ROUND 4 - RICHMOND lost to GEELONG - Telstra Dome/Docklands (AWAY) 19.4.04 RICHMOND 1.4 3.7 7.10 11.12 (78) GEELONG 7.0 11.1 15.5 19.13 (127) Goals: Richmond: Brown 4 Ottens 2 Coughlan 2 Fiora Gaspar Tivendale. Geelong: Graham 6 Kingsley 3 Mackie 2 Haynes 2 Playfair 2 Tenace Riccardi Mooney Ling. Best: Richmond: Ottens Brown Tivendale Campbell Krakouer. Geelong: Sanderson Kingsley Graham Haynes Mooney Rahilly. INJURIES: Richmond: Nil. UMPIRES: H Kennedy S Meredith K Nicholls. ATTENDANCE: 31,375 Oh Dear! What has gone wrong in three weeks to cause such a pathetic performance as we witnessed on Saturday night. Firstly, the concept of teamwork barring a small few seems to not be in the Richmond vocabulary. Secondly, the lack of leadership both on and off the field with many of our senior players struggling for form and a game plan that is as painfully futile as it is painful to watch from the grandstands. Thirdly, the total and disturbing lack of passion and hunger out there (once again barring a select few). With Richo and Stafford absent through injury and suspension respectively, Richmond "reorganized" their forward line set-up with youngster Schulz at FF and Morrison and Andy Kellaway as other marking targets surrounded by Brown and Bowden. Otto was in the ruck and Gas was given the job on Graham who has kicked bags of 5 against the Tiges in the sides last two meetings. The match began disasterously for the Tigers as Geelong (via Graham with 4) slammed on the first 7 goals straight of the game while Richmond lamented on only 3 behinds. By the end of the quarter both sides had entered their forward 50 exactly the same number of times but the difference was Geelong were direct and organised while Richmond were their usual selves of recent seasons looking confused and showing no sign of any system to their play. For the second quarter, Otto and Cogs (whose footy is clearly suffering due to his groin/lower stomach complaint) were moved forward, Kellaway moved back and Hall was placed onto Graham. In a strange ploy the sadly out of form Gaspar was moved up forward ??? . Richmond looking a bit more convincing now were at least able to match Geelong's scoring attempts although the Cats were still on top in general play. However poor kicking for goal let us down and the Tiges trailed by 42 points at the main break. Only a minor miracle could save the Tigers now. Richmond did lift their intensity in the third but once again their persistance of playing a short and wide possession game was easily countered by Geelong. Our turnovers were killing us and when we didn't hand the footy straight back to the opposition we would just take far too long in moving the ball forward to catch the Cats out. The quarter ended in a stalemate as both sides traded 4 goals a piece. The final act of the match was pretty much more of the same with Geelong finding more efficient avenues to goal but this time wasting them on the scoreboard with four goals eight. Richmond got four consolation goals themselves to go down in the end by 49 points in another demoralising loss given the Cats hadn't won a match until tonight. < BACK >