No one in the footy world is mocking Brendon Gale’s infamous interview from a decade ago
When Brendon Gale forecast a membership base of more than 75,000, the end of a long premiership drought and three AFL flags by 2020 – the cynics in the football world lampooned the vision. Now he is 100 minutes away from having the last laugh.
Mark Robinson
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When Brendon Gale forecast a Richmond renaissance a decade ago – an ambitious plan that included a membership base of more than 75,000, the end of a long premiership drought and three AFL flags by 2020 – the cynics in the football world lampooned the vision.
No one is laughing any more.
The Tigers are just over 100 minutes of game time away from ticking off the last of those bold 2010 objectives with coach Damien Hardwick, captain Trent Cotchin and the rest of the players on the cusp of football immortality.
Great teams win premierships; only the very best can turn one flag into a dynasty.
Three clubs have done it this century – Brisbane won three in a row (2001-03), Geelong won three in five seasons (2007, 2009, 2011) and Hawthorn won four in eight seasons including three in a row (2008, 2013-15).
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Such has been Richmond’s dominance since an internal review saved Hardwick’s job after a disastrous 2016 that if it hadn’t been for a Collingwood upset – and a Mason Cox masterclass – in the 2018 preliminary final, the Tigers could well be shooting for four-in-a-row next weekend.
Given what has happened globally with the COVID-19 pandemic – and what that has meant for the AFL – whichever team wins next week’s historic Gabba night Grand Final can rightly view it as a triumph of exceptional proportions.
If the Tigers can win their 13th VFL-AFL premiership, it could lay claim to being the club’s greatest flag of all, given the challenges it has had to overcome.
Like all Victorian teams, they were uprooted from Melbourne just before the city went into lockdown; spent more than a 100 days in a hub, played only four games at the MCG this year; dealt with a handful of embarrassing off-field incidents; yet still qualified for another Grand Final after a six-point preliminary final win over Port Adelaide on Friday night.
Hardwick and Cotchin are already forever etched into Richmond’s history off the back of their achievements.
But victory next Saturday would take that to a new plain.
God this aged well. pic.twitter.com/NBueKt9zYp
— Karl Kaldawi (@karlkaldawi08) October 16, 2020
Hardwick surpassed the legendary Tom Hafey in terms of the most games coached for Richmond this year.
A third flag as coach would see him only one premiership behind Hafey, the coach of Richmond’s team of the century, and the man who led the Tigers to four flags in 1967, ‘69, ‘73 and ‘74.
Cotchin, who played his 250th AFL match on Friday, overtook Percy Bentley and Jack Dyer as the man who has captained the club in the most games in the semi-final win over St Kilda.
If he can hold a third premiership cup afloat next Saturday, he will stand alone as the only Richmond skipper to achieve this in the VFL-AFL competition, passing greats Dan Minogue, Percy Bentley and Royce Hart who all captained two flags.
History is beckoning on so many fronts.
Port Adelaide was exceptionally game in the preliminary final and the class with which Ken Hinkley dealt with the heartbreaking loss shone through on a gloomy, wet night.
They will be back again in 2021.
But the manner in which Richmond ground out their eighth final win across the past four seasons shows there is still plenty of life left in the Tigers.
Their form may have been patchy at times this season, but Hardwick has the team firing again at the right time.
For only the fourth time this season – and the second time in its past two matches – Richmond won the clearances against Port Adelaide.
It was crucial in the end analysis.
Friday night’s clearance differential was the club’s biggest of the season – +12 – with Hardwick saying they had solved part of their midfield puzzle.
Just as critical was the club’s ability to get its trademark forward pressure up and running again.
According to Champion Data, the Tigers recorded their second-most forward half clearances as well as generating their fifth-most points from a forward half intercept.
They also applied their second-highest amount of forward half pressure – and it showed.
The final term was such an arm wrestle that it felt like either team had the power to slam down the opposition‘s fist to the table at any given moment.
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Desperation was everywhere.
There was Brad Ebert’s desperate final act as an AFL footballer in a brave attempt to save his team, there was Kane Lambert’s ability to make something out of nothing with two last-term goals, and there was Toby Nankervis’ sheer desperation, particularly late, when he helped save the game.
As far fetched as it seemed a decade ago, Gale’s 2010 long-range plans are a chance to be realised next Saturday.
If the Tigers can win the 2020 Grand Final, the only shame of it will be that so many of the club’s now 100,000 members won’t be able to be at the Gabba.
But the collective roar from back in Melbourne will be almost deafening.
TIGERS ONE WIN FROM IMMORTALITY: ROBBO
Mark Robinson
It was gritty, exhausting and an epic and now destiny beckons for Richmond.
The Tigers are into the Grand Final and will set themselves for a third premiership in four years.
Destiny is not theirs yet, nor is the dynasty.
They need three flags to enter the sphere of three-peaters — Brisbane and Hawthorn.
It’s not nearly right to say it was a hard-fought win.
It undersells the commitment and desire offered by both Port Adelaide and Richmond and, in the end, the Tigers didn’t yield.
“It was just brutal,’’ Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said in the post-match
They were on the road, in the wet and under external pressure unlike they have experienced over the past four years. Yet, they were victorious.
The final score was 6.10 (46) to 6.4 (40).
Port would be bitterly disappointed,
The Power won the inside-50 count 58-44 and, at halftime at least, were the better team.
It broke down after that.
Overall, they lost the clearance battle 41-29 and in the final quarter, it was a staggering 16-4.
Port’s strength this season was clearance and it failed them.
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The Tigers are not so much a special team they are pros. Hardened, organised and calm.
When the game was to be decided, when bodies were exhausted, when crucial balls had to be won, the Tigers were supreme.
Ruckman Toby Nankervis was enormous in the final quarter, taking three intercept marks in defence, his final mark the killer of Port Adelaide’s hopes.
On top of the clearances in that final quarter, they were plus eight in contested ball and plus seven in groundballs.
They wanted the ball and won the ball, which is a preliminary final trait.
Dustin Martin’s standing as the best finals players of the modern era, perhaps of all time, was further entrenched. He kicked two goals and when the team kicks only six, it’s a sizeable contribution.
So, too, was Kane Lambert. He kicked two goals in the final quarter, so if Martin’s effort was sizeable, Lambert’s was clutch and matchwinning.
It was a bruising encounter.
The conditions demanded both teams move the ball forward by foot, knock-on, push, tap, surge, handballs and dump ball.
Mistakes plagued the contest because of a combination of pressure and conditions.
Port had large periods of dominance in the first half, surged on the back of a Scott Lycett goal in the third quarter, and then lost Brad Ebert with concussion in the final quarter.
Ebert was superb in what could be his final game.
The contest did not abate from first siren to the final siren.
Robbie Gray had stunning first quarter opposed to mainly Dylan Grimes and Jayden Short — seven disposals, three score involvement and a bundle of impact.
His best was a delicate left-foot kick to Xavier Duursma who kicked a goal in the second quarter from 45m.
It set the scene for a gang harassment of Richmond villain Tommy Lynch.
Duursma flexed the muscle and charged at Lynch post-kick and was joined by teammates — Jonas, Powell-Pepper, Boak, Lycett and Hartlett.
It was theatre in the moment. It would’ve been symbolic in victory. Port was not only up for the fight, they picked fights with the champs.
The scores were level at halftime.
Martin kicked the first goal, a front-and-square gather before kicking across the body. While most players were fumbling, Martin hit the groundball at speed and Port could do nothing but helplessly scramble after him.
Jack Riewoldt was next. He won a free kick in a marking contest and kicked straight from 45m.
He’s a role player these days, Jack, and spent most of the match competing in the air and trying to knock the ball into space. Still, his goal was a moment and the Tigers had kicked the first two.
Port’s response was two goals to Connor Rozee, the second a mesmerising snap from the pocket with opponent Nathan Broad closing in on him.
The match swung after time. The Tigers kicked 3.7 to Port’s 3.1. Port had their chances in the first half — they had the nine leading possession-winners at the long break — and the Tigers had their chances in the second half.
Curious was the amount of deliberate out of bounds free kicks paid. There were six, when the season average is one.
We’ve come to expect this sort of performance from the Tigers in finals, but not this from the umpires.
It was hot in the kitchen in more ways than one.