Well this was it, the annual Richmond vs North trip to Melbourne with my brother and a couple of mates. My brother is a North supporter, one of my mates is a North supporter, so regardless of the outcome of the game, I am always outnumbered by the opposition at the pub afterward.
Last year, in Round 5, our Tigers notched their first win for the year against the Kangaroos and it was a dizzying experience watching us come from no-hope underdogs to victors. This year, with the Tigers running hot on five wins from six starts, they entered as favourites and expectation was high, despite the significant outs of the suspended Daniel Jackson and team talisman, Ben Griffiths (who is yet to play in a losing AFL team). Upsets were on the cards for Round 16, Geelong having been knocked off by Adelaide and the Saints having been embarrassed by Collingwood and the steady Melbourne rain was going to all but remove clean overhead marking as a feature of the game. Something I would rue, having just brought in Jack Riewoldt into my dream team.
As regularly mentioned by my North Melbourne-supporter comrades, the result of this game also meant more from a season perspective to the Kangaroos than to the Tigers, North Melbourne having to keep winning in order to keep their finals hopes alive.
Right from the opening bounce, despite the closeness of the score early and the fact that Jake King, in his 50th game, kicked the first goal, what concerned me was not the fact that we were generally behind, but rather the features of the Tigers’ play which had been so visible over the past six weeks – desire and pressure – were notably absent. And the Kangaroos were showing just the sort of desire and pressure which has had them threatening the top-8 all season.
The early going was an arm-wrestle with neither team able to string 2 consecutive goals together until Trent Cotchin laid a late hit on Kangaroo rookie Sam Wright which ended with Wright being carried off, not to return and Cotchin being reported; a report which has ended up costing our young gun midfielder 4 weeks on the sidelines. Having debated the severity of the hit with my brother and my mate at the time, I felt it was late and, finally, agreed that it was to the back of the shoulder. Perhaps it deserved weeks for what it was, but 4? Every commentator (including my North Melbourne comrades) I have heard comment on the incident sees 4 weeks as excessive.
Following Cotchin’s hit, the free-kick, 50m penalty and Brent Harvey’s subsequent goal, not only did the tide seem to turn North Melbourne’s way in terms of ball dominance, but it seemed that the match-day umpires had chosen to punish Richmond for the hit. A free-kick count which had, prior to the Cotchin hit, seemed relatively even blew out in the end to 21 to 12 in North’s favour. Whether North lifted in response to the hit or it was simply a coincidence, Richmond did not threaten to come back for the remainder of the match.
This is not to say that we lost the day due to the umpires, rather we lost the day due to that desire and that pressure remaining absent from the Tigers’ game all day and seeming to grow quarter-by-quarter in the Kangaroos’ game as they marched away to a 50-point final deficit, Richmond 7, 11, (53) to North Melbourne 15, 13, (103).
Kangaroo Andrew Swallow was the game’s best, running hard and creating opportunities for the Kangaroo forwards which the Tiger forwards, I think, would have killed for. North’s young full-back Nathan Grima performed admirably on Jumping Jack, restricting him to 3.2 from 8 kicks with the help of several other Kangaroo defenders. To Jack’s credit, however, he was very accurate with the set shots he did take – particularly considering the weather conditions. Daniel Connors and Ben Cousins were Richmond’s best, working hard, running all day, though the effectiveness of their disposal reduced their impact on the game.
Hopefully, despite being without Daniel Jackson for his final week of suspension and Trent Cotchin for his first, we can show some more of that desire and pressure from Rounds 10-15 against the Pies this Saturday.