Richmond the biggest victims in closest season since 1928, could be top of AFL ladder

FIELD MARSHAL: WHAT would the ladder look like if a record 17 games decided by a goal or less were reversed? See the big winners and losers.

SAM EDMUND

2 min read

June 13, 2017 - 8:00PM

Western Bulldogs players celebrate the win over Richmond.

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IT is, dare we say it, oh so Richmondy.

The Tigers, while much-improved this year, have been the biggest victims of the closest VFL/AFL season in 89 years.

After 12 rounds, 17 games have been decided by a goal or less — the most at this stage of a season since 1928.

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That was an era with only 12 teams and six games a week. But even shrinking the sample size to start from 1995 and eight games a week, the evenness of this season — with one win separating fifth and 13th — has been remarkable.

This is a season of wafer-thin margins. Consider the Tigers, who are 0-3 in games decided by less than a kick — a margin where luck arguably determines the result as much as skill and structure.

The ladder makes very different reading for Richmond if the 17 games decided by a goal or less have their results flipped.

Jeremy Cameron celebrates his game-winning goal against Richmond.

The Tigers would be 10-1, a game clear on top of the ladder with a match in hand and who knows? Maybe premiership favourites to go with it.

Three of their four losses have been freakish.

A harsh deliberate call against Jayden Short conspired against them in a five-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in Round 7, they lost after the siren against Fremantle in Round 8, despite being in front at a centre bounce with 21 seconds left, and, despite leading by 25 points at three-quarter time in Round 9, they conceded a kick-in coast-to-coast winner against Greater Western Sydney with 60 seconds to play.

Instead of 10-1, Richmond is 7-4, but its only defeat of note was the 76-point capitulation at the hands of Adelaide, which has dealt out four other beltings at Adelaide Oval.

Coach Damien Hardwick copped flak for the positive nature of his comments after the Giants heartbreak, but he knew the result didn’t fit.

“The GWS game in particular, I couldn’t have been prouder of the way my players played. For 80 per cent of the game we were absolutely outstanding,” Hardwick said on SEN last week.

CLUB	PLAYED	WON	LOSS	POINTS
Richmond	11	10	1	40
Adelaide	12	9	3	36
Port Adelaide	11	7	4	28
GWS Giants	12	7	5	28
Melbourne	11	7	4	28
West Coast	11	7	4	28
North Melbourne	11	7	4	28
Geelong	11	6	5	24
Sydney	11	6	5	24
Essendon	12	6	6	24
Collingwood	12	6	6	24
Western Bulldogs	11	5	6	20
St Kilda	11	5	6	20
Gold Coast	11	5	6	20
Carlton	11	3	8	12
Fremantle	12	3	9	12
Hawthorn	12	2	10	8
Brisbane	11	1	10	4

“The (other) 20 per cent ... they were just too good. They rolled the dice and got some things on their terms and we tightened up a bit, which sides do at various stages, and once again you learn a little bit from that process.

“But the vast majority of that game we played some of the best footy we’ve played all year.”

GWS is 3-1 in close games, but could easily be 1-3, while there’s a reason 10th-placed Fremantle’s percentage is a miserable 78.5 — lower than 16th-placed Carlton’s. If the Dockers’ 3-0 record in tight games was reversed, Ross Lyon’s men would be 3-9 and 16th.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda, you ask?

Maybe, but in this closest of premiership races, there’s going to be a heck of a lot of that.