Patrick Carlyon: Richmond is ready, forget the past
TIGER fans who only weeks ago would have settled for a finals win have had a revelation. They were aiming at summits too low. Now, there’s only one more mountain, writes Patrick Carlyon.
Patrick Carlyon
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THEN Carlton coach David Parkin spoke of climbing Everest twice in describing his team’s Grand Final win against Richmond in 1982. Tiger fans might borrow from the analogy.
First, a finals win, now a Grand Final berth, each milestone a dip into rarefied air for supporters who cannot recall — or were not born — in those ancient days of Sunnyboys and sweet possibility.
Now the hopes shift upwards again, dragging with them stated measures of satisfaction. The fans face an uncharted realm of dizziness and oxygen deprivation.
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Making the preliminary final — an admirable target — was never going to be enough once the preliminary final was made.
The same now applies for the Grand Final.
And why not? This team, probably the most consistent of the competition, has turned whim into expectation with a versatility and verve — in contrast with that failed 1982 outfit — that offers sturdiness and confidence.
Fans who only weeks ago would have settled for a finals win had a revelation on Saturday night. They can shed the generations of mediocrity. They were aiming at summits too low.
Dustin Martin poked his tongue out when he goaled in the first minute of the final quarter. Trent Cotchin marked one-handed — he appeared to be enjoying himself, too.
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The bandage pasted on David Astbury’s head told a bigger story of pressure and hardness. Daniel Rioli, in showing the family knack, had virtually won the game for his team in the third quarter. Maybe it helps to live with the coach.
A slight stutter in the final quarter was suitably steadied by Jack Riewoldt. This wasn’t the Richmond of old, but the Tigers of new. Fierce, with polish, too, when it mattered.
They had been confronted — and they conquered. The dream had been tempered by halftime. Fans had risen, as if on sugar hits, for every bump and free kick in the opening minutes.
Even when it was outplayed, Richmond was not being beaten into submission. Its bustle and mugging approach of the second half showed a club that wanted to win, knew how to win, and believed that it would. The one-sided crowd seemed more parochial than a World Cup qualifier.
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Besides the splotch behind the Punt Rd goals, the odd GWS jumper seemed as lost as an Orangeman in Catholic Belfast.
Eight GWS fans were counted between St Kilda Rd and the ground, two boasting the ambitiously labelled Orange Army T-shirts.
It lacked a Grand Final buzz: no friendly banter between rival fans, no scalpers in sight, and a subdued air to the Tiger collective, as if these were the moments for a metaphorical gulp. These reveries engulfed fans in the stands during the match.
Even the lengthening lead of the third quarter — 13 points, then 20, then 26 — the moments when hope should have been hardening into a numb kind of reality — were treated with caution.
This is understandable. Triumphs have been so out of place at Richmond that firsts multiplied on Saturday night. The Tigers had not played at night in an MCG preliminary final. The closest comparison is the 1995 semi-final against Essendon, a memory test that conjures images of Matthew Knights bouncing the ball down the centre of the ground (Tiger fans will recall). That victory led, inexorably, to a preliminary final defeat — and a 20-year dead end.
As Hardwick declared last year, during just another club ebb: “Winning finals is what we’re about.”
If it seemed ambitious, and a touch fevered at the time, 94,000 confirmed on Saturday that Hardwick was right. They now journey into the unknown, a Grand Final week when their team and stars are the centre of attention. They get to consider the last game of the year, and to fight for a ticket — a first for any Tiger fan under the age of 40.
But perhaps it was as big a win for the AFL. Had GWS been playing Adelaide next Saturday, Melbourne and Victoria would have declared its position loud and clear. There would have been little debate. Melbourne would have voted no.
As it was, GWS was not a ridge too far for Richmond. Now, the Tigers face only one more mountain.
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