Richmond’s season of redemption after preliminary final debacle starts now, Mark Robinson writes
The last time Richmond was at the MCG it was a shemozzle — the preliminary final loss to Collingwood destroyed its back-to-back hopes and will be burning in the belly of the Tigers players. Their season of redemption starts now, Mark Robinson writes.
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The last time Richmond was at the MCG it was a shemozzle.
You can blame arrogance, the Tigers’ mindset, of failed belief, but the best team in the competition was savaged by Collingwood.
When the mindset was askew as it was, that’s what can happen — and it did.
The week leading up to the preliminary final was no better.
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Dustin Martin had a wonky leg, a corky which had bled into the knee, said coach Damien Hardwick.
But football manager Neil Balme said in the same week there was “nothing wrong with him’’.
When commentator David King suggested there could be an issue with the knee, Balme ripped him.
“David King … he’s got someone to whom he answers who says, ‘You must get a story, I don’t care whether you make it up, you’ve got to get a story’,” Balme said.
“He’s pulled it from … somewhere I can’t mention.’’
Martin’s preliminary final performance, during which he was clearly hampered, was one of his worst games of his season.
No one has an issue with club personnel halving the truth.
But halving the truth and then smacking the media is a bit rich, even for Balmey who would deny the sun came up today if it could help his football club.
That noted, the five weeks leading up to the preliminary final debacle was arguably where the real issue started, festered and ultimately killed them.
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Former North Melbourne coach Denis Pagan was the first to pick up on it.
Pagan said at the start of September the Tigers were “in danger of getting ahead of themselves”.
“I think the Tigers have had a long while to think about premierships,” Pagan said.
“I’m sure their players would have been thinking about premierships probably from about four or five weeks ago when no other side in the competition had the opportunity to think about it.’’
There was no bolder and ultimately accurate comment said last season.
Richmond’s problem was finding itself in unfamiliar territory.
After beating the Magpies in Round 19 by five goals, the Tigers beat Geelong (three points), Gold Coast (74 points), Essendon (eight points) and the Bulldogs (three points) and could’ve easily lost those last two games.
The Tigers knew, probably after the Pies win, they would finish first or second and played accordingly.
In a sense the job had been partly completed, thus the mindset was softened.
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Compare that to the hunger we saw the year before on their way to the 2017 premiership.
They played every week with aggression and desperation and with a momentum which swept fans and all football folk along for the ride. It was furious football and damn exciting.
But not last year.
Added Pagan: “It’s going to be exciting to see what Damien (Hardwick) does to get their minds on the job and play in the present and not get involved in the future.’’
The future never eventuated.
This is not a ping at Collingwood, which was magnificent.
But this wasn’t the real Richmond.
Even after a so-so performance against Hawthorn in the first final, the self belief within the Tigers had them emphatically believing they could flick the switch, find the fury and connection when it was needed most.
Yet, what drove them in 2017 deserted them in 2018.
This was new territory for the coach, too.
Did he lose the eye of the tiger like his players did?
Did the club as a whole, emanating from an environment of semi-comfortableness?
Only Hardwick knows, in retrospect, if he let the foot off the peddle.
It’s too frivolous to say the Tigers will learn from last year, but if they are in a similar situation this year, which is top two from five weeks out, they will be better equipped to deal with it.
It’s why premiership coaches talk about being the hunter and the hunted. It’s a mindset thing.
And it’s why Hardwick’s recent comments comparing this year’s pre-season to last year’s were intriguing.
“I look back at last year and maybe I think we were a little bit too advanced at this time of year,’’ he said.
Remember, they belted Essendon by 90 points and North Melbourne by 70 points.
It’s clearly an early mindset play, which is not so much important now, but will be if — and probably when — the Tigers make September this year.
Pagan would probably hate it that we’re talking about finals in March.
“Don’t get ahead yourself, son,’’ he’d say.
And he’s right.
Nothing can be done about 2018 and the embarrassment against Collingwood, as opposed to 2019, a kind of season of redemption which starts on Thursday night against Carlton.
Expect to see real Tigers from the outset.
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