Wreck it Ralph: Jon Ralph looks at the 13 reasons which keep the Tigers in the premiership window
Dustin Martin could have kicked a bag against the Hawks, but found joy in gifting teammates. It’s one of 13 reasons why the flag is for the Tigers’ taking.
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Damien Hardwick says it is ego that destroys great teams.
The desire to fill up your boots with legacy-padding stats, the quest to secure that overpriced contract that might cost your team a key role-playing member.
On Sunday at the MCG, Dustin Martin showed he has truly got the memo.
And in what was a fairly nondescript outing against a non-contender, Richmond showed why it should win at least one more premiership.
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Martin’s 28-possession, one-goal day was still likely good enough for three Brownlow Medal votes, but had he padded it with two late goals he would have made it a certainty.
Instead his pair of gift assists to his good mate Jack Riewoldt showed that ego has truly been checked in at the door.
Hawthorn won 15 home-and-away games in 2016 after its three-peat and then after Isaac Smith’s last-gasp miss against Geelong in a qualifying final went out in straight sets to Luke Beveridge’s eventual premiers.
Brisbane got through to a Grand Final in 2004 and then was blown away eventually in a 40-point defeat against Port Adelaide.
They both went down swinging.
But here are undeniable reasons why Richmond will win another flag in this era … and probably this season.
1. Dusty is even better under the new rules
I could reel off his exquisite set of stats in the first two weeks or you could trust your eye. He has more space, more inside-50s to capitalise on (75 and 58 in two weeks), more leading lanes to hit up players with, more time to torture small defenders. When the best player in the league gets better, look out.
2. Dusty might just be untaggable as well.
Hawthorn tried with Shaun Burgoyne around the ground and James Worpel on Sunday and none of it really worked. As Shane Edwards told SEN on Monday: “It’s pretty hard to find someone who can play as a defender on him and as a midfielder. Finding someone to do both would be pretty difficult. Shaun Burgoyne is as good as any. I haven’t seen it yet. Anyone he is on at training he just destroys.”
3. Jon Brown went as close as possible to suggesting the Tigers had an advantage over a 2004 Brisbane side which for all its sheer brilliance, had an ageing core.
“They are in as good a position and they have the X-factor in Dustin Martin,” he said when asked on Fox Footy’s coverage on Friday. “In 2004 we were in pretty good shape too, but I think they are in as good a position as you could possibly be with the demographic of their list and the stars still playing good football. And their role players are as good as any team we have ever seen, the way they compliment the stars.”
4. The big question about Richmond was whether its brand stood up with the league’s new rules.
Could a team that played a miserly form of team defence get split apart by the man-on-the-mark rule? It’s a small sample size, but so far it’s a resounding success. Richmond still gets its offensive game going and the sheer star power and synergy of its back six allow them to win individual battles and cover for each other.
On the telecast yesterday David King asked that very question and then answered it: “I think you have to say it’s been an outrageous success.”
Said Garry Lyon of Dylan Grimes, who marshalled the troops to perfection: “He is a top-10 player in the comp.”
5. How many premiership dynasties can bring a player like Noah Balta into their side.
He is the fourth-ranked defender in the competition as a player who only turned 21 in October. He might not love the Alex Rance comparison, but even those close to him cannot fathom how similar he is to the five-time All Australian in every facet of his game. He has played 32 AFL games. The world is his oyster.
Rance is a once-in-generation player. What chance the Tigers secured his clone, who debuted on the exact same night in Round 1, 2019 where Rance tore his ACL and played his last game?
6. Richmond might not just break even with the new rules, it might even have its greatest strength maximised.
Ask Trent Cotchin: “We have a lot of good runners, which is no good for blokes myself in pre-season, you are forever chasing someone‘s tail but in game and when it’s that balance of speed and endurance we measure up pretty well against most teams in the comp.”
Edwards said yesterday Richmond’s greatest challenge last year was shorter quarters which dulled that strength.
7. Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt are playing as well as ever.
Riewoldt is already in contract talks with the club, Dylan Grimes just signed on again, and Cotchin, contracted until 2022, isn’t going anywhere.
“Everyone that you speak to says you know when you know (about retiring). I don’t feel that right now. I would be lying if I said there have been times in the last year or so when there are challenges, but to run around and feel the synergy among the team and cohesion, that’s what I crave every day and every week. That’s what I love. I think that’s when I know when I don’t have the same fire in my belly come game day,” Cotchin said.
8. The game-style isn’t a slog.
Brisbane never finished on top in its premiership run, while Sydney often started slow in its successful era given the grinding, tackle-first game plan.
All the talk about clubs losing the hunger to back up is mostly bulldust anyway. Brisbane and Geelong won three in a row, Geelong won three in five years, and Richmond has won three in four years. But as Cotchin says, the Tigers take so much pleasure in the journey and their own company that it doesn’t become a grind despite the success.
9. The Tigers are back at the MCG.
They seem to take genuine delight in playing in front of fans at a venue that maximises their strengths. They have lost there only three times in 43 contests since Round 13, 2017.
10. Richmond has won those premierships with a leg in the air.
For all the drama of the halftime deficit last year against Geelong, Richmond’s three premiership wins have come by 48 points (Adelaide), 89 points (GWS) and 31 points (Geelong). They beat Geelong despite Nick Vlastuin being concussed and Bachar Houli running out the game with a torn calf. Gary Ablett heroically contributed to Geelong despite a badly injured shoulder, but if someone is going to beat them, they will have to improve by five goals.
11. There is continued selection pressure.
If Damien Hardwick isn’t actually playing the kids, he is spooking the senior players that he is about to do just that. As Edwards said yesterday, the pressure for spots is real.
Hardwick has done more talking about playing Riley Collier-Dawkins, Thomson Dow, Callum Coleman-Jones and co. than actually fulfilling his promise. But the senior players all know their spots are on the line. And from Saturday’s back six, the Tigers somehow have to slot in Nick Vlastuin and perhaps Bachar Houli.
12. The role players are getting better.
Consider the best-and-fairest last year. It was no Cotchin-Rance-Riewoldt-Dusty quadrella like the good old days. Jayden Short won the Jack Dyer Medal, with Shai Bolton fourth, Kamdyn McIntosh fifth, and Liam Baker sixth. Against Hawthorn Short led the rankings, Bolton darted in and out, McIntosh repeatedly charged back as the third man up on the last line and Nathan Broad intercept marked in fine style. Brown is right. There is barely a weak link across this team.
13. Don’t mention the off-field distraction.
The Damien Hardwick marriage controversy has turned into a non-factor. Richmond would say it is the case anyway, but insiders say it’s genuinely business as usual despite the summer’s headlines. Richmond’s path to losing might have been self-destruction but the club seems to have quickly cauterised that wound.
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Originally published as Wreck it Ralph: Jon Ralph looks at the 13 reasons which keep the Tigers in the premiership window
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