Brown's Tiger show worth the wait
23 May 2005
Herald Sun
Jon Ralph
NATHAN Brown might have to reserve a permanent seat at Richmond's "Tuesday's with Terry" talk-fest if he keeps backing up grand predictions with match-day deeds.
Twice in a week, against Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions, the Tigers have toiled without reward until Brown's mercurial talent finally clicked into gear.
He is a matchwinner, and while his inaccurate goalkicking at one stage at the Gabba on Saturday night looked to have cost Richmond the game, he hit his straps in the nick of time.
In truth all he said at last week's media conference was that Richmond should realistically aim for a top-four spot, but even if that had seemed pie-in-the-sky stuff, he is making it look possible.
His two last-quarter goals, the second with two minutes remaining on the clock, saw Richmond home by four points and inflicted Brisbane's fourth consecutive home defeat.
That sort of statistic was unheard of in Brisbane's glory days, but this is a very different competition to 2004, and Richmond is a very different team.
Last year Shane Tuck was a novice, Mark Coughlan had osteitis pubis, Brett Deledio was in the TAC Cup, Mark Graham was at Hawthorn and Darren Gaspar looked shot as a player.
All five came to the fore on Saturday night, as Richmond's top-eight credentials stood up to their most searching examination.
Richmond beat Brisbane with Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw both in the side for the first time this year, with Michael Voss in his best form this season, and the Lions coming off a rousing win over the Crows in Adelaide.
Fifteen minutes into the last quarter, the Tigers looked shaky, with several young players taking short steps and Brisbane's match-hardened veterans lifting a gear.
But in Matthew Richardson, Troy Simmonds, Brown and Andrew Krakouer, Richmond has plenty of avenues to goal and the confidence to get the ball in their hands.
The midfield is being well served by ruckmen Trent Knobel and Simmonds, who shared 36 hitouts and 14 marks, and there are up to a dozen onballers capable of taking turns at the stoppages.
They may not be premiership material, but they make for compulsive viewing, especially when Wallace gives Richardson licence to run through the middle of the ground.
With a head bandage the size of a small nation, he ran around creating havoc and confusion, but when the Tigers were in trouble in the third term, his two goals from set shots were critical.
For Brisbane, the way Voss coughed up possession to hand Brown the matchwinning goal is indicative of its problems.
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