Roos not romantics MICHAEL GLEESON
July 19, 2010 THE romantic story would have had Richmond win - again - and keep its late- blossoming season's delirium for another week. The realist view knew a sobering moment was coming. Yesterday in the most bracing of conditions it arrived.
The loss that had been coming for Richmond, even if it didn't have it coming as it were, was delivered in purposeful fashion by a more composed and intelligent game from North Melbourne.
Andrew Swallow, the best player on the ground who Richmond had no answer for inside or outside the pack, summed it up when he said after the game that Brad Scott had warned his team that they would get what they deserved from the match.
''Brad said to us if we turned up and played the way we know we can play, we were going to get the result. Last week we didn't play well and we lost so it was a matter of going out there and working to our structures and then getting the midfield on their spread and we would get what we deserve,'' Swallow said.
North has to play the game honestly to get its result and yesterday was a game demanding honesty. In conditions that were miserable at the start and got only worse North played a sure-footed first term, a better second and made a wipe-out in the third.
Damien Hardwick said he didn't feel the result swung from the moment Trent Cotchin unwisely jumped late into the back of Sam Wright after a mark, but it appeared that moment provided a book mark for the contest.
North had been dominant at the centre bounce, getting favourable match-ups to reward the ruck ascendancy with nine clearances to zero for the first half. And when it moved it forward, it chose, irrespective of the slippery conditions, to try to work through the opponents of Chris Newman and Brett Deledio.
Richmond plays a zone defence and work that pair, as well as Daniel Connors, loose to run the ball out of the back line. North sought instead to look for its opponents such as Leigh Adams - who finished the game with three goals - and Matt Campbell to force tighter accountability and keep the runners deep. It worked.
When Cotchin sent Wright from the field, and then to hospital, it should have had the effect of helping give Richmond momentum for North would be denied that rotation, which on a wet day could significantly hurt a running side. North, however, had a goal immediately after the Cotchin bump and the consequent 50-metre penalty; Leigh Adams followed with another a minute later and Todd Goldstein took a one-handed mark to convert a third in three minutes. It was a defining stanza of play and thrust North out to a three-goal lead.
Cotchin, further to that, had been tagged well by Levi Greenwood and finished the game with just a dozen touches. While Richmond remained alive to the contest until half-time, it surrendered without a whimper in the third quarter when North kicked 5.3 to the Tigers' single behind.
Defender Nathan Grima grew up in Tasmania playing in frigid conditions such as those at the MCG yesterday. So, too, his opponent Jack Riewoldt. The Tasmanians are three years apart but played on one another. Their avenues to the game could not have been more different - Riewoldt a first-round draft pick carrying a name that would ensure attention. Grima came circuitously from South Launceston via Adelaide's Central District to North's rookie list.
Riewoldt is the hottest player in the competition and even on the coldest day he was going to be the player Richmond looked to. Riewoldt's breeding, like Grima's, meant that even though these were not the conditions for full-forwards they might still have been conditions for Riewoldt.
''I think anyone who has had a look at Richmond would know that probably 80 per cent of their inside 50s would go to Jack so obviously I had to be close enough to him to impact and I had a lot of help from others like Spud Firrito. It makes it easier when you know where the ball is going to come because it goes to him nine times out of 10, but he took a couple of nice marks and kicked a couple of goals so probably broke even in the end, I reckon,'' Grima said.
''It is sort of weird to think we are playing on each other on the MCG [after growing up in Tassie together]. He was always going to play AFL and I got lucky so it was pretty rewarding.''
The final goal of the game told a tale of the match. A ball surged forward by North from the half-back line met two consecutive Richmond players only to confound them. The chill, rain and slippery conditions were ripe to make fools of even balanced players and in any event both Tigers saw the ball pass comically by.
The ball was soccered forward and it skidded and slid like a kid diving on wet plastic under a summer sprinkler to Ben Warren who was able to collect it and kick the goal.
THE MAIN MEN
Hamish McIntosh (North Melbourne): The North ruckman has had a relatively lean year but this was a better effort, even with being kneed in the ribs by Angus Graham at a centre bounce. McIntosh offered the Roos first hands on the ball, which largely explained why they led the centre clearances 9-0 to half-time.
Jack Riewoldt (Richmond): These were not the conditions for marking forwards. Even Tasmanians who might be more familiar with frigid cold and steady rain. But Riewoldt still finished the day with three goals. He took a strong pack mark late in the game to kick his third, but really he was inconsequential to the result.
WHERE THE GAME WAS WONNorth was the harder side that played the smarter football for the conditions. Most of their match-ups worked. Brad Scott was pleased in Ben Cunnington breaking even with Dustin Martin, and Trent Cotchin was kept out of the game. Brett Deledio after half-time was quietened by the Roos seeking to play through his opponent and force accountability.
WHERE THE GAME WAS LOSTDamien Hardwick reckoned on his side ''not coming to play'' and North being harder at the ball and hungrier to get possession and to win the game. It was not an unfair assessment. North was more balanced across the field, effectively closing it out from the centre bounce with its clearance dominance and playing better wet-weather football.
BEST -North Melbourne: Swallow, Wells, Adams, Grima, McIntosh, Campbell, Warren.
Richmond: Tuck, Cousins, Connors, Deledio.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/roos-not-romantics-20100718-10g6p.html
