Collingwood does enough to beat Richmond Mark Stevens
From: Herald Sun
April 08, 2012 NO disrespect to Spiderbait, but it is an indictment when a singer called Kram is the high point of the night.
The rockband, and maybe a bit of biffo on the half-time siren, were the major talking points as Collingwood and Richmond trotted out for the second half.
Collingwood led by three goals yet, with a scoreline of 5.10 to 2.10, no one deserved to be content.
Magpie superstar Dale Thomas was one of those having a nothing game on a nothing night, winning just eight disposals in the first two quarters.
And he came out in the third term like a bloke muttering "I've had enough of this rubbish" under his breath.
Inside the first 20 seconds he won the ball in the middle, charged through traffic and slotted a goal from 40m, celebrating and slapping teammates to convey the message it was time to wake up.
At the very next centre bounce, Thomas won a key clearance, pumped the ball on to his boot and found Ben Sinclair on the 50m line.
Sinclair went to the top of the square and Travis Cloke did the rest, with a trademark grab and goal.
Two minutes later, Thomas marked at the top of the square to slot another one after Alan Toovey kicked it to advantage.
Suddenly, after an hour of scrapping round, the Pies had three goals in four minutes. Richmond still had two in total.
If the game was not already over, Alex Fasolo made sure of it a minute later with another goal.
Richmond did not go inside 50m for the first time until nine minutes into the term and proceeded to fluff another opportunity.
And, when Thomas exploded again 18 minutes into the term with a 40m goal on the run, the Pies led by 46 points.
For all the concerns about Collingwood's bottom four, particularly with so many seasoned players out, its stars - headed by Thomas - were good enough to get the job done.
Dane Swan was sloppy at times, Scott Pendlebury even committed a carefree turnover and Cloke drifted in and out, but the Pies just had too much polish.
Richmond kicked its first goal of the third term right on the siren and slotted the first three of the final term, via Brad Miller and Brett Deledio, to mount a mini-challenge, however, sanity prevailed when Darren Jolly waltzed in to goal to stop the rot.
The Tigers could be praised for effort, but their kicking efficiency was at times comical.
To halftime, Richmond's kicking efficiency inside forward 50 was 19 per cent. Collingwood's was 38. Therein lies the difference.
Simple misses in the second term when the momentum was theirs were costly, with Tyrone Vickery, Brad Miller and Dustin Martin wasting key chances.
And it was puzzling that livewire forward, and natural goalkicker Robin Nahas was not subbed on until midway through the third, when Thomas and company had already wreaked havoc.
With Ben Reid locking down Jack Riewoldt, who not surprisingly did not have the luxury of first-class service, Richmond's forward line never threatened.
Miller finished with three, but they were junk-time specials.
Even with Chris Tarrant off the ground after quarter time with a calf injury, the Tigers could not take advantage.
The Tigers had a whopping 77 more disposals than Collingwood - a smashing rarely suffered by the Pies - yet had three fewer forward-50 entries.
The Pies won the stat that really counted - contested possessions - and the Tigers over-did the short stuff.
Deledio, with 34 disposals, was clearly Richmond's best. He won the ball and he used it, whereas so many of his mates committed costly turnovers.
The Pies would have been thrilled with the forward work of Fasolo, who was pivotal when the game was decided.
Harry O'Brien had 10 rebound 50s and played with his customary bounce, Swan and Pendlebury finished with a lazy 61 disposals between them and Cloke worked up the ground, pumping it inside the arc nine times despite the best efforts of Alex Rance.
Thomas drifted out of the game after the final change, as if he had made his point.
Perhaps he was already thinking about Carlton on Friday night.
But he should be applauded for giving us something to savour.
This might have been Nathan Buckley's first win as coach, but even he will surely not file a copy away for future viewing.
FOUR POINTS - with Glenn McFarlane1. IT says something about the state of the contest when the highlight of the opening half was a dust-up between the two teams at half-time. Ivan Maric and Darren Jolly had words first, then the rest of the players joined into the push and shove. The collective score at that stage was 7.20.
2. CHRIS Tarrant didn't even last a quarter in his return, suffering an injury and being subbed out of the game for Paul Seedsman at quarter-time. And Jake King was subbed out of the game midway through the third term, to the cheers of Collingwood supporters after being involved in the half-time dust-up.
3. DALE Thomas (pictured) dragged this game out of the mess that it had been in the first half, kicking three goals and setting up another in a great term. He had only had four touches in the first half, but turned it on in the third.
4. LAST night's loss was Richmond's fifth straight loss to Collingwood, the first time that has happened since 1977-79. The Tigers haven't beaten the Magpies since Round 19, 2007.
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