Richmond's climb up the AFL ladder one for the record books
Rohan Connolly
The Age
September 1, 2014 Whatever happens to Richmond next Sunday, consider the following: No team in 118 seasons of football has achieved what the Tigers managed to pull off on Saturday.
Richmond's ascent from the deepest recesses of the AFL ladder after the halfway mark of the season to a finals berth is unparalleled.
The Brisbane Bears in 1995 had won just four of their first 13 games before storming home to make the eight, but even then they were two games clear of the bottom two teams on the ladder. Fitzroy in 1984 was 5-8 and managed to scramble into the then final five. But 3-10 then finals? Crazy stuff.
To give this comeback of comebacks further context, when Richmond last lost it was equal bottom - on points - on the ladder, and ahead of only the Brisbane Lions and St Kilda on percentage. Port Adelaide, the team it will play in Sunday's elimination final, was a game clear on top.
That's some climb. And the cue for a "we were wrong" of sorts. It's been easy throughout much of this resurgence to find convenient rationalisations for Richmond's new-found winning ways.
The first couple of wins in the streak, against St Kilda and Brisbane, were nothing special. The victory over Port Adelaide came when things had turned very sour for the Power, the loss its fourth in five games.
West Coast was just going when the Tigers beat it in Perth, and the wet conditions conspired against the Eagles' tall forwards. And that was followed by a relatively pedestrian win over the hardly intimidating Greater Western Sydney.
But it's impossible to argue with what's come since. An 18-point win against Essendon came after Richmond was challenged three times and responded. At Adelaide Oval in front of the rabid Crows faithful, the Tigers lost a game-long lead with only four minutes left and managed to wrest it back. And Saturday night's effort against ladder leader Sydney needs little further explanation.
So where does it end for Richmond? The cynics will chorus "in seven days' time". That's a short-sighted view, even if it is correct. But is it that clear-cut in an immediate sense? Hardly.
The venue - Adelaide Oval - as the Tigers proved against Adelaide only a couple of weeks ago, holds few fears. Indeed, Richmond is 5-1 on the road this season, the hostility of a game environment seeming only to galvanise this playing group.
The opponent? Richmond has three wins and a draw from its last four clashes with Port Adelaide and has lost only three of the past eight, each of those by 15 points or less. Injuries and key players? Check. Richmond has almost a full list to choose from. And its leaders and most pivotal players are in great nick.
The consistency of Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Trent Cotchin and now Brandon Ellis and Anthony Miles in midfield has been pivotal, and allowed more flexibility and time for Martin in particular up forward, all being serviced brilliantly at the moment by the ruck work of Ivan Maric.
Things look pretty good at either end of the ground, too. In defence, Alex Rance and Troy Chaplin were superb in those furious final minutes against Sydney.
Up forward, Jack Riewoldt has kicked 10 goals in the past two games and looked as dangerous as he has all season. But Riewoldt is no longer the whole cake, either. The Tigers over the past couple of months are averaging more individual goalkickers a game than any other side, bar Fremantle.
In all departments, Richmond couldn't be any better prepared for Sunday, the spoils of potential victory another huge challenge away from home against either Sydney or Fremantle.
And defeat? Again, some will scoff at coach Damien Hardwick's post-game claims that Richmond is better placed now than at the same stage of 2013. And superficially, perhaps it's entitled to.
The Tigers have won three fewer games, have scored fewer points and conceded more than last year. Most of their differential rankings remain the same as last season, with slight improvements for clearances, uncontested possession and disposal efficiency.
That last indicator is significant, though, even as a measure of a growing maturity and coolness under pressure that has never been a trademark of the latter-day Richmond.
Think back to last year's elimination final disaster against Carlton, and the Tigers surrendering of a 32-point lead. Now think of the way Richmond continued to repel attack after Sydney attack on Saturday night. It's hard to imagine this group buckling now as it did against the Blues.
What Richmond has done in the back half of this season truly is an example of an improvement that may not be measured statistically as much as by perception, and only the churlish would now refuse to believe the 2014 model is made of tougher and more resilient stuff than its predecessor.
That stands Hardwick's group, and indeed a long-term plan now five years in the making, in pretty good stead, regardless of what happens against the Power next week.
And ironically, and almost perversely, that ridiculously bad start to 2014 of 3-10 in retrospect may prove to have been not only the final lesson required by the Tigers of today, but the making of them.
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