Richmond’s win proves that footy games aren’t played on paper: Cometti (WA)

[one-eyed]

AFL grand final: Richmond’s win over Adelaide proves that footy games aren’t played on paper

Dennis Cometti
West Australian
Monday, 2 October 2017

I was in Adelaide during the week and if confidence were gold it was a very rich city.

Few people thought the Adelaide Crows could lose the AFL Grand Final to Richmond.

Certainly there seemed to be a vast chasm between the two clubs on paper and on performance.

I felt the same way and said so.

But these days when it comes to Grand Finals I always feel the need to add a disclaimer.

It's something Graham Farmer once said “Grand Finals aren't like other games. It's winner take all and because of that some people change, they react differently and teams that change too much, lose.”

Approaching half-time on Saturday the great man's words were ringing in my ears.

Adelaide were in trouble. The highest scoring team in the competition was finding it almost impossible to score.

Having been denied their primary route to goal through the middle of the ground they had quickly gone from free-wheeling to free-falling.

Worse still, it seemed they were accepting of the consequences.

The Tigers were great on Saturday but they are not a great team.

Much like the Western Bulldogs of last season the whole was somehow far greater than the sum of it's parts.

This morning I'm happy for all those long suffering Richmond fans and coach Damien Hardwick.

Their place in Tiger folklore is assured.

By contrast Don Pyke, much like the city of Adelaide itself, must be reeling.

Over just a couple of hours the team he thought he knew became strangers.

https://thewest.com.au/sport/afl/afl-grand-final-richmonds-win-over-adelaide-proves-that-footy-games-arent-played-on-paper-ng-b88616164z

[mat073]

Cometti was one of the biggest , most patronizing tiger haters of all time .

Wish he had called the game yesterday - would of killed him .

[Eat_em_Alive]

Cometti was one of the biggest , most patronizing tiger haters of all time .

Wish he had called the game yesterday - would of killed him .

Yep totally agree there

edit: I'm sick of hearing we are the like the Bulldogs of last year, I really want the boys to go out there with a hunger next to  make it again

[Yeahright]

Certainly there seemed to be a vast chasm between the two clubs on performance.

Based on what? Their whole 2 points (a solitary draw) lead on the ladder at the end of the H&A season? Their wins against GWS (36 points) and Geelong (61) in the finals that was a whole combined 10 points more than what we scored against them? Neither team even turned up against Adelaide. Stuff Adelaide and their pseudo tough captain and downhill skiing team. They're a bunch of mentally weak pretenders with no plan B.

[Knighter]

EAD Dennis you flog

[georgies31]

Gez some sour grapes out there from has beens lick wounds with extra salt.

[tony_montana]

This is stuffing hilarious, even after smashing 1st, 2nd and 4th on the ladder in the finals we are still being being under estimated. The media are so used to the lolrichmond and richmondy angles, they dont know what to do.

This is nothing like the bulldogs. We didnt just fall over the line here, we dismantled the rest of the top four by an average finals margin of 45points - thats not a gap, thats a stuffing a chasm between the premiers and the rest of the comp in anyones language.

[dwaino]

At first I was a bit annoyed we weren't getting the plaudits but now I'm loving every bit of it. You're spot on TM, "but but but Richmond" and they don't know how to handle this. Those narrow losses kind of hid where we truly were this season. Better yet, Mundy misses the goal after the siren or we actually set up for a behind against GWS and we finish as minor premiers, not Adelaide who had their own hiccups along the way like getting pantsed at home by the Dees or by n0rf in Hobart. We beat 15 out of 17 other teams this year and if we had another crack at Sydney or the Dogs we would have got them too. If there was any doubt we steamrolled the top 4 on the way to our flag. I was shaky all finals, worrying about our fragility, but looking back I'm bullish. We had an awesome year and something really clicked after that Geelong loss. Even that game we weren't bad, we only went down by 14 (I think it was?) and kept the second best scoring team to 80 points on their own turf. I hope they're hungry for more. Add some more polish to the side and with the taste of success there is no reason we can't get another one or two. You can bet we're going to be hunted hard next season though.

[Hard Roar Tiger]

At first I was a bit annoyed we weren't getting the plaudits but now I'm loving every bit of it. You're spot on TM, "but but but Richmond" and they don't know how to handle this. Those narrow losses kind of hid where we truly were this season. Better yet, Mundy misses the goal after the siren or we actually set up for a behind against GWS and we finish as minor premiers, not Adelaide who had their own hiccups along the way like getting pantsed at home by the Dees or by n0rf in Hobart. We beat 15 out of 17 other teams this year and if we had another crack at Sydney or the Dogs we would have got them too. If there was any doubt we steamrolled the top 4 on the way to our flag. I was shaky all finals, worrying about our fragility, but looking back I'm bullish. We had an awesome year and something really clicked after that Geelong loss. Even that game we weren't bad, we only went down by 14 (I think it was?) and kept the second best scoring team to 80 points on their own turf. I hope they're hungry for more. Add some more polish to the side and with the taste of success there is no reason we can't get another one or two. You can bet we're going to be hunted hard next season though.

Dwaino, something clicked after the Saints loss. We just got progressively better and with the exception of the GC and Cats games would have beaten any side in those last 9 weeks.
The lack of talent thing is a red herring - we have 4 once a generation players in our side and the support cast is underrated which is a function of a reactionary media and a poor AFL opposition who were caught with their pants down.
I'm bullish because there's another 6-8 players in our 2's who could come straight in and unlike teams such as Geelong and Hawthorn who will need to trade future picks to get players - we have 2 x 1st round picks to help continue the trajectory of our young talent at the club.
Our 4 gun players are 28 and under, we can reasonably expect another 4-5years of elite football from them.
I'm not suggesting going back to back is a lock but we should feel bullish about the future while everyone else catches up

[Francois Jackson]

At first I was a bit annoyed we weren't getting the plaudits but now I'm loving every bit of it. You're spot on TM, "but but but Richmond" and they don't know how to handle this. Those narrow losses kind of hid where we truly were this season. Better yet, Mundy misses the goal after the siren or we actually set up for a behind against GWS and we finish as minor premiers, not Adelaide who had their own hiccups along the way like getting pantsed at home by the Dees or by n0rf in Hobart. We beat 15 out of 17 other teams this year and if we had another crack at Sydney or the Dogs we would have got them too. If there was any doubt we steamrolled the top 4 on the way to our flag. I was shaky all finals, worrying about our fragility, but looking back I'm bullish. We had an awesome year and something really clicked after that Geelong loss. Even that game we weren't bad, we only went down by 14 (I think it was?) and kept the second best scoring team to 80 points on their own turf. I hope they're hungry for more. Add some more polish to the side and with the taste of success there is no reason we can't get another one or two. You can bet we're going to be hunted hard next season though.

Dwaino, something clicked after the Saints loss. We just got progressively better and with the exception of the GC and Cats games would have beaten any side in those last 9 weeks.
The lack of talent thing is a red herring - we have 4 once a generation players in our side and the support cast is underrated which is a function of a reactionary media and a poor AFL opposition who were caught with their pants down.
I'm bullish because there's another 6-8 players in our 2's who could come straight in and unlike teams such as Geelong and Hawthorn who will need to trade future picks to get players - we have 2 x 1st round picks to help continue the trajectory of our young talent at the club.
Our 4 gun players are 28 and under, we can reasonably expect another 4-5years of elite football from them.
I'm not suggesting going back to back is a lock but we should feel bullish about the future while everyone else catches up

no club has a better quartet that those mentioned.

i think we are going to give it a good crack next year.