Richmond v GWS Giants: Tigers’ hub floods, Toby Greene plays down Brett Deledio snipe despite upsetting coach Leon Cameron

Queensland is home to one of Australia’s most iconic water parks, but Richmond players only had to venture out the front door to get their feet wet on Sunday after their hub facility flooded overnight.

Toby Greene celebrates after Giants took down last year’s grand final opponent, Richmond, in Sydney.

Richmond has been caught in the eye of a storm, with its Gold Coast golf resort flooding overnight.

The Tigers woke up to knee-deep water surrounding their resort this morning after South East Queensland was hit with a barrage of rainfall.

More than 100mm of rain was recorded in some parts of the Gold Coast region in the 24 hours to 9am this morning.

Keen surfer and Tigers’ defender Nick Vlastuin took the opportunity to get out his surfboard and wade around in the shallow water.

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@Jeep to the rescue 😅🙌 pic.twitter.com/uXVJ5rDlzx

— Richmond FC 🐯🏆 (@Richmond_FC) July 26, 2020

A Jeep was also taken for a quick drive through the water.

“We’ve had a bit of rain overnight. Just a little bit,” Richmond forward Jack Riewoldt said in a video posted online by the Tigers.

“Never has a club sponsor come more in handy than this (Jeep) right here, right now.”

The Tigers suffered a 12-point loss to GWS in Sydney on Friday night, with their next assignment against the Western Bulldogs at Metricon Stadium on Wednesday night.

GREENE PLAYS DOWN COACH ANGER

Greater Western Sydney matchwinner Toby Greene has revealed coach Leon Cameron was “p---ed off” with Brett Deledio‘s stinging assessment last week that the Giants too often comprised “22 individuals” rather than a collective unit.

But Greene, who booted five goals in a best afield performance against Richmond on Friday night, admitted there was a kernel of truth to the ex-Giant’s comments.

“I could sort of understand a little bit of where he (Deledio) was coming from,” Greene said.

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“I guess over the last couple of weeks we have probably been trying to do too much by ourselves. That’s not selfishness, I think it is more about trying too hard and trying to fix problems ourselves.

“It is not something I took to heart. Leon (Cameron) might have been a bit p---ed off with him, but it was fine from ‘Lids’.”

Greene made a stunning return on Friday night, kicking more than half of the Giants’ nine goals, after missing last week’s loss to Brisbane with a muscle-related shin issue.

Toby Greene pulls in a strong mark in a matchwinning performance on Friday night.

He told Triple M on Saturday he wasn’t happy to be ruled out of the Lions’ clash last week, saying the coach had overruled his desire to play in that game.

“That was Leon’s bloody call,” Greene said. “I wasn’t happy with him, (but) I am good to go.”

Greene said the Giants were confident their best was good enough to beat any other team in the AFL, despite their average recent form.

“We really needed that one,” he said of the 12-point victory over the reigning premiers.

“(We can) restart our season and keep building. We have sort of been out of touch in recent weeks.

“I don’t think we are anywhere near our best at the moment. Obviously (Friday night) was a good improvement. But there are still a lot of areas to work on.”

FIVE-STAR GREEN DRIVES GIANTS’ GF REVENGE

Toby Greene made a blockbusting case to be Dustin Martin’s chief rival for best player in the AFL, after outshining his opposite number at Giants Stadium.

GWS coach Leon Cameron hailed his superstar as the complete package who “plays like a tall and a small”, as Greene kicked a career-high five goals to bust the grand final hoodoo against the Tigers.

The two No. 4s went toe to toe at opposite ends of the park in a salivating match-up, but it was Greene who produced arguably the individual performance of the season so far.

“Yeah, really good players like that in every footy club find a way to do that. Toby’s consistency is always there. He’s not always going to kick five goals. Considering he’s only 183 and he plays like a tall and a small,” Cameron said.

Toby Greene produced a best afield performance against the Tigers.

“Clearly he’s an important player for us. He causes instability for the opposition defence because of his workrate and his competitiveness.

“Clearly to kick five in a game is pretty special. He’s a special player. But what we do love is he hates getting beaten.

“He’s always in the contest and the reason why he can bob up and kick five goals is that he never gives up and that’s his greatest trait and players love clearly playing with him because he drives the players beside him to do better and it was a fantastic performance.”

AFL legend Wayne Carey felt Martin’s second half surge against the Giants was driven by a desire to not let Greene outshine him in the clash of the titans.

Martin kicked two goals and had 24 touches to Greene’s 18.

Despite how unpopular he is with fans and umpires, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick concedes Greene is in the same conversation as Martin for the AFL GOAT.

“He’s a star. We’ve always known he’s a good player. He bobs up in the right place. He’s a good contested mark for his size and knows where to put a match-up and take advantage. He’s a pleasure to watch,” Hardwick said.

“You can see how highly regarded he is in AFL circles, even if he doesn’t get the love from the umpires.

Dustin Martin made his presence felt in the second half with two goals and 24 possessions.

Cameron admits he openly challenged his players to lift this week after a run of ordinary form left them teetering on the edge of falling out of the finals race.

Carey and fellow premiership winner Luke Hodge felt GWS had taken the harsh criticism of former Giant Brett Deledio — that the GWS play like individuals not a team — to heart and responded.

Greene missed the previous loss to Brisbane and has missed a couple of games this season due to niggling injuries.

Cameron admits that’s the only challenge to Greene, particularly over the coming weeks of a condensed schedule — how to get him on the field consistently.

“We’ve just got to make sure he’s out on the park a lot more,” Cameron said. “It’s a million dollar question.

“Toby will try to play every day so he’ll think he’ll be right. Sometimes he’s his own worst enemy because he’s so brave.”

UNDERMANNED TIGERS OVERRUN IN LAND OF GIANTS

— Nick Smart

Their song talks about a big, big sound, but it was all about the big, big chip on the shoulder of every GWS Giants player going into Friday night’s Grand Final rematch with Richmond.

The last time they met the Tigers, it was on the game’s biggest stage last September and they were embarrassed by a yellow and black tsunami wave.

More recently, they were also dealing with a stinging barb from former Giant Brett Deledio, who said this week the Giants were playing like a bunch of individuals.

Football analyst and Collingwood premiership star Mick McGuane described this game as the Giants’ line-in-the-sand moment.

It was by no means emphatic, but it was still the response GWS coach Leon Cameron would have wanted to kick-start their stuttering season.

The caveat is the win came against a grossly inexperienced Richmond team missing a whopping seven players from its premiership side.

Greene celebrates kicking a goal against Richmond in the Grand Final replay.

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There was no skipper Trent Cotchin, Dion Prestia, Bachar Houli, Shane Edwards, Toby Nankervis, Josh Caddy or David Astbury.

Yet had it not been for the brilliance of Toby Greene, who kicked five goals in one of the best performances of the season to date, the Tigers might just have pinched it.

“We knew it was backs against the wall sort of stuff,” Greene told Channel 7.

“We got ourselves in that position.

“Richmond is obviously a bloody good side.

“They gave us a touch up last year. It was a great win and really important.

“Now we’ve got to stick to it and keep building on it.”

Greene marks during his five-goal game.

Martin and his mates came up short.

SECOND TERM BLUES

When Richmond dissects why they lost this one, the tape of the second term will get a workout.

They completely dominated a 20-minute period for a return of just one goal and three behinds.

The Tigers had 10 consecutive inside-50 entries and had the ball camped in their forward line, with the Giants not going inside 50 until late in the term.

Yet the fine touch of Greene and Josh Kelly meant the home side somehow went in at front at the main break.

DIMMA: FLAG DEFENCE STILL ON TRACK

— Ben Horne

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick lamented his side’s lack of execution against GWS but believes the premiership defence is still on track.

The Tigers had their opportunities to inflict more misery on the Giants, but butchered several chances in the second and fourth quarters.

Damien Hardwick says the Tigers remain on track.

Hardwick is still without seven of his premiership stars and fielded the second least experienced side in the competition and isn’t losing sleep about letting the Grand Final rematch slip.

“There are some indicators of ours that are strong. That are premiership indicators,” said Hardwick.

“But there are indicators we need to get a little bit better. We need to improve. We’re not playing our best footy.

“But we’ve got our head above the ledger at the moment. We’ve been in this situation a number of times. We continue to bring players up to speed and when that talent comes back, we’ll be all the better for it. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.

“No doubt the side that’s the hottest generally rolls in and wins (the premiership).

“We’re really confident in our strength and conditioning staff. Confident that if we’ve got our talent available … we’re going to be hard to beat.”

Hardwick said the turning point came in the second quarter when Richmond had all the running, only for the Giants to peg back a goal to kill the momentum.

“I thought our system held up well. Obviously we had periods of complete dominance but just failed to execute on the scoreboard. If you don’t take your chances your opposition will,” he said.

“We had 12 inside 50s to one then they go back and score a goal. It reflected the game. We lacked polish inside 50. We’ve got some growth players coming in who will get better for the run.

“The game itself looked like a Richmond game, we just didn’t execute like we normally would.”

Hardwick says there are no alarm bells at Tigerland just yet.

GWS: 3.4 5.4 8.6 9.8 (62)

RICHMOND: 2.6 3.9 6.10 6.14 (50)

GOALS

Giants: Greene 5, Kelly, Himmelberg, Jacobs, Finlayson.

Tigers: Martin 2, Bolton, Castagna, Riewoldt, Aarts.

BEST

Giants: Greene, Kelly, Coniglio Whitfield, Taranto, Haynes, Hopper

Tigers: Martin, Bolton, McIntosh, Pickett, Short

VOTES

3- Toby Greene (GWS)

2- Josh Kelly (GWS)

1- Dustin Martin (Rich)

CORR BLIMEY! DID BIZARRE UMP CALL SPOOK GIANT

GWS defender Aidan Corr has been instructed to “read the rule book” by AFL legend Wayne Carey after a first-half brain fade against Richmond.

Corr picked up the ball as the last line of defence last in the first quarter, but inexplicably decided against rushing it through for a behind, despite the fact he had two Tigers players sweating on him.

The Giants backman was then caught holding the ball and the Tigers capitalised with a goal that sucked the momentum out of GWS after they had dominated in the opening quarter.

Carey on Channel 7 called Corr’s decision-making “dumb” and questioned whether he knew the rules of the game.

Fellow AFL great Luke Hodge agreed Corr should have found a way to take the ball through for a behind, but speculated that the Giants star might have been spooked by a bizarre umpiring decision a couple of weeks back — also involving the Tigers — when Sydney Swan Callum Mills gave away a free kick for rushing one behind, when there did appear to be pressure on him.

Jack Riewoldt could only manage one goal for the night.

TIGERS’ SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO SHANE TUCK

Richmond has honoured former Tiger Shane Tuck with a minute’s silence before the Grand Final rematch with the Giants.

The Tigers and GWS lined Giants Stadium to pay tribute to the much-loved midfielder, who died on Wednesday.

Coach Damien Hardwick, stand-in skipper Jack Riewoldt and Dustin Martin looked full of emotion as they linked arms together shoulder to shoulder.

Fittingly they were together, and all played alongside Tuck in Hardwick’s first win as a coach 10 years earlier.

That win came in Round 10 after nine consecutive losses to open Hardwick’s career in charge at Punt Road.

Tuck played an instrumental role in Hardwick’s first victory, earning a Brownlow vote that day after notching up 31 disposals

Richmond and GWS Giants players stand for a minute’s silence in memory of Shane Tuck.

Tributes flowed from far and wide for the 38-year-old who played 173 games for Richmond between 2004-2013 before moving on to a short career in boxing.

His father, 400-game Hawthorn legend Michael Tuck opened up to the Herald Sun about the pain of losing his son, who had struggled with mental health in the lead up to his death.

Originally published as Richmond v GWS Giants: Tigers’ hub floods, Toby Greene plays down Brett Deledio snipe despite upsetting coach Leon Cameron