Media articles and stats: Blues end Tigers' season

[one-eyed]

Season over for Tigers
By Nick Bowen
afl.com.au
7:07pm AEST Sunday, September 8, 2013


RICHMOND   3.5   10.7  12.10  14.11  (95)                 
CARLTON     2.3    6.5   12.7    18.8 (116)         

GOALS
Richmond: Vickery 2, Cotchin 2, Edwards 2, Maric 2, Riewoldt, Grimes, Newman, Martin, Tuck, Ellis,
Carlton: Waite 4, Duigan 4, Betts 3, Garlett 2, Robinson 2, Warnock, Scotland, Judd

BEST
Richmond: Deledio, Cotchin, Martin, Rance, Newman,
Carlton: Judd, Murphy, Curnow, Duigan, Betts, Waite, Gibbs

INJURIES
Richmond: Conca (hamstring)
Carlton: Nil

SUBSTITUTES
Richmond: Shane Tuck replaced Reece Conca (hamstring) in the first quarter.
Carlton: Troy Menzel replaced Andrew McInnes in the final quarter.

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Farmer, Nicholls, Meredith

Official crowd: 94,690 at the MCG

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Richmond’s season is over after succumbing to Carlton in the first elimination final at the MCG on Sunday.

The Blues clawed their way back from a 32-point deficit to win by 20 points, before a record elimination final crowd of 94,690.

Carlton only earned their finals spot after seventh-placed Essendon was ruled out of September action by the AFL and looked set for an early exit when they trailed by more than five goals points at the three-minute mark of the third term.

It was a heartbreaking return to the finals for the Tigers after 12 long years, with the yellow and black army largely responsible for swelling the crowd to the biggest number for a week-one final since the introduction of the final five in 1972.

The previous highest crowd was 91,900 at the 1972 Richmond-Collingwood qualifying final.

The Tigers' cause was not helped when Reece Conca appeared to suffer a severe hamstring injury a little more than 10 minutes into the game.

Substitute Shane Tuck was brought on to replace Conca almost immediately and the early substitution would have been a factor in the Tigers' inability to match the Blues' run in the second half.

The Tigers' senior players led the way for their young team, with Brett Deledio (24 possessions) and Trent Cotchin (26) showing they belonged on the September stage.

Dustin Martin (19 possessions) was outstanding in the first three quarters but faded from the game in the final term.

Richmond showed no signs of nerves in their return to the finals, dominating general play in the first quarter. The Tigers had 19 inside 50s to the Blues' six but their inaccuracy in front of goal meant they led by just eight points at quarter-time.

The Tigers looked set to skip out to a match-winning lead early in the second term, when they rammed on four straight goals to lead by 25 points at the 10-minute mark.

But from there the Blues started to work their way back into the game, kicking three of the next five goals to get back to within 20 points late in the term.

They could have been even closer too, but gave away four costly 50m penalties in the first half, three of which resulted in Richmond goals.

And a Trent Cotchin goal after the half-time siren sent the Tigers into the main break with a handy 26-point lead.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/2013-09-08/season-over-for-tigers

[one-eyed]

Carlton duo full of surprises

  Michael Gleeson
     The Age
    September 9, 2013


CARLTON 2.3 6.5 12.6 18.8 (116)
RICHMOND 3.5 10.7 12.10 14.12 (96)

Goals:
Carlton: J Waite 4 N Duigan 4 E Betts 3 J Garlett 2 M Robinson 2 C Judd H Scotland R Warnock.
Richmond: A Edwards 2 I Maric 2 T Cotchin 2 T Vickery 2 B Ellis C Newman D Martin J Riewoldt R Petterd S Tuck.

BEST
Carlton: Judd, Duigan, Gibbs, Waite, Betts, Robinson, Murphy, Bell.
Richmond: Cotchin, Jackson, Deledio, Maric, Vlastuin, Houli

Umpires: Simon Meredith, Mathew Nicholls, Luke Farmer.
Official Crowd: 94,690 at MCG.

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Forget for a moment the perversity of the fact a side that lost as many games as it won and finished outside the top eight was now into the second week of the finals. There was greater perversity than that on display at the MCG on Sunday. It was  not contained to the change in the two teams from one half of football to the other.

There was also the perversity of the change in complexion of the match coming from a man who should not have been playing at all. Chris Judd was supposed to have been recovering from knee surgery,  not  playing in and then turning around a game of football.

Or the fact that one of the other men to upend this match was Nick Duigan, a player who was not in the team on Sunday morning but a hero of it by Sunday night.

He was a player who not only came into the game but did so as a forward after having spent his short career as a defender. The discarded backman booted four goals.

The change in the game could scarcely have been foreseen when Aaron Edwards kicked Richmond’s 11th goal to put the Tigers 32 points up early in the third quarter and roaring towards a Sydney semi-final as only Richmond could in front of a crowd of 94,690.

The fear  the Tigers would beat themselves through finals stage-fright was assuaged and they were playing composed football.

Trent Cotchin was the most industrious around the packs, feeding off Ivan Maric, with Daniel Jackson, and harrying Carlton from the centre.

Brett Deledio and Bachar Houli were linking play and Aaron Edwards was the focal point deep forward, even if he failed to convert the opportunities that would have probably killed the contest.

Jack Riewoldt roamed high without any undue effect.

The umpires were alert to infringement and Richmond benefited but this only confirmed on the scoreboard the sort of control it had of the match.

Richmond’s burst of four goals in five minutes in the second term provided the Tigers with the scoreboard result they had missed in the first quarter when they had the ascendancy without reward.

In the first quarter Richmond had 19 inside 50s to Carlton’s six and dwarfed the Blues in most meaningful statistics, yet only led by eight points.

Carlton was not perturbed at the main break despite having played poorly as it was still only four goals down. The Blues recalled coming from behind against Richmond only weeks ago and then again last week against Port Adelaide.

‘‘If you look around the rooms everyone is holding up banners ‘believe’. I think as a team we believed in ourselves we believed that we could run over them and that is what happened,’’ forward Eddie Betts said.

‘‘The boys spoke about it [the last game against Richmond] and the game last week against Port Adelaide when we were down and out and fought our way back and never gave in, so we spoke about that briefly. I have not played a lot of finals, I think I have played four finals in 182 games, so that game is up there."

The first hint of a Carlton revival came about when Judd – quiet to the point of ineffectual in the first half – imposed himself  to redirect the flow of the contest. Judd had 11 possessions – eight  contested – in that third term as, through the intervention of Bryce Gibbs, Marc Murphy and Brett Robinson in the middle, Carlton denied Richmond the use of the ball in a way it could not in the first half.

Kade Simpson’s run from behind the play and lesser players like Tom Bell sweeping through the lines meant the Tigers were the ones being assailed.
Carlton brought Duigan into the team as a late replacement for the lame Brock McLean and it was forward he went, not back.

Duigan had spent most of the second half of the season in the VFL playing as a defensive forward once the idea of him operating as a backman had withered.

He stood Deledio when the running player was forward, which seemed an optimistic thought given the obvious pace discrepancy between them. But Duigan tried to force accountability through smarts not speed. ‘‘I just had to try competing. I am not the most gifted footballer going around, I am not lightning quick, I don’t have too any great attributes. I just had to keep working and I got some reward which was great,’’ he said.

ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE

The MCC members' wing appeared something of a graveyard in the first term. Richmond's Reece Conca tore a hamstring almost 12 minutes into the term, forcing the Tigers to activate substitute Shane Tuck. The Blues then appeared to have trouble when Mitch Robinson clutched his hamstring while chasing an opponent. He left the field and went straight into the dressing room with what ultimately was only a hamstring spasm. He resumed after quarter-time.

CLASSY COTCH

A man of Trent Cotchin's quality doesn't need an abundance of disposals to create trouble. After the Blues failed to ''kill'' the ball on the goal-line late in the first term, Cotchin produced a left-foot snap from just inside the boundary to steady his team. The Tigers skipper was at it again when, sent to full-forward, he marked on the lead and goalled after the half-time siren to stretch his team's lead to 26 points.

A BETTS EITHER WAY

Carlton president Stephen Kernahan says the Blues want to retain restricted free agent Eddie Betts, with the small forward understood to have attracted strong offers from North Melbourne and Adelaide. It's understood the offers could be high as high as $500,000 a season. ''It's a lot of money. We want to keep him, we are trying to do that,'' Kernahan said. The Blues have expressed official interest in Collingwood's Dale Thomas, but Kernahan is not confident. ''I don't think anyone leaves Collingwood. I think 'Daisy' will stay, too,'' he said. - Jon Pierik

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-match-report/carlton-duo-full-of-surprises-20130908-2tdyt.html#ixzz2eJrPnAX7

[one-eyed]

Carlton kicks Richmond out of AFL finals in thrilling elimination final comeback

    Jon Ralph
    From: Herald Sun
    September 08, 2013 6:30PM

CHRIS Judd limped around Visy Park at training on Saturday morning, bandaged to the eyeballs and looking every bit the footballing pensioner.

Key defender Nick Duigan wasn't even in the side; the Blues emergency could have been in Sudan given Malthouse's scant use of him this season.

But, on a day in which a pulsating MCG fairly rocked with emotion and drama, the pair made glorious finals magic.

Late inclusion Duigan wasn’t in the side 20 minutes to game time, but Brock McLean’s warm-up injury allowed him to morph into 1970 hero Teddy Hopkins with four remarkable goals.

And Judd just did what he always does.

The 30-year-old birthday boy mocked those who believed him a spent force,  changed the course of a game with the quarter from heaven.

Add in more finals heroes for a Carlton side that will not quit: inspiring captain Marc Murphy, defender Lachie Henderson and his courageous last-term stand, plus maligned duo Bryce Gibbs and Jarrad Waite.

That group combined to first claw back the ascendancy from 33 points down, then simply run Richmond ragged in front of a record elimination final crowd.

This Carlton outfit just refuses to die.

How many times have they climbed off the canvas this year?

First they were officially out of the finals race, then they were all but out of the race for ninth.

Yet a week after the Blues came from 39 points in arrears and 29 points down at the last break against Port Adelaide, they conjured something identical yesterday.

The side that never belonged in September -- and needed history to get there -- suddenly has a path beckoning to a preliminary final.

Didn't they deserve it, too, with master coach Malthouse pulling off if not a heist then at least another in his collection of great September wins.

For three and a half quarters this game was an epic, and one that smacked of something bigger than an elimination final.

The national anthem's conclusion brought about a roar reserved only for Grand Finals.

For Tiger supporters it was a roar born of 12 years - and 264 home-and-away games full of pain, heartbreaking losses and false dawns.

Soon the MCG was fairly exploding, not only with people but expectation and raw nerves and emotions.

But despite those nerves Richmond simply smothered the Blues with clinical efficiency for a half that looked like the Tigers were about to break the game open.

They denied Mick Malthouse's team time and space, they smashed in at the contest, and despite a clearances imbalance they led by the better part of six goals just minutes into the third term.

In retrospect it could have been a false economy; three of their goals came from 50 metre penalties, and those clearance numbers would have worried coach Damien Hardwick.

To that stage Judd was untagged, and unremarkable and looking a candidate for whatever retirement home footballers head to.

Duigan had scored just six goals in his 42 games of football.

Trent Cotchin had kicked two monster goals to stretch the lead, Jack Riewoldt was selflessly dragging Michael Jamison from the action and the Tigers were on the verge of breaking this game open.

Judd might have had willing third-quarter accomplices in Gibbs (10 touches) and Murphy (eight disposals), but he was the game-changer in every way.

His first five disposals of the term came in five minutes, as Carlton went from 33 points down to a point down in eight remarkable minutes.

The knee injury a distant memory, he won key touches forward of the ball, dominated the centre square, and won 11 touches for the quarter.

He demolished a Richmond side that was suddenly on the back foot, handing space to a Carlton side that does brilliant things with just that commodity

Duigan, so close to heading to Africa before being drafted two seasons back, decided it was his party to crash too.

He would kick two of those five goals in the surge that destroyed Richmond.

The dam wall would hold up until midway through the final quarter, but when it burst the Blues just flooded inside-50s and goals.

Mitch Robinson, who gave away a key free kick from a deliberately rushed point in the last term, more than made up for that error with his own blinding run to the line.

Malthouse revealed post-match Duigan was only in the side after Brock McLean's thigh gave way with the last kick of the warm-up.

''Well, Nick played very well. Brock's decision was very late. It was the last kick of the warm-up and we are lucky it wasn't the first kick of the game. It was a great effort by Nick Duigan but let's not confuse ourselves, players get prepared to play. I wouldn't be disappointed if any emergency wasn't prepared to play.''

On Judd's stupendous game he was even less effusive: ''Judd is good. Juddy is very good.''

He was more than that.

He is a great of our game, dragging along the likes of Robinson after poor starts to this contest.

'Robbo is the full package,'' said Malthouse of Robinson's mixed day.

''He is a great coaching tester so I will leave it at that.''

This was to Richmond's triumphant coming out party, yet the only saving grace was that by final siren no one doubted who deserved this victory.

They might have come from the clouds, but no side coached by Mick Malthouse has ever quit, as Richmond learnt in such crashing fashion yesterday.

CARLTON    2.3 6.5  12.6  18.8 (116)
RICHMOND 3.5 10.7 12.10 14.12 (96)

Goals:
Carlton: J Waite 4 N Duigan 4 E Betts 3 J Garlett 2 M Robinson 2 C Judd H Scotland R Warnock.
Richmond: A Edwards 2 I Maric 2 T Cotchin 2 T Vickery 2 B Ellis C Newman D Martin J Riewoldt R Petterd S Tuck.

Best:
Carlton: C Judd B Gibbs M Murphy J Waite E Betts N Duigan.
Richmond: T Cotchin I Maric B Deledio D Martin N Vlastuin S Tuck.

Umpires: Simon Meredith, Mathew Nicholls, Luke Farmer.
Crowd: 94,690 at MCG.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/follow-the-second-elimination-final-as-richmond-takes-on-carlton-at-the-mcg/story-fnelctok-1226714629890

[one-eyed]

For Richmond, that's why they call it the blues

Greg Baum
    The Age
    September 9, 2013

The Richmond people came early, in formidable numbers and spirit, and left early, Tiger tails between their legs. So did their team. Making the finals and proceeding in them, all had learnt, were two different things.

Since 1982, Richmond has won two finals, and it will be at least another year before it wins a third.

The irony was lost on no one. After all those years of finishing unavailing ninth, now the Tigers had been knocked out by the team that finished ninth this year, but by an accident of history was playing finals, anyway. More gallingly, it was Carlton, their nemesis of generations. Even worse in terms of Richmond's world view, the Blues now go on to play battered and bruised Sydney in a semi-final next week. All this, the Tigers know, could have been theirs.

But if a moral can be inferred from the first week of the finals, it is that the team that gets even one step ahead of itself is liable to trip over its own feet. It happened three times.

In time, when the bitterness of the moment recedes, Richmond might conclude that Sunday's pain was worth it; it was the getting of wisdom. On the field and off, it came to play. The faithful - and they are faithful - descended in such numbers that the crowd would aggregate nearly 95,000, bigger and more football-authentic than for most grand finals. They filled the MCG with a sense of vocation. A peculiar dynamic rules such days: terrified fans cannot wait for the match to start, then cannot wait for it to end.

The Richmond banner announced the arrival of ''the class of 2013'', complete with a caricature of every player on the list. This had been an all-team effort, it said, an all-of-club effort. Drummers provided the accompaniment.

Always, the challenge for the Tigers was to deal with the atmospherics. They had to feel the adrenalin coursing through them, but not be swamped by it. While walking on air, they had somehow to feel the ground beneath their feet, too.

In truth, the Tigers got it wrong. They dominated the match in the first quarter, and much of the second, too. But they lacked the infinitesimal extra degree of poise they needed, when kicking for goal, for instance. An eight-point lead at quarter time was scant reward for their mastery.

It seemed not to matter as their lead grew until it stood at 32 points, minutes into the third quarter. But perhaps throughout that spendthrift first half, they were burning up nervous energy, depleting reserves. The club will have ways of measuring this. It is a familiar pattern in Richmond-Carlton games. Three times this year, the Tigers built up big leads over the Blues. The first time, on opening weekend, they held on. But now twice in a month, they were overrun. For Damien Hardwick and his men, that is next year's urgent business.

The match was a classic final, and so unlike any other the Tigers have played on their rise. Rather than an exhibition of the game, it was handsome is as handsome does.

Inevitably, such an uncompromising confrontation throws up anomalies. A total of 11 goals were kicked from free kicks and/or 50-metre penalties. Among these were three 50-metre goals for Richmond in the second quarter, and three goals from free kicks for Carlton's Jarrad Waite. The last was against Carlton's Mitch Robinson for punching the ball through on the full from a ball-up in the defensive goal square, statutorily considered to be deliberate rushing, at the start of the last quarter.

But the Tigers would add only one more goal. Ruckman Ivan Maric manufactured it, crumbing his own pack, then twisting away, a la Dustin Martin, from two opponents. It was a memorable individual effort, but it was also the death throe of a spent force.

At the other end, Carlton was irresistible. Twelve of the last 15 goals brooks no argument. As so often is the case in finals, when all other factors cancel out one another, a bit player emerged as the trump. Nick Duigan had appeared only three times for the Blues this year, and came into this game only at the 11th hour when Brock McLean injured himself in the warm-up, but by hard running and constant presenting of himself kicked four telling goals.

The Tigers had little left in their legs in the last quarter, and none at all at the final siren. Everywhere, they either stood stock still or sank to their haunches, heads in hand, weighed down by heavy hearts. In the stands and car parks, it was the same. They had made it to September, now they had to learn to make it through September.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/for-richmond-thats-why-they-call-it-the-blues-20130908-2tea6.html