Déjà vu for Tigers
5:39:04 PM Tue 7 June, 2005
Paul Gough
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond could be excused for feeling a case of déjà vu this week as it attempts to get its season back on track.
For the fourth successive season the Tigers find themselves meeting their bogy side, the Kangaroos, in the middle of the season at what is again a critical time for the club.
The Tigers have lost their past two games to slide to fifth with a 7-4 win/loss record and with the jury still out on how they will cope without injured playmaker Nathan Brown for the rest of the season despite their heroic first-up two point loss without him to league leaders West Coast last week.
But facing up to the Kangaroos at Telstra Dome at a critical point in their season is nothing new to the Tigers but they will certainly be hoping for a different result this time around after three crushing defeats at this time of year to the Roos at the Dome in the past three years.
Last year the Tigers went into the round 11 clash having lost two successive games with their season in the balance at 4-6 and copped a 74 point hiding.
They would not win another game for the season.
The year before - also in round 11 - the Tigers were similarly placed to this year at 6-4 but the Roos, inspired by Jason McCartney's comeback, won a three-point thriller with the Tigers also losing Darren Gaspar to a serious knee injury as their season disintegrated from that point on.
And the previous season - again in round 11 - the Tigers also came into the game after two straight losses and with their season in the balance at 4-6 but lost by 11 points after kicking a wasteful 11.18 and yet again their season disintegrated from that point.
And while many experts believe the Tigers' Nathan Brown hangover might start to kick in this week, Wallace is far from concerned at having to again face up to the Tigers' hoodoo club at such a critical time in their season.
"They have had the better of this club for a few years," Wallace said of the Kangaroos - who have won 20 of their past 26 matches against Richmond dating back to 1990.
"But that (dominance) is the nature of where this club has been over the last few years."
"We hadn't beaten a lot of sides (before this year) but we have changed a few of those pieces of history so far this year and this is another opportunity.'
While admitting last week's loss in their first match without Brown was a wasted opportunity, Wallace said he would be surprised if his team's performance suddenly dropped off without their sidelined champion this week.
"The way we finished the game off last week with 12 goals in the second half, it was a rallying performance," he said.
"If the halves were flipped and we played well in the first half and then fell away badly in the second it might be different but we were strong at the end of last week's game."
Wallace says he is confident the Tigers - whose rise up the ladder after last year's wooden place finish has been one of the highlights of the season so far - were not in a slump.
"I wouldn’t think the guys should be down on themselves for what their output was last weekend," he said.
"We have lost two games in a row but we have probably played two of the best sides (Melbourne and West Coast) in the competition in the past two weeks.'
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