Footy rewind: The day Joel Bowden had 44-disposals in a losing Richmond team

It is not every day one of your stars puts together a performance quite like Joel Bowden did against Melbourne in Round 4, 2009. While his stats were off the charts, it wasn’t the only big talking point from the game.

Richmond favourite Joel Bowden.

It is not every day one of your stars puts together a performance quite like Joel Bowden did against Melbourne in Round 4, 2009.

The Richmond favourite’s stats were off the charts, amassing a staggering 44 disposals, gaining more than 1100 metres and finishing with 177 SuperCoach points.

And perhaps the most remarkable thing is that all this happened in a horror loss that had massive implications for the club’s future.

To set the scene, the Tigers were 0-3 and hadn’t played finals since 2001.

The Demons were also 0-3 and had three wins from their previous 25 matches.

Take a look back at this historical match and relive the match report, analysis, stats and everything else that came with it.

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The feeling after having 44 disposals and still losing.

HOW WE SAW THE GAME

– Rebecca Williams

Remembering how to win.

It seems a strange notion for a professional football team, but that was the story for the Demons in their eight-point triumph over embattled Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.

The competition easy beats registered their first win since Round 20 last season — and their first over their Yarra Park neighbours since 2006 — to plunge Tigers’ coach Terry Wallace and his club further into crisis.

Despite leading by 38 points at one stage during the third quarter, the Demons looked ready to throw away their first win of the season as the Tigers piled on seven of the last nine goals of the match.

But the Demons, after an eight-goal second term, had just enough in the bank to stop the troubled Tigers, who remain winless after four rounds.

It was only the fourth win for the Demons under coach Dean Bailey, but the victory came at a cost with Brad Green suffering a suspected broken jaw.

Melbourne forward Brad Miller led from the front for the Demons, finishing with three goals, 10 marks and 17 possessions to top score for his team.

Aaron Davey also provided spark, finishing with 25 disposals and laying six tackles, while Colin Sylvia helped set up the win with a big second term when he booted two goals and had a hand in another. Only veterans Matthew Richardson and Joel Bowden performed for the Tigers who were, at times, made to look ordinary by last year’s wooden-spooners.

Bowden amassed 44 possessions and Richardson kicked four goals, although his five behinds were costly in the end.

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HOW JON RALPH SAW THE RESULT

This was not just another loss for Terry Wallace.

This was the kind of horrific spectacle that is likely to get an already restless board thinking it simply must act. And now.

In the space of four horrendous quarters, the debate at Richmond shifted significantly.

It went from Tiger fans wondering whether their season could be salvaged to pondering whether Round 4 was too early to sack a coach.

It is a question that will weigh heavily on the minds of the club’s brains trust, and it was already being debated in dark corners of the Tigers change rooms.

President Gary March was interstate at a wedding — shocking timing, Gary, no matter how close the connection — but the mood for change had starting snowballing.

When general manager of football Craig Cameron was called on to play a typical administrative straight bat, even he could not guarantee Wallace would coach against the Kangaroos on Saturday. He was ‘‘pretty confident that Terry Wallace will coach next week’’.

But when told that was far short of a rock-solid guarantee, he could only offer up that reply again, with an umm, and ahhh, and a significant pause in between. It is a very slippery slope from the ‘‘full support of the board’’ to ‘‘pretty confident’’, to a coach receiving his marching orders.

If Wallace wasn’t a dead man walking last week, he is now.

The pressure was building on Terry Wallace after the club’s 2009 loss to Melbourne.

HOW CHAMPION DATA SAW THE GAME:

QUARTER 1

• Melbourne won the contested possession count 33 – 24. Brent Moloney led the Demons with four contested possessions for the quarter.

• Richmond won the disposal count 113 – 84, but generated just eight inside 50s to Melbourne’s 11.

• Melbourne scored from eight of its 11 inside 50s for the quarter. Inaccuracy plagued them as they kicked 2.6 for the quarter. They kicked 2.1 from shots outside 40 metres but kicked 0.5 from shots within 40 metres.

• Both teams kept the ball moving, Richmond took 47 marks for the quarter and played on 55% of the time. Melbourne took 25 marks and played on 56% of the time.

QUARTER 2

• Richmond won the clearance count 11 – 7. Melbourne scored 4.0 (24) from its clearances while Richmond failed to convert any clearance into a score.

• Colin Sylvia was involved in five of Melbourne’s nine scoring chains for the quarter, which included booting two goals himself.

• After kicking 2.6 in the first quarter, Melbourne booted 8.1 in the second term to build out to a 31 point halftime lead.

• Matthew Richardson finished with five disposals, five marks, one goal, one behind and two score assists. He had a game-high nine marks at halftime.

QUARTER 3

Richmond continue to dominate possession, winning the disposal count 111 – 79 and the uncontested possession count 80 – 49. Despite this they win the quarter by just three points.

Michael Newton is the top-ranked player for the quarter, finishing with five disposals, two tackles, two goals and two score assists.

Aaron Davey was also influential finishing with nine disposals and five tackles for the quarter. He also had two spoils and a smother to add to his defensive presence.

After applying 25 tackles in the first half, the Demons as a whole increase their defensive pressure, applying 24 tackles for the quarter.

QUARTER 4

Joel Bowden had 12 disposals and gained 346 metres for the quarter – almost twice as many metres gained as any other player for the term.

Joel Bowden and Brett Deledio finish with equal quarter-highs of five score involvements.

Richmond finished with 11 scoring shots despite having just nine shots at goal for the quarter. Three of their behinds for the quarter were rushed through by Melbourne.

THE STATS THE STAND OUT

Originally published as Footy rewind: The day Joel Bowden had 44-disposals in a losing Richmond team