Surging Pies brutalise impotent TigersRohan Connolly | August 16, 2009
THIS was a terrific contest - for all of 10 minutes. In that time, Richmond was fierce, committed, determined to give the retiring Joel Bowden a suitable send-off. The Tigers tackled hard and, with early goals to Jack Riewoldt and Mitch Morton, took a seven-point lead. Then reality set it. With a thud.
Collingwood didn't just awake. It stirred with a sore head, intent on stamping out any potential uprising. And the rest of the first quarter was so abjectly lopsided, it finished not just with the contest effectively over, but the Pies so dominant you feared for the scale of Richmond's embarrassment were it allowed to continue for another three terms.
The natural order of things began to be restored when Paul Medhurst goaled from a free kick. A couple of minutes later, Heath Shaw snapped one on the run. A few minutes after that, it was Tarkyn Lockyer's turn. Then Travis Cloke nailed Alex Rance in a tackle and converted the spoils. Leon Davis snapped one from the pocket. Then the one by Dane Swan that really summed things up.
Medhurst and Dale Thomas had worked feverishly to keep the ball alive just inside the boundary, the spoils of those efforts pumped into the goal square. Swan was against Richmond pair Luke McGuane and Daniel Jackson, his shadow, but that pair simply got in each other's way, the prolific Magpie ball-winner strolling into an open goal.
That made it six unanswered goals, the Pies having by then had the previous 12 inside 50s, a cause for plenty of Tiger embarrassment, compounded further when Cloke kicked the first goal of the second term and Brad Dick bounced one through.
By now, Richmond was a laughing stock, a humiliation ringing through what happened next. Feisty Jake King's frustration boiled over, leaving his man Alan Didak doubled over. Didak, himself now steaming, tried to take on King from the resultant free kick, was set upon by King, and the situation exploded into the closest thing AFL football sees these days to an all-in brawl.
King left the field soon after, his jumper ripped to shreds, the Tigers' faithful cheering him wildly in the absence of any actual goals. Which gives you an idea just how desperate this club's supporters are for someone to at least show some spirit at the moment, let alone some skill.
Robin Nahas ran into an open goal around then, a quarter-and-a-half after the previous Richmond goal, and you thought, fleetingly, that maybe the fireworks might be a precursor to a bit of a Tiger fightback. And you were wrong.
Instead, it was the Pies who kicked the last four goals of the half to make it 70 points by the long break, 13 goals to three.
The second half served merely as practice for the Pies, and for Richmond, a chance to find Bowden some of his final possessions in AFL football, a task completed successfully, the veteran finishing with 24 disposals after having had just three to half-time.
But the slaughter essentially continued apace, Didak utilising the opportunity to work through his ruffled feathers, a job he accomplished successfully. Cloke and fellow key forward John Anthony continued to work themselves into some touch, a combined 36 disposals, 16 marks, and a perhaps slightly wasteful 5.6.
They offered Collingwood the sort of targets of which the Tigers could only dream, by late in the third term the Magpies having taken 14 marks inside their forward 50 to Richmond's miserable three.
Around the ground, it was little more than a ''net session''. Shane O'Bree and Scott Pendlebury were their usual productive selves, Dayne Beams continued to rack them up, tough, skillful and with a cool head belying his 19 years underlining his status as one of the finds of 2009.
It was a good day for two Pies trying to shore up their spot in this potential grand final side, a reborn Ben Johnson, and an ever-improving Sharrod Wellingham. There was even time for Harry O'Brien, strong all day in defence, to creep forward in the third term and kick the sixth goal of his 80-game career.
The last quarter was little more than a yawn without even a torrent of Collingwood goals to satisfy some ghoulishness, Pendlebury taking the margin out to as much as 107 points before Richard Tambling and Tom Hislop kicked the final two to bring it back under three figures.
Hislop also managed a couple of unnecessary cheap shots in the last few minutes, begging the obvious question, where was the real toughness when the game was up for grabs?
And, frankly, that's a question not only he, but an entire football club need to find an answer to sooner than later if whichever candidate ends up coaching Richmond next year is to inherit a side with real potential for improvement, not the embarrassingly inept bunch that turned up yesterday.
BEST Collingwood: Beams, Swan, Pendlebury, Shaw, Johnson, Cloke, Didak.
Richmond: Deledio, Tuck, Cousins, Newman.
INJURIES Richmond: White (hamstring tightness) replaced in selected team by Coughlan.
REPORTS
Richmond: King for allegedly striking Didak (Collingwood) by umpire James during the second quarter. Hislop for alleged rough conduct against O'Bree (Collingwood) by umpire Avon during the final quarter.
MAIN MENMeet the Collingwood midfield: Dayne Beams, Dane Swan, Shane O'Bree, and Scott Pendlebury all passed the 30-possession mark, with Alan Didak and Ben Johnson only a smidgen behind. They not only got the ball moving their team's way first and more often, but did it with far more precision and thought.
TURNING POINTIt came early, but Richmond was doubling Collingwood's contested possession and held a small lead when Heath Shaw nudged Jack Riewoldt in the back, deep in the Magpies' forward line, and gave up a free kick. Riewoldt's kick across goal missed its target and hit the ground, Shaw swooped on the spill and Collingwood was never again threatened after his running goal.
THE UPSHOTCollingwood confirmed its spot in the top four by doing what it should have done - thumping a team it is much better than - and maintained some breathing space ahead of the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide. Third spot looks almost the Magpies' for good now.
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