Off the mark
Adem Yze technically already boasts a win as a senior coach, when he stepped in for Simon Goodwin at Melbourne for one game two seasons ago. But we all know that doesn’t truly count.
Yze finally earned his chance to be a senior coach as Damien Hardwick’s successor at Richmond, after narrowly missing out at Adelaide and Greater Western, but had to wait until his fourth game in charge to celebrate a victory.
Even then, the former Demons star cut a nervous figure in the coaches’ box after a Swans rushed behind cut the margin to five points with fewer than 30 seconds to go.
Fortunately for Yze and his Tigers, they managed to clear the ball from their defensive 50 and eventually to Shai Bolton, who drove the Sherrin inside 50 in the dying seconds to secure the win.
Pre-season addition makes impact
New Zealand-born Myketi Lefau was subbed out of the game in the final term with the result still up for grabs, but not before kicking the first two goals of his fledgling career.
Lefau scored his AFL shot at almost the last moment via the pre-season supplemental selection period before forcing his way into Richmond’s senior side last week.
His first goal came from pure effort on the goal line as he desperately dived after the ball and was legged by Tom McCartin before an excellent checkside finish.
That followed him setting up a Tom Lynch goal with a terrific deep kick.
Lefau’s second goal was arguably even better as he marked on the lead before rifling through a 50-metre goal in the third term.
Blakey’s blunders
Fans, media and teammates are often in awe of how Sydney star Nick Blakey makes the Sherrin sing off his trusty left boot, but Sunday’s clash was not as memorable.
The defensive dasher loves taking the game on and thumped a huge goal in the second quarter to ignite his Swans, but his afternoon will be best remembered for two costly turnovers.
The first of them was a panic kick deep in his defensive 50 that went straight to the Tigers and resulted in Liam Baker snapping an excellent goal to put them 20 points up.
Baker was again the beneficiary a quarter later, when Blakey tried one of his trademark switch kicks while playing on from the kick-in.
The ball instead went straight to Richmond, who rushed a pass inside 50 to Baker, who made no mistake.