David Schwarz as Riewoldt slotted the goal. Wow! Times have changed, haven’t they?

Mumford’s late goal prevented the Tigers from leading at quarter time, but early in the second Jack struck again, marking a Griffiths long bomb in the square. But the second quarter belonged to Jarrad McVeigh, slotting three goals to give the Swans a 12 point lead at the long break. And, of course, Deledio appeared to suffer a horrific arm injury, but fortunately returned late in the quarter. All this happened in between Channel 7’s regular streams of ads, which made me want to rip into the suits at the TV station.

“Piss off Jason from RACV, and screw you Channel 7!” I vented.

I went outside at half time to play on the basketball ring in the driveway, burning some energy and releasing some adrenalin watching the Tigers had given me, before popping back in just in time for the third quarter. The most frustrating thing about Moore’s first-minute goal to me was not the lack of marking by the boys in yellow and black, but the quartet of ads that followed it. You’ve just had a whole half time break to do that, for gods’ sakes!

The match had the mood of a lost cause. Tambling received Bronx cheers midway through the third quarter, by which point the Tigers were 26 points down. A goal to the timid-looking Andy Collins brought us closer, but a couple more Sydney goals brought the margin out to 33, 20 minutes into the 3rd quarter. David and the Swans crowd got excited as Mike Pyke nailed his first AFL goal. It seemed like my expectations that the Swans would prove too strong seemed sound. But the Swans missed a lot of chances in that quarter…could we still be a chance?

Yes we could. Boundary throw in. Vickery tap. Dustin Martin grabs the ball, shrugs off a couple of irrelevant Swan opponents and threads the ball through the big sticks, showing incredible body strength for a youngster. I dared to hope that this was the catalyst for a Tiger turnaround. Then Griffiths intercepts a kick in from Shaw! Another goal. Then, towards the end of the quarter…long ball inside 50…White gathers ball, snaps high towards goals…Riewoldt! Ripper back with the flight! On the replay I noticed that Riewoldt had been standing next to White when he kicked the ball! Only 15 points the difference now, but strangely, the thought of winning didn’t occur to me.

But it did after Newman bombed one from 50 early in the last. “Wow, we might win this!” I thought. But then Dennis-Lane squeezed it through. Riewoldt gets his fifth! Damn, Goodes gets one back. It was a see-saw again, just like the first quarter, only Sydney still had slightly more weight on their end. Then, after an Edwards long bomb, Andy Collins grabbed a loose ball and got absolutely SMASHED by Roberts-Thomson, who had been moved off Riewoldt and replaced by Grundy. I didn’t expect to see Collins return…but in the aftermath, Newman slotted a clever banana and it was back to 8 points. The work of the Tigers’ rebounding defenders, chiefly Newman, Deledio and Connors, was pivotal in our comeback.

Now the entire family came in to watch. A couple of missed chances to either side. Then Jackson went long and Riewoldt took a strong contested mark on the 50, before centering it…who’s that? Collins! He’s back! After his tough mark over Malceski, Collins coverted…only 4 points! Bet Sydney didn’t see this coming!

A couple of minutes later, Cotchin collected a loose ball and darted inside 50, before bombing long towards the square, and guess who took the mark at the back of the pack, slinked round to reduce the angle and snapped truly? Andy Collins! An unlikely hero, and all Richmond had to do now was not concede. Could they do it?

Luckily, they could, and I exhaled, relieved but still stunned by the comeback I had witnessed. I stuck around to watch the song, but…Damn you Channel 7, you Nazi bastards! How could you skip the Tigers song? If you want to show the news on time, you could at least not show so many freaking ads!

I must be getting old before my time, I’ve become a cynical, grumpy bastard. But now, despite my guilt for tipping the Swans, I’m optimistic about the future. If a match with the Swans is a barometer, then today’s performance suggests very good things in the future.

Comments

  1. Danielle says

    lol! good report Adam :)
    Why so much hate on Poor Jason.
    i love how he always goes “call Jason”
    and you know what, i think i’ll take him up on that offer one day! Lol
    i tipped Richmond! :P

    Danni

  2. Good report Adam

    Funny how our two reports on this game are quite different in terms of the backstory.

    Danni, I tipped 7 this week. Haha :P

  3. Damian Watson says

    Great report Adam,

    The efforts of Chris Newman in the final quarter were sensational, not only those two vital goals he booted but his work ethic around the packs was admirable.

    Certainly Adam Goodes would be rueing those missed goalscoring opportunities in the third term, all were reasonable chances.

  4. Yeah, I noticed the difference Josh, I managed to find the song after the game on Youtube though!

    Danni, I didn’t mind the ad at first, but they just repeat it SO MANY TIMES!

    Damo, I had Newman best on ground, despite his poor floaty kick-in that went to McGlynn in the third, he was instrumental in getting the Tigers home. Goodes was clearly out of sorts, but he improved in the second half. I suspect he would benefit with Bradshaw’s return and a move back to the midfield.

    I forgot to put my votes before, so I’ll do it here: 3 Newman, 2 O’Keefe, 1 Collins

  5. I’ll tell you one ad that gets replayed time and time again. The channel 10 footy promo with The Captain song by Biffy Clyro.

  6. Steve Healy says

    Good report Adam and yeah I hate it when that happens right after half time.

    I was amazed to see how the Tigers came back but what’s even more scary is that the dees are only half a game ahead of the Tigers. I usually like the though of Richmond finishing 9th but I know that’ll mean that the Tigers will finish ahead of us

  7. We’ve got quite a few winnable games in the run home, and significantly we have no more games outside Melbourne. 9th may be a bit much from here, but 11th or 12th is a possibility I think.

  8. Steve Healy says

    Looking at Richmond’s draw I’d say four more wins is a good posibility.

    And yeah, I hate Jason from RACV. Someone should just shove a pillow into his face on the ad so channel 7 can advertise two products at once and save time- that way we get to see less ads while we watch the footy.

  9. I heard the RACV switchboard gets a lot of people asking to speak to Jason…and I imagine the RACV call centre workers want to bang their head against the desk every time they hear it asked for the thousandth time.

  10. Danielle says

    ENTER JASON CALLER 1001

  11. Steve Healy says

    Those are the circumstances for putting annoying ads on the air.

  12. In advertising, annoying is good. We remember the annoying ads.

    By the way, we were having a discussion about what the best stadium was out of Etihad and the MCG and my brother and Dad both said Etihad. WHAT?

  13. Steve Healy says

    They have issues to sort out

  14. Callum O'Connor says

    Richmond’s victory-five goals down at 3/4 time against a top eight side we hadn’t beaten in five years-truly convinced me that we’re on the right track.

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