Richmond moves to 4-0 after comfortable win over Brisbane
RICHMOND is 4-0 but Damien Hardwick is keeping the lid firmly on as he plans for an Anzac Day eve blockbuster against Melbourne — a team the Tigers haven’t beaten since 2013.
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RICHMOND has made its best start to a season in 22 years after rolling through the Lions by 52 point at the Gabba.
The 17.17 (119) to 10.7 (67) victory in front of 21,669 was the Tigers’ 10th consecutive win over the Lions.
It’s Richmond’s best start to a season since 1995 — when it made the preliminary final — but coach Damien Hardwick is keeping the lid firmly on, turning his focus to an Anzac Day eve blockbuster against Melbourne, a team the Tigers haven’t beaten since 2013.
“Outside the footy club things will be beat up, but the reality is we’re four rounds into a long season,” he said.
“We haven’t beaten Melbourne I think for the last three years so that’ll certainly be my focus.
“And they’ll be smarting after a loss on the weekend (to Fremantle) so there’ll be two teams going hammer and tongs.”
Hardwick praised his team’s ability to win despite Dustin Martin being restricted to 16 disposals by Mitch Robinson.
“I thought Dion (Prestia) stepped up to fill that void a little bit,” he said. “Those sort of players are important to us because we can’t consistently rely on those guys to win us games week in and week out.”
The Tigers were a class above Brisbane with their skills and ball movement and that was the difference.
While the Tigers are on a roll, the Lions are stuck on a loop — this loss had echoes of the past two performances against Essendon and St Kilda.
They allowed the Tigers to gather momentum throughout the opening half where the lead was stretched to 51 points.
Then came the trademark Brisbane fightback, which came off the back of a drop in intensity by the Tigers.
Three goals in a row to Josh Schache, Lewis Taylor Dayne Beams saw the start of the standard Brisbane chant.
But it was short lived and their opponents, thanks to superior skills, ran away with the game.
Had it not been for poor conversion by Richmond and decent accuracy by Brisbane, this would have been a major percentage booster.
The Lions had the slightly better of the clearance count, thanks to a stellar game from former captain Tom Rockliff and complete dominance by ruckman Stefan Martin who lowered Tiger counterpart Toby Nankervis’ colours for the first time this season.
Rockliff gathered 32 disposals, won a career high 15 clearances and laid 11 tackles.
But they were unable to get their running game going because of poor skills.
On the hand, Richmond were clean. They were superbly led by their leaders Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt who were the best players on the ground.
Brisbane was down a man for three quarters after losing Tom Cutler to a minor hamstring strain in the opening quarter.
Richmond’s transition from defence has been a feature of their undefeated start to the season and Brisbane’s intent to apply pressure was obvious from the start.
Their first goal came when Tom Bell captured Reece Conca holding the ball at half back.
But the pressure dropped away pretty quickly after that.
Brisbane set Mitch Robinson to Dustin Martin and although the Tigers’ gun didn’t have his usual impact, gathering 16 possessions and failing to kick a goal from his three shots, it did nothing to alter the course of the game.
Brisbane’s second goal, to Dayne Zorko, came off a Martin turnover where the Brownlow medallist tried to brazenly centre the ball into the corridor when the option wasn’t on.
BRISBANE LIONS 3.2 4.3 8.6 10.6 (67)
RICHMOND 5.6 10.9 13.14 17.17 (119)
GOALS
Lions: Hipwood 2, Zorko 2, D. Beams 2, Bell, Schache, Taylor, Robinson
Tigers: Riewoldt 4, Castagna 4, Rioli 2, Grimes, Nankervis, Menadue, Cotchin, Grigg, Caddy, Butler
BEST
Lions: Martin, Robinson, Rockliff, Zorko, Mayes
Tigers: Riewoldt, Cotchin, Castagna, Grigg, Prestia
INJURIES
Lions: Cutler (hamstring)
Tigers: Nil
Reports: Nil
Official crowd: 21,669 at the Gabba
Originally published as Richmond moves to 4-0 after comfortable win over Brisbane