Richmond rising is great for footballBy Cameron Rose
theRoar.com.au
19 Aug 2014 The rise of Richmond is just the shot in the arm this AFL season needed.
In a year that has once again been hijacked by the Essendon saga, through the inability of anyone at the club to accept they may have done something wrong, the AFL’s questionable methods and ASADA’s bumbling incompetence and weak leadership, the Tigers seven-match winning surge has proven the tonic.
The fixture has been a disaster, both practically and in a public relations sense. The usual suspects have bemoaned too many rolling mauls and uninspiring matches.
Instead of football being all over the front pages for the wrong reasons, Richmond are all over the back for the right ones – pure football.
This is a good story for the entire football world. For long-suffering Tiger fans (and regular readers of my pieces will know that I am one) the dream is still alive for back-to-back finals series, our first since 1974-75.
For everyone else, ninth is still very much on the cards, and is in fact the more likely scenario. All the ninth jokes can be pulled out of mothballs and be used again and again.
If Richmond were making this sort of run in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, Geez rising on the third day would barely have raised an eyelid. Lazarus himself only came back from the dead to give the Tigers a point of reference. And to see a Dustin Martin “don’t argue” and goal from 60 metres.
Non-Richmond people love to see the Tiges do well… up to a point. There isn’t much more fun to be had than watching the hope and optimism of these greater fools get built up, only to be torn down in ways that are equally outrageous and heart-breaking.
A Richmond supporter can not enjoy a fast start to a match and an early five-goal lead. It only means that the opposition has plenty of time to get back into the game, which they inevitably will.
A Richmond supporter does not relax with a comfortable three-quarter-time margin. They know that the opposition will respond with record-breaking last term heroics. A Richmond supporter does not celebrate their team hitting the front in a close game in the last quarter. They understand that their heart will be ripped out in the next minute or two.
If these things don’t happen, it is merely because the footy Gods are setting them up for an even bigger fall later on. They are the masters of the long con when it comes to the Tigers.
It is why Richmond can never just stumble into the eight when they do make it once a decade. It’s straight into the upper reaches (third in 1995, fourth in 2001, fifth last year).
‘Wow,’ the fans think, ‘we’ve improved so much in one season and our list is still quite young. Finally we’ve broken through. It can only be onward and upward from here’.
The result? Splat!
Season 2013 and the first half of 2014 were the cruellest examples yet. Witness the elimination final loss again, followed by the most stagnant football seen this side of a Paul Roos coached team.
But the Tiges are back once more. And playing a brand of football that everyone can get on board with. They’re attacking the ball and man hard in the contest, defending grimly and protecting teammates, both through physicality and running hard to help their back men out.
With the ball, their rebound is back to 2013 levels, running hard either wide into space or in waves through the middle, flicking the ball around to each other like a magnetic hot potato.
Jack Riewoldt has only kicked 11 goals in the seven-match winning streak, but has perfectly encapsulated this version of the Tigers.
His work ethic has been outstanding all year, especially during the down times, but he is continually putting his body on the line and working as hard as anyone for the team, in wet and greasy conditions unsuitable to key forwards.
In the last month alone he’s had to play on three probable All-Australians in Eric Mackenzie, Cale Hooker and Daniel Talia, but has continued to persevere, lead hard and put his body on the line. Watch him celebrate his teammates’ goals more heartily than his own.
Momentum is the most irresistible thing in football. The Tigers have it. And they’re coming. Personally, I’ve already booked my flights to Adelaide for our elimination final against Port.
In fact, with our Round 23 match taking place in Sydney, and our likely finals draw also taking in trips to Perth and Sydney again, this week against St Kilda will be our last match at the MCG until grand final day.
Haha. Will the dream still be alive come then? Probably not. But gee it’s great for football if it stays alive just that little bit longer.
http://www.theroar.com.au/2014/08/19/richmond-rising-great-football/#tab3
