Richmond can laugh now but Adelaide Oval still holds demons after finals defeatJon Ralph
Herald-Sun
May 24, 2015 SEVEN months on from the Adelaide Oval blitzkrieg, Trent Cotchin’s decision to kick against the wind has officially become a morbid punchline.
Forward Jack Riewoldt was asked this week who would toss the coin on Sunday given Cotchin’s finals clanger and was happy to play along.
“I think we might all toss the coin at the club and see who comes up trumps. We will have to get the wind-meter out. Or the sun radar. Or ask the locals,’’ he told SEN.
“I might take the (golf) sticks out there before and see if I can hit the seven iron 150m or 130m and see which way the wind is going.”
Richmond can only laugh about that horror elimination final loss, because the alternative is to weep.
On Sunday the Tigers return to Adelaide Oval to play their finals conqueror, facing yet another game they wanted to avoid — an early-season line-in-the-sand moment.
When all seemed lost last Sunday — four goals down against Collingwood and carrying five kids tallying only 13 games experience — their leaders dragged them over the line.
Victory turns them into the finals contender they hoped to be.
Yet with Richmond at 3-4, another defeat against Port Adelaide — ahead of Dreamtime at the ’G then a trip to Subiaco to face Fremantle — would suck them back into the quicksand.
So can Richmond return to the scene of the crime and tackle those mental demons when it matters most?
To conquer your demons you need to confront them, so first a quick recap.
In that initial 17-minute avalanche Port Adelaide kicked goals in the fourth, eighth, ninth, 14th, 15th and 17th minutes to lead by 43 points — 7.1 to 0.0.
By the 22nd minute, with Port Adelaide ahead 8.1 (49) to 1.0 (6), an amazing 16 Tigers had touched the ball three times or less.
The worst offenders included Nick Vlastuin and Steve Morris (0 touches), Ivan Maric, Ben Griffiths and Shane Edwards (one) and Brandon Ellis, Troy Chaplin, Nathan Foley and Nathan Gordon (two possessions).
By game’s end Brett Deledio (29 touches, 126 Champion Data points), Dustin Martin (29 touches) and Bachar Houli (125 points) had at least kept the margin to 57 points.
Yet a shell-shocked Richmond had in the space of a quarter washed away the feel-good vibes of the nine-match winning streak.
Bottom-line a team’s progress in the AFL and you keep coming back to matchwinners.
It is why Damien Hardwick is quietly confident about playing a stuttering Port Adelaide side today.
He is aware Port Adelaide’s stars are misfiring with a 3-4 win-loss record and Trent Cotchin, Riewoldt and Brett Deledio are finally firing on all cylinders.
“It was (Trent’s) best game for the year. I thought his leadership was great not only in the last quarter when he willed us over the line but he started incredibly well and influenced the game defensively,’’ he says of his skipper’s 32-possesion, two-goal game.
“All our leaders — Trent, Brett Deledio and Ivan Maric stood up when it counted most.
“From our point of view we know where we are at. This season is full of opportunities to win games. We know (they are dangerous) but we are a side that is capable of playing some very good footy and hurting sides.”
Cotchin still believes that botched toss call has been overblown, telling the Herald Sun over the pre-season it disguised greater issues on the day.
“When you watch the first 10 minutes, you see so many basic skill errors that weren’t happening in the previous weeks,’’ he says.
“Everyone keeps going on about kicking against the wind and so forth, but the reality was even if it was a 10-goal breeze with Port Adelaide kicking into it, the reality is we didn’t turn up to play.
“That was the biggest lesson. As much as you think you are switched on and ready to go, unless you execute accordingly it won’t work.”
Seven rounds later, it is still hard to diagnose Richmond’s progress despite the first back-to-back finals qualifications in 40 years.
The game plan can look stagnant when the midfield is smashed, yet with Bachar Houli surging from half back and the midfield on top against Collingwood it was a thing of beauty.
The club desperately needs a fall-of-the-ball forward, with Hardwick angrily defending the output of bull-at-a-gate forward Steve Morris this week.
Ty Vickery (three huge goals v. the Pies) could be the answer as the second tall or just a tease, 2014 breakout David Asbury has already been dropped and the midfield’s form fluctuates wildly.
Alex Rance seems to be creeping towards a contract extension rather than Japan’s ski fields and the durable Deledio’s Achilles is improving but a long-term worry.
But when the club can beat the Pies with kids like first-gamers Connor Menadue and Liam McBean, second-gamers Todd Elton and Corey Ellis and seven-gamer Kamdyn McIntosh, the future is writ large.
Richmond’s lot is that of most middle-of-the-road sides: lauded after a victory yet forensically pulled apart in defeat.
Victory would banish those Adelaide Oval demons and resuscitate their season.
Although first there is the matter of kicking with the wind after that pre-bounce toss of the coin.
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