Author Topic: Media articles & stats --- Orange crushed: Tigers roar once more  (Read 739 times)

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Media articles & stats --- Orange crushed: Tigers roar once more
« on: September 29, 2019, 06:25:52 AM »
Orange crushed: Tigers roar once more under Dimma's dynasty

AFL.com.au
Riley Beveridge
Sep 28, 2019


RICHMOND                              2.3     7.5     12.9     17.12 (114)
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY     1.2     1.6     2.7      3.7 (25)

GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 5, Martin 4, Lynch 2, Rioli, Soldo, Pickett, Lambert, Bolton, Cotchin
Greater Western Sydney: Cameron, Hopper, Himmelberg

BEST
Richmond: Martin, Riewoldt, Prestia, Pickett, Edwards, Vlastuin, Houli
Greater Western Sydney: Taranto, Shaw, Haynes, Hopper, Williams

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
Greater Western Sydney: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Stevic, Ryan, Chamberlain

Official crowd: 100,014 at the MCG

-----------------------------------------------------------------

RICHMOND waited 37 long years for premiership success.

It now has two flags in three seasons.

The 'Dimma Dynasty' started on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the MCG. It was just as invigorating and exciting two years on, as Damien Hardwick's remarkable group brushed aside Grand Final rookies Greater Western Sydney on its way to an emphatic 89-point win.

The Tigers tackled, harassed and drove forward with the relentlessness they have become renowned for throughout their three years of dominance, inspired by an unstoppable mix of genius coaching, tremendous individual talent and astonishing team cohesion.

Richmond's 17.12 (114) to 3.7 (25) Grand Final victory was the product of that combination – a demonstration of all that has made it the best team of 2019.

Hardwick thwarted his opposite number Leon Cameron, particularly in an outstanding second-quarter display where the Tigers completely overwhelmed the Giants in all areas of the ground to kick five unanswered goals and lay the foundations for their emphatic win.

He also had the players to execute his vision.

Dustin Martin, once again, was sublime. Whether it was in the midfield, where he collected 22 disposals and three clearances, or forward, where he slotted four goals and had eight score involvements, he was the game's most influential figure.

A second Norm Smith Medal – making him just the fourth player to be a dual winner of the award behind Gary Ayres, Andrew McLeod and Luke Hodge – was just reward for his stunning display, as the Richmond favourite etched his name in the record books.

Jack Riewoldt and Tom Lynch – the League's most dominant forward duo – combined for seven goals. Riewoldt had three in the second quarter alone and finished with five for the match, while Lynch was a constant presence to haul down seven big marks.

Bachar Houli (26 disposals) and Dion Prestia (22 disposals) were their prolific selves, while Shane Edwards, Kane Lambert and Nick Vlastuin were also typically consistent.

Then there was the Grand Final debutant, Marlion Pickett. One game, one flag.

The 27-year-old was lively, involved and, at times, special. He repaid Hardwick's faith and then some, finishing with 22 disposals, eight inside 50s, nine score involvements and a maiden AFL goal on an unforgettable afternoon for the club's boom recruit.

But the manner in which they were able to showcase their individual flair, without ever straying from Hardwick's methodical and trained system, was evident from the outset.

In fact, it helped stamp their authority on the contest.

While the Giants had become renowned for their pressure throughout September, it was the Tigers who were turning the tables throughout the opening stages on Saturday.

They hunted in packs, chased relentlessly and tackled as though their lives depended on it.

The only problem was, they couldn't take advantage of their dominance.

Richmond kicked three behinds from its first 10 entries to start the match, allowing GWS to regain some composure and resulting in a nervous period of flux for both sides.

Turnovers and lamentable mistakes became the order of the day, until Jeremy Cameron flushed a shot from beyond 50m for the game's first goal – 21 minutes into the match.

All of a sudden, the Tigers needed a spark. Enter Martin.

Pushed deep forward, he wriggled clear of Heath Shaw, marked strongly and bent his shot around the corner to eventually get the yellow and black faithful back on their feet.

Daniel Rioli followed it with a bomb on the buzzer and the momentum carried Richmond into the break and beyond, as the Tigers stormed away with the contest.

Pickett was blind-turning tacklers, Jason Castagna was leaping above defenders, Riewoldt was bending them around corners and Dusty was just being Dusty.

The result was a 35-point lead in a flash by half-time.

Each Tiger goal – all five of them, kicked one after the other – was met with exceedingly raucous cheers, as the Punt Road end celebrated what was quickly becoming inevitable.

The Giants went some way to stemming the bleeding by the break. However, in reality, they quite simply couldn't lay a glove on the Tigers. They were held goalless for the entirety of the second quarter, as a disaster unfolded in front of them.

But if they thought the main change would end the nightmare, they were wrong.

Lynch added the first of the second half, before Martin snapped another from deep inside the boundary. The third was the cream on top of a yellow and black cake.

Martin delivered to Pickett, who slotted his first goal in senior footy in typically calm fashion. All 18 Richmond players on the field immediately swarmed the debutant.

It became a training drill for the Tigers, who ultimately booted 11 straight goals – the large majority of which were slotted under very little pressure – before the Giants responded.

But the response was tame, to say the least.

While youngster Tim Taranto (30 disposals, seven tackles) fought hard all day and veteran Shaw (29 disposals, 14 marks) was tireless, it was unsurprisingly not enough.

And with a 62-point deficit at three-quarter time, there was little left to play for late.

WE WERE WRONG Eight times we thought the Tigers were gone in 2019

Instead, it became a Richmond party, as players lined up for their shot at goal. They added five more in the final term, with captain Trent Cotchin's – delivered from beyond 50m out after a couple of bounces – resulting in perhaps the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

The final siren mirrored that joy, sparking yet more wild scenes of Richmond celebrations.

Once a rarity, September success now seems like a regular Tiger occurrence.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-09-28/match-report-2019-grand-final-richmond-v-greater-western-sydney

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Tenacious Tigers silence Giants’ big sound (Herald-Sun)
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2019, 06:26:51 AM »
Tenacious Tigers silence Giants’ big sound

Sam Edmund
Herald Sun
29 September 2019


The big big sound? More like a popgun.

Richmond is tonight cradling its 12th premiership cup after its 12th consecutive win — silencing the GWS hype with a ruthless 89-point smackdown on the game’s biggest day.

Get your Sunday Herald Sun Grand Final souvenir edition and a 32-page liftout featuring: Mick Malthouse, Mark Robinson, David King, player ratings, the key moments and the Tigers’ premiership poster

The Giants rolled into the decider fuelled by a reputation as September’s toughest side.

They were instead sat on their backside by a tenacious Tigers unit that stalked its prey to all corners of the MCG.

Jeremy Cameron’s 55m set shot after a 20-minute tug of war was the game’s first goal.

Richmond then kicked the next 11 goals unanswered and Leon Cameron’s boys were officially spooked.

They missed targets, they missed shots and they lost the plot. It was stage fright stuff.

The Giants went an hour between their first and second goals and their final score of 3.7 (25) was the lowest since 1960.

Richmond’s second flag in three years makes amends for last year’s preliminary final horror show.

The Tigers did it the hard way, too. They were 7-6 after Round 13 and hit by injury in a campaign in which they had four different captains.

Richmond dropped as low as ninth in the second half of the season before mounting an irresistible charge to the last day of the season.

Every Tigers player on the list ran onto the ground at the final siren wearing their jumpers.

Dustin Martin had Matt De Boer for company, but moved forward to wreak havoc and become only the fourth dual Norm Smith Medallist in history.

“I’m a bit speechless to be honest. I just love everyone at the club. It’s so good,” Martin said.

THE SCENE SETTER

It was the tackle only five minutes into the game that offered a sign of what was to come.

GWS might have bullied their way into a Grand Final, but they weren’t going to be flexing any muscles here.

Ruck enforcer Shane Mumford tried to force a passage on the Southern Stand wing, but Trent Cotchin stopped him, turned him and smashed him into the turf with a statement tackle.

NOT-SO FABULOUS PHIL

Maybe Stephen Coniglio made the call Phil Davis didn’t.

Davis didn’t look likely during the week, didn’t look likely during the last-minute fitness test on the MCG and simply shouldn’t have played.

The Giants co-captain made Jack Riewoldt look like Usain Bolt on the lead and made for a sad sight limping around on one leg with a sore calf.

Riewoldt kicked five. Scary thing is it could have been far worse.

How the omitted Lachie Keeffe must have felt looking on.

TOTALLY ADDICTED TO FACE

Incredibly, Toby Greene has done it again.

Greene appeared to again go at the face of a rival player for the third game in a row after cameras in the first quarter caught him indulging in his nasty habit.

This time Liam Baker was the victim, with Marcus Bontempelli and Lachie Neale forming the Greene facial trifecta.

You couldn’t make it up. Actually you probably could.

THE TURN

From jail to holy grail — Merlion Pickett’s Grand Final debut had the sprinkling of stardust the Tigers thought it would.

None more so than in the second quarter when he emerged with a centre clearance.

Just when it appeared Lachie Whitfield was about to close him down, Pickett unleashed a 360-degree spin to surge clear.

His set shot goal in the third term, after he’d set up Dustin Martin and then got it back, was the definition of dreams coming true.


RICHMOND 2.3 7.5 12.9 17.12 (114)
def
GWS      1.2 1.6 2.7 3.7 (25)

Goals: Richmond: J Riewoldt 5 D Martin 4 T Lynch 2 D Rioli I Soldo K Lambert M Pickett S Bolton T Cotchin

GWS: H Himmelberg J Cameron J Hopper

Sam Edmund’s Best: Richmond: Martin, Pickett, Prestia, Houli, Vlastuin, Riewoldt, Nankervis, Castagna

GWS: Taranto, Haynes, Shaw, Williams, Hopper

Umpires: Shaun Ryan, Matt Stevic, Ray Chamberlain.

Official Crowd: 100,014 at MCG.

VOTES

3 Dustin Martin (Rich) — He produces again on the biggest stage with another game-busting performance. Twenty-two touches and four goals. Irrepressible.

2 Marlion Pickett (Rich) — How darn good was this fella? The 360-spin, the set shot, the poise. In his first game if you don’t mind.

1 Dion Prestia (Rich) — Copped the De Boer tag when Martin went forward, but was big, particularly in the first half when it there to be won.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/richmond-thrashes-gws-to-seal-second-afl-premiership-in-three-seasons/news-story/b6f78d426880c6b68a93cd0f0652ca84

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Hard, then easy: How the Tigers won the 2019 premiership (Age)
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2019, 06:27:39 AM »
Hard, then easy: How the Tigers won the 2019 premiership.

Jake Niall
The Age
29 September 2019


Ridiculed in some quarters then, it will not be today. Underdogs and insurgents in 2017, when they broke a drought, the Tigers have restored and updated the empire of the 1970s and early '80s.

The MCG was transformed into a yellow and black carnival from midway through the second quarter, as the lead surpassed four goals and the enervated Giants folded under the trademark Tiger pressure. Thereafter, the major interest in the game for the majority of the 100,014 at the 'G were various individual Tiger subplots.

One of those stories belonged to Richmond's unique champion, Dustin Martin, whose four goal, 22-disposal artistry won him a second Norm Smith Medal in three years and confirmed Dusty's stature as the most potent player in the AFL, a finals star and genuine great of the game.

"Thanks to all the fans for coming out, thanks to GWS," the taciturn Martin said in accepting his medal, before yelling, "yellow and black " to the rapturous fans, in a reprise of 2017.

But Martin's performance and medal was eclipsed by one other story, that of Marlion Pickett, the 27-year-old debutant who had spent more than two years in Wooroloo prison outside Perth as a teen, before finding redemption at South Fremantle, getting picked up by the Tigers mid-season and – finally – an astonishing call-up for first AFL game in the grand final.

Pickett, a midfielder who can mix half-back and half-forward roles, was outstanding and among Richmond's better players, with 22 disposals and eight forward entries. He received four votes in the Norm Smith Medal, behind Martin (15) and Bachar Houli (6).

Pickett's obvious class – his smooth movement and composure evident throughout (seen in a blind turn and delivery to Jason Castagna in the second quarter) – raised the question, not of why he had been picked, but why he had not been drafted earlier than late May of this year.

The midfielder's every touch engaged the crowd, whose roar for him surpassed even Dusty's – both when he booted his first AFL goal and upon accepting his premiership medal.

"If I'm playing local, WAFL, AFL – footy's footy," Pickett said in the rooms. "Footy is home. It takes my mind off a lot of things."

In contrast to GWS' gamble on their proppy skipper Phil Davis, who had a fitness test an hour before the game, Richmond's final selection decision was inspired.

Indeed, the match was symbolised by the contest between Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt and the hobbled Davis, the skipper simply unable to match strides with Riewoldt, who booted three goals in the formative second quarter and finished with five.

This was a game that confirmed certain longstanding verities about grand finals and finals - such as the inadvisability of playing injured players. Davis' willingness to play with injury will be questioned, as will the GWS decision to put him out there with a hurt calf.

Richmond's margin of 89 points surpassed the then record 81-point flogging of Collingwood in 1980, but the ease of their final victory belied the struggles that the Tigers had endured in 2019 and the tightrope they walked, even though they won their last 12 games.

This was a premiership won in April and August, as much as in September.

They had lost Alex Rance, their premier defender, with a season-ending knee injury in round one, and were without Trent Cotchin and Riewoldt for decent stretches of games from early in the season.

The recruitment of free agent key forward Tom Lynch was critical, as he held the fort in the forward line while Riewoldt recovered and booted five goals in a tighter preliminary final against Geelong.

On grand final day, Lynch was merely solid – this time deferring to Riewoldt and Martin in attack – but his presence has been enormous to Richmond's second flag within a period in which they've won 76 per cent of their games.

Lynch's fellow ex-Sun Dion Prestia was a significant force in the telling first half – his midfield work allowing Dusty's release to the forward line – while Shane Edwards continued his exceptional finals series and late-career upswing.

Houli's rebound run and interceptions were accompanied by Nick Vlastuin's usual steadiness in defence.

GWS provided only one quarter of resistance before complete capitulation. Jeremy Cameron booted the game's first goal from 55 metres and they had a momentary period of on-ball control, as they held on to possession by chipping the ball around by foot.

But even in that first term it was clear that the Giants would have difficulty scoring. In hindsight, their lack of adventure bespoke the reality that they did not have Richmond's belief in their method, or energy.  Stephen Coniglio and Callan Ward's leadership were missed, but would not have been sufficient against Richmond, a team greater than the sum of individuals.

They had barely one decent player, although young midfielder Tim Taranto was plucky and Nick Haynes was reasonable in defence. Toby Greene was booed, naturally, but the GWS aggression and ferocity of previous finals victories over the Dogs, Lions and Collingwood couldn't be sustained in the fourth week of a exhausting campaign.

Cotchin was gracious and understated in his acceptance speech. "You guys are blood brothers," he said of his team. "And I can't believe we've done it again."

Richmond's coach Damien Hardwick rightly recognised the whole-club contribution by singling out Gale and his president Peggy O'Neal. "You are superstars," the coach said of the pair who had stuck with the contracted Hardwick after a dismal 2016.

To his players, Hardwick added, "you're wonderful to watch, wonderful to coach."

Finally, he addressed the yellow and black throng that Cotchin had initially forgotten. "To the Tiger army, we'll see you in Swan Street."

They're ready to revel. And, after a second flag, once more ready to be reviled.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/hard-then-easy-how-the-tigers-won-the-2019-premiership-20190928-p52vu8.html

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Richmond maul Giants in big grand final win (Age)
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2019, 06:28:19 AM »
Richmond maul Giants in big grand final win

Michael Gleeson
The Age
29 September 2019


Marlion Pickett squeezed between the closing lift doors of two GWS players. He had caught the eye of Dustin Martin breaking towards him, and he ran through centre-half-forward expecting to be hit, but intent on getting the ball forward.

The two Giants players clattered into one another and were left on the ground. Pickett was left standing. Martin had the mark.

Everything about AFL debutant Pickett on grand final day fell neatly into place. When he made a blind turn – who blind turns any more? – coming out of the centre square, he sat the ball for Jason Castagna to take a hanger.

When the ball fell clear in the first quarter, Pickett saw Shane Edwards and tumbled a deliberate dribbler to him. Edwards goaled off a step.

And then in the third, running through centre-half-forward, Pickett didn't panic. He was prepared for the hit; he had the poise to wait, the patience to deliver. He had the skill to execute, and the presence of mind to make the right choice.

It played out like this: Martin had a set shot at goal. He was only 40 metres out, barely needing to swing his backside into the ball to get the distance. But he didn't kick it – he waited and he watched. Pickett had circled inside the 50-metre arc and found himself some space. He was barely closer to goal than Martin, but Martin poked a ball across to him with a crafty pass anyway.

Another goal for Martin was incidental, another goal for Richmond was by that stage, 10 minutes into the third quarter and leading by 48 points, almost inconsequential. But for father of four Pickett, the debutant at 27 and this season's most storied journey to football, it was absolutely consequential.

Pickett kicked the goal. Every single Richmond player ran to mob him in the way they did at only one other stage in the game: when Trent Cotchin goaled and the celebration was not just about a captain's pleasurable moment but an acknowledgement the game was won.

The Pickett goal and celebration was representative of Richmond's game – they were bold and aggressive in selection.

Everything Pickett did this day seemed to work. He finished the game with eight inside 50s, more than anyone else on the ground, and was involved in nine Tigers scores.

The moment though spoke to Martin's place in this team, a beguiling figure who deeply cares for his teammates. Martin had been the one to ask to have Pickett stay with him when the recruit first moved to the club in the mid-season draft. Everything of Richmond's approach was threaded into that moment.

By then, of course, the game was won. Richmond had made a certainty of that by half-time. As a contest this was a fizzer, the biggest since Geelong belted Port Adelaide more than a decade ago. The Giants were held to the lowest score in their brief history, on a dry, clear, windless, crisp, sunny spring day.

Richmond were the team ranked 18th for clearances, yet they won the clearances this day. The Giants have dominated ground balls in 2019, yet Richmond beat them in ground balls.

The Giants' kick-and-hold patient game that is a contrast to Richmond's high momentum pressure game didn't hold up either under the pressure of Richmond's players nor their defensive structure that strangled them out of any ability to score.

The Giants' regularity in turning the ball over by foot through the middle of the ground was the most significant feature of the match.

Richmond won their last flag with only one key forward. GWS seemingly had to try to do the same – only Jeremy Cameron of their three forwards did anything. Jeremy Finlayson took until almost the siren of the third quarter to touch the ball for the first time.

Richmond won the territory battle in the first quarter but could not capitalise with goals and the Giants felt they had absorbed the worst of it in a grand final – not getting blown out of the water early – and were in the game when Cameron kicked the first goal of the match.

Then Martin, who had begun as the target of choice for Matt de Boer to tag when he was in the middle of the ground, had gone to the goal square, where he was opposed by veteran Heath Shaw. Shaw has been an excellent one-on-one player in his career, but he is no longer in his prime. Martin is.

So when Lachie Whitfield was run down on the wing, the ball scrambled forward and Martin responded more sharply than Shaw, breaking forward to mark and goal.

Moments later, just on the siren, Daniel Rioli kicked a goal off a step from 50 metres when Pickett squeezed a kick to him. The ball had come forward after Ivan Soldo had been allowed to grab the ball out of the ruck and miss his foot with the kick without penalty.

The quick goals sunk the Giants and the second term opened the game up to a Richmond romp.

Around the ball, Shane Edwards and Dion Prestia worried the Giants out of the contest and opened them up with run and daring. The two rucks, Soldo and Toby Nankervis, won the ruck battle comprehensively. Bachar Houli behind the ball intercepted with regularity.

GWS captain Phil Davis had done a fitness test before the game and most onlookers doubted he could have been judged to have passed it. He played, but was laboured and slow to respond when Jack Riewoldt was able to break away from him in the second term to mark and goal several times.

The Giants played their worst game of the finals, and one of their worst in years, in the biggest game in the club's history.

This was a dynastic victory for Richmond. It has delivered them an appropriate return in premiership cups for their period of dominance.

THE BEST FIVE

Michael Gleeson's grand final votes

DUSTIN MARTIN (8)

He didn’t have high possession numbers, but he had enormous impact. Martin's touches were, as ever, creative and influential. He kicked the Tigers' first goal of the game; after starting in the centre square, he moved forward and was one-out with Heath Shaw. GWS never really had the player to man him up. A clever little handball from Daniel Rioli on the boundary line in the pocket in traffic set up Martin, who snapped the goal. He made certain of his second Norm Smith Medal when he booted his fourth in the final term.

MARLION PICKETT (8)

He was not only the best story of the grand final, he was one of the best players. The longer the game went, the more it became apparent that he was a seriously good player. He was involved in nine scores, he broke from the middle, he opened up the game. The moment that delighted Richmond – players and fans alike – came when he made a blind turn coming out of the middle to then put the ball up for Jason Castagna to take a hanger.

JACK RIEWOLDT (8)

Five goals in a grand final is a strong argument to be the best player on the ground. He was profoundly important, especially in the second quarter when the game was opened up. Riewoldt kicked three goals in that term and put the game to bed for Richmond. He was important in seizing the big moments with goals when they were needed, but also worked well with Tom Lynch in stretching what is normally a GWS strength, their intercept marking.

DION PRESTIA (7)

Prestia was superb, especially early when the game was hot. He had 11 touches in the first term and was instrumental in winning the territory battle from the middle. He finished the game with four clearances, which was vital for the Tigers. Matt de Boer went to him when Martin was not in the middle of the ground and he continued to have an impact despite wearing the best tagger in the game.

BACHAR HOULI (7)

Houli just edged out Shane Edwards for the last spot in the best five on the ground. His run behind the ball, feeding off David Astbury and Dylan Grimes, was as creative as it has been all year and his impact could not be dulled by the Giants. It's awkward to single out one defender from Richmond's back six because each makes the others better – and kept GWS to their lowest ever score – but Houli's run was important.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-maul-giants-in-big-grand-stuff-not-found-refresh=true

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Supreme Tigers deliver roar lesson to Giants (Age)
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2019, 06:29:34 AM »
Supreme Tigers deliver roar lesson to Giants

Greg Baum
The Age
29 September 2019


Measured against the long pent-up – and still releasing and rising – roar of Richmond as they continue to exorcise the ghosts of three haunted decades, the big, big noise of GWS came out as a pretty tinny jangle. It's going to need a lot more tuning.

That was the story of this grand final, if not in a nutshell, in a seashell. The Giants might have thought they had waited a long time for their turn, but Richmond – the club and the people, that almost biblical army – have been waiting lifetimes for a time like this. That makes two flags in three years, and they're not done yet. GWS are going to have to bide their time. So is the rest of the competition.

Yearning is also the only cogent explanation for this anti-climax, or if you're Richmond, supra-climax, so one-sided it was almost macabre. It wasn't the occasion. GWS appeared to deal well enough with that in the first quarter when, remarkable to think now, they neutralised Richmond's strengths. It wasn't men against boys: the Giants weighed in at the full rate for size and talent. It wasn't that they hadn't earned their place. It wasn't soreness and injuries; they alone don't explain such a gun-shy performance.

Rather than physical, it was metaphysical. This was an AFL superpower flexing its might against a mere rising power, footy's first world brandishing its fist in the face of the new world. Richmond are in the AFL's G8, GWS still on developing nation concessions. At some subliminal level, the Giants played this day as if they somehow knew they did not belong, not yet. "We'll be back," pledged captain Phil Davis at the presentations, but there was uncertainty in his voice.

On the Richmond podium, the tone was different to two years ago. Then it was disbelieving, wondrous, a miracle. Now as coach Damien Hardwick and captain Trent Cotchin stood to be honoured again, it was an octave lower; less euphoric, but more ominous, projecting a sense of a great club beginning to understand what it has done and what it might do yet. Cotchin read from notes. The roll call of kids in the maul told its own tale, of a team growing and maturing together. Of course, a disproportionate number of them belonged to Marlion Pickett, the miracle of this day.

This was a command performance. It is impossible to nominate a defining moment because the whole match was one – defining for the Tigers, defining for the Giants, defining for the competition. It's changing, evolving, but it's not ready for total overthrow just because the AFL might want it.

However, we'll go with one, because there might not have been one like it in grand final history. Early in the second quarter, Richmond debutant – debutant! – Pickett gathered the ball and executed the blithest of blind turns before delivering it to Jason Castagna. It was the prequel to a poised and polished 22-possession game that put Pickett into the voting for the Norm Smith Medal. Has ever a performer who should have been overawed looked less awed? He did the awing.

Pickett only joined Richmond three months ago. Now he's a life member. In a way, he characterises the Tigers: many exotic, customised and adapted parts, one glorious and even greater whole. Even Hardwick appears a little stunned by his own creation.

After the first quarter, the football became incidental. The Tigers waited and waited for the challenge that never came. Instead, grand final day seemed to consist of a series of group hugs of ever increasing size and rapture. There was one before the match, when Pickett was presented with his first-ever Richmond guernsey by the retiring Shaun Grigg. There was one for every Dustin Martin goal in another irresistible grand final performance. There was a big one for Tom Lynch's first goal, for he has made the Tigers incontestably better.

There were more for Jack Riewoldt goals, coming along as regularly as trams. Could he and Lynch work together? Scoreboard! There was a veritable mobbing for Pickett when he slotted one as cooly as if playing his 100th game. And when Cotchin cruised through the corridor to drill one late in the last quarter, he was swamped. He doesn't kick many these days, and this was in all ways his due.

Not even FA Cup final goals are celebrated with the sort of unrestrained man-love on display this day, which tells you something about what makes the Tigers tick.

At day's beginning, everyone was watching paint dry after a mishap in marking out the centre circle. At the end, it was much the same, though the Tigers have never seen such pretty paint, drying so poetically. Numerically, the Giants were respectably represented in the crowd. Alternate bays of yellow and orange, both trimmed by black, unprecedented in a grand final, made for a kind of citrus effect. One indeed would prove to be a lemon.

In truth, the day, like the game, never reached its promised heights. As usual, AFL-enforced "entertainment" deadened the preliminaries. That's not to insult the artists, but to plead for down time, people time, between the acts. There was too much big, big noise.

Then a badly miscalculated attempt to orchestrate a world record decibel level roar fell predictably flat. No promoter's artifice ever could hope to outdo the real thing. This was no big, big noise. They should have taken the reading when Martin kicked the Tigers' first goal, or as Riewoldt kicked the last.

Even the singing of the national anthem struck a bum note. Conrad Sewell's a capella rendition would work in certain places and times, but not here and now. What was needed was a bigger noise than this. Before he was done, the crowd had taken over the show.

Then Richmond took over everything. The Tigers' working theme all season has been corporate, not in the sense of big business, but in the meaning of the inclusion of all, from greatest to least. Their run-through, rather than anticipate glories to come, recognised the players who had not quite made the grand final team.

This sense of a one-in, all-in adventure threaded the day. As the teams took up their positions at the start of the game, Richmond's bench-bound foursome slapped hands and swapped jokes. Among them was Pickett, who already appeared to be thinking: how good is this?

It symbolised the way they they go about their footy. There's no big secret to it. They find strength in numbers, fortified by movement. They keep the ball moving forward at all times, by foot, hand and when all else fails, punch. They treat it as if it is a live hand grenade, and so make it their weapon. GWS came to regard it as one, too; they wouldn't go near it, or rather, they couldn't get near it.

At the final siren, every player on the Richmond list bounced out on the ground, most in their playing guernseys. "Blood brothers," captain Cotchin called them, and he extended the fellowship to staff and families. The conquest was over, but the cuddles would go on.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/supreme-tigers-deliver-roar-lesson-to-giants-20190928-p52vtu.html

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Magic moments: How Tigers won the flag (Herald-Sun)
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2019, 06:30:31 AM »
Magic moments: How Tigers won the flag

Jon Anderson
Sunday Herald Sun
September 29, 2019


Greater Western Sydney kicked the first goal of the match but otherwise the 2019 Grand Final was all one-way traffic as Richmond secured its second premiership in three years.;

From Jack Riewoldt’s gamebreaking goal and Dustin Martin’s selfessness that handed Marlion Pickett his first AFL goal, JON ANDERSON reveals how the match was won.

FIRST QUARTER

20 minutes: Twenty minutes in and with just three minutes remaining in the quarter, who was going to stand up and break the deadlock and kick the first goal? Arise Jeremy Cameron from outside 50m with a typically long, racking left-foot, set-shot goal.

2min to go: A pulverising Kane ­Lambert tackle on the sublime Lachie Whitfield results in a loose ball and Dustin Martin marks, before playing on. Tigers on the board.

30 seconds left: Smooth-moving as always, Daniel Rioli gets on the end of some slick ball movement and goals to the sound of the siren.

SECOND QUARTER

7.38min: Marlion Pickett, playing like a 200-game veteran, is tearing it up early in the second. His work across half-back ultimately sets up Dusty, who ­naturally snaps truly.

9.50min: With GWS just hanging on, Pickett gets his hands on it again, enabling Rioli to find Lynch, who converts an excellent set shot from an angle.

23min: With Richmond 23 points up, enter Jumping Jack Riewoldt with a specky and conversion from 40m.

1min left: A Dusty free kick finds Riewoldt. Gun players kick them just before the bell. Jack is a gun. Goal, Tigers 35 points up. Game over?

THIRD QUARTER

7:24min: Jack Riewoldt jumps and the loose ball falls to Daniel Rioli, who conjures up some magic by hand to find Dusty, who does what he does to put the ­Tigers 48 points up.

11.09min: Marlion is alight, storming towards 50m where he finds Dusty. Rather than take a gettable set shot, Dusty returns the compliment to find ­Pickett. Black and yellow erupts as Pickett seals one of the greatest Grand Final stories.

FOURTH QUARTER

2min to go: Captain Cotchin winds the clock back to his 2012 heroics when he bursts out of the centre, takes two bounces and goals before going on a wild celebration

1min: If there was any doubt as to the rightful owner of a medal called Norm, Dusty ends it with his fourth goal from distance.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/afl-grand-final-2019-jon-anderson-reveals-the-magic-moments-that-won-richmond-the-premiership/news-story/1c79f0878b35d9bc9e156fccda7c4f28

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Robbo: Tigers’ win full of inspiring stories (Herald-Sun)
« Reply #6 on: September 29, 2019, 07:24:04 AM »
Robbo: Tigers’ win full of inspiring stories

Mark Robinson
Sunday Herald Sun
29 September 2019


This was Showtime from Richmond.

It was the Dusty Show

The Jack Show.

And the Marlion Show.

Dustin Martin won his second Norm Smith Medal, underlining his big-game status and arguably the mantle as the best player in the AFL.

Jack Riewoldt was under fierce heat for poor form and kicked three goals in the second quarter to open up the game before finishing with five for the match.

And then there was Marlion.

Boy or boy, what can you say about Marlion Pickett?

His story reeks of The Natural, the famed and mysterious baseballer who was found, who was lost to the sport and who returned to the field of his dreams.

The 27-year-old father of four spent two years in prison, then rebuilt his life, and then, seven years later on a perfect spring day in far-off Melbourne, wrote himself into football folklore.

Not for being a premiership player.

For being the most remarkable story since … since … maybe ever.

At the siren, his kids embraced near the interchange bench and then bounced out to find dad.

One day, they’ll understand the enormity of what had just played out.

Pickett had 11 disposals in the first half and four score involvements, the second most for the Tigers behind Martin.

At the end, his stats sheet read 22 touches and nine score involvements, one more than Martin.

But football is about moments more than stats lines and storylines.

In the second quarter, where Richmond kicked five goals, Pickett played like a 200-gamer and not a first-gamer and, in doing so, rewarded coach Damien Hardwick.

His signature move was a blind turn in the middle of the MCG.

They are rare events in modern football, the blind turn.

Players are asked to stick to process and game style, to give the first and best option and to bring in teammates by handball.

Crowd erupts for Marlion Pickett's medal presentation (Channel 7)

Marlion Pickett has quickly became a crowd favourite and the spectators at the 2019 AFL grand final let him know.

But Pickett is not your conventional footballer.

How can he be?

He only arrived at the Tigers mid-season because Shaun Grigg retired.

He only played for the first time in the VFL last month.

He only got selected for his first senior game on Thursday night.

The moment came and went with a wow.

He blind turned a Giants player, a ghost, and he was a ghost, because for one fleeting moment he was ready to tackle Pickett, and the next he was clamouring for space.

His next wow moment, and probably the moment of the game, came in the third quarter when the romp was in full swing.

Martin was the supporting cast this time. Instead of kicking for goal form 55m, he kicked to Pickett who was 40m from goal.

When his kick was the true, Pickett was set upon by every teammate on the ground

It was the smash ‘em-out-of-the-park moment.

The match itself involved a sloppy first quarter, a break-open second quarter and a tip-toe through the tulips in the second half.

The final score was 17.12 (114) to 3.7 (25).

The best team in the competition of the past three seasons now has two flags to show for it.

Overall, it was their 12th and one of their most emphatic.

The Tigers pulped Collingwood in 1980 by 81 points.

Against the Giants, it was 89 points.

It was season of travails.

From mid-season adversity grew aspiration and inspiration.

The best defender in the game Alex Rance played one game. Riewoldt only 13. Captain Trent Cotchin 14 and ruckman Toby Nankervis 12.

They introduced Sydney Stack and Liam Baker and, of course, Pickett and signed Tommy Lynch.

The season was in the wilderness near they bye break.

They lost to North Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide in Rounds 11-13 before marking on a run of 12 consecutive victories.

A season staring with fragility — they were 7-6 after the Crows loss — and then a strength of character took hold.

Boom recruit Lynch kicked two goals, but was far more dangerous than that.

He was recruited from the Suns, where he gave eight years of his career, before wanting to play for a big team in front of big crowds.

He might be the new general at the Tigers, but he will never dethrone the king.

Martin was imperious. He kicked four goals and had 22 touches and the roar for him when he was announced as the winner of the Norm Smith only rivalled that of the roar for Pickett’s goal in the third quarter.

But those two roars were beaten when Pickett was announced to get his medal. It was tingles stuff.

As for Dusty, two Norm Smiths, hey? What a career. What a player.

The Giants would be proud on one hand and shattered on the other.

The evidence is strong they may have played their Grand Final against Collngwood the previous week.

In doing so they won many admirers.

But the Grand Final would have stung them.

Only two team since 1961 had managed one goal in a first half of a Grand Final — St Kilda in 2010 and Fremantle in 2013 — and they would only manage three goals for the game.

Should Phil Davis have played? What happened to Jeremy Finlayson other than he was David Astbury-ed, and Josh Kelly and Lachie Whitfield, two of the best players, were two of their worst players.

The positive is they are much, much more than big, big sound, they are a revolution on western Sydney.

Their problem is they came up against a rampant and hostile opposition, a team with many stories to tell.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/expert-opinion/mark-robinson/mark-robinson-richmonds-premiership-full-of-inspiring-stories/news-story/2b04a6f24c03a0f653c5941501250902