Tiger backs show united front
By Emma Quayle
The Age
May 8, 2005
Richmond kicked seven goals in the first quarter yesterday. Carlton did not post its first serious score until 24 minutes had passed in the second term.
The Tigers won by 85 points, and Chris Newman spent most of his afternoon spearing low, slicing kicks into his teammates' arms. Still, the Richmond defender knew he would be in for a sleepless night.
"It's funny, after games like that. Everything goes well and you want to enjoy it, but your mind keeps going over all the mistakes you made," Newman said.
"I kicked a real clanger from the kickout and I was pretty disappointed with the whole last quarter, actually. I probably shouldn't dwell on it too much but it's always in the back of your mind that you should have done this and you should have done that.
"I don't think I'd change anything at all about the match because of the result, but I'll probably still toss and turn a bit. Sometimes you can't sleep at all if you've made a massive mistake, even if you've won, but I might have got away with it today."
Newman could not remember ever heading in at a half-time break with such an emphatic lead as yesterday's. When he has played in thrashings, he has been the thrashee. And so, when the Tigers booted goal after goal after goal from almost the second the ball was first bounced, the 22-year-old felt genuinely out of place.
"It was a bit of a weird one. It was amazing, watching it happen when the ball just wasn't coming near our end. It's exciting watching all the goals, but you have to try and get yourself involved," Newman said.
"We have a thing where we get together after every goal, the backmen. It sort of gets us going, and I guess when the other guys look back and see us all getting together, it gives them a bit of a lift, too."
Newman expended most of his first quarter running to and from those small gatherings, but if the most exciting parts of this game happened through the midfield and in the Richmond forward line, the backmen had to play their part. For Andrew Kellaway, that meant even threading a goal. From up against the boundary line, no less.
Despite the early avalanche, Joel Bowden grabbed the ball six times in the first quarter. Ray Hall was busy with Jarrad Waite and Matthew Lappin wore Mark Chaffey down, but Kellaway was resilient and Darren Gaspar even harder to pass.
While his side led - well - all day, Gaspar still felt the Blues found ways into their forward line. Late in the last quarter, the full-back was still playing goalkeeper, stretching arms towards goalward balls and getting a fingertip to them on the line.
The difference, Gaspar said, was in how the ball came in. "Today was one of the days where our midfield really put heaps of pressure on. There wasn't a heap of easy ball coming in for their forwards, and that probably makes it easier.
"A couple of weeks ago against St Kilda, it was a lot harder. We were on the other side of it that day. The cleanness of the ball coming in determines how hard your job is, really."
Like Newman, Gaspar has been thumped enough times to know that if he had a moment or two to enjoy what was unfolding yesterday, he should. "We were 12 or 13 goals up at one point. That just doesn't happen every day," he said. "We could probably all afford to do that once or twice."
Provided it happened no more than that. Newman was not sure what the message from Terry Wallace would be at half-time, and working out how to handle his side's 77-point lead was a challenge in itself. He reminded Newman of two things: that the Blues would definitely do their best to get back, and of how horrible he has felt being so badly beaten.
"We've been in that spot a lot of times, and you kind of want to make them feel it, too," Newman said. "With where we've been, we were in no position to relax and we didn't want to let them even think about coming back.
"We're a pretty tight group down back. We just had to make sure we stayed alive and stayed alert and looked after each other down there."
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