Feel-good Tigers must harden upBy Ashley Browne
afl.com.au
9:16pm AEST Sunday, September 8, 2013THE CHALLENGE for Damien Hardwick will be to decide when to sit with his players and forensically analyse Richmond's shattering 20-point loss to Carlton in Sunday's elimination final.
He could do it first thing Monday while the memories of the loss are fresh in the minds of the 22 who played and those who coached and helped prepare the team.
Or he could save it for the first day of pre-season training sometime in November. What better launching pad for 12 weeks of torture?
Either time, it won't make for pretty viewing. For the second time in four weeks at the MCG, the Tigers spotted the Blues a five-goal lead, only to fade badly and lose.
The difference this time around was contested possessions. The Tigers held the edge 71-60 at half-time and were deserved 26-point leaders. They ended the game 129-137 in arrears and, equally, deserved to lose.
Chris Judd played an enormous second half for the Blues. Bryce Gibbs lifted as well. Jarrad Waite held some marks, Nick Duigan played the game of his life with four goals and voila, it is Carlton, not Richmond, that is preparing for an ANZ Stadium semi-final on Saturday night against the Sydney Swans.
Much good came from Richmond's season. It was the first in 12 years in which the club figured in the finals. The expectation of such an outcome helps explain why the Tigers attracted 60,000 members this year and why more than 94,000 fans – the largest week-one game attendance since the League moved away from the final four in 1972 – packed into the MCG.
Blues coach Mick Malthouse, a former Tigers premiership player, said it felt like being the away team in Perth and that he had never heard a roar as loud as when the Tigers ran on to the field.
That's the feelgood story about the Tigers in 2013. But of more concern to Hardwick is that his side develops a harder edge in 2014, that the run, carry and spread used to dismantle teams like Hawthorn this year doesn't disappear in a half like it seems to do against Carlton.
Richmond is sound defensively and boasts an above-average midfield, so the building blocks are in place. Football history is filled with sides like Richmond, who use the disappointment of a premature finals exit as the motivating force the following season.
But sadly, Richmond's own history is filled with false dawns. The Tigers took 13 years to make the finals again after losing the 1982 Grand Final, then six years again after that 1995 appearance. They delivered doughnuts every year from 2002 until this year, so perhaps Monday morning might be the right time for the Hardwick post-mortem and a refresher course in Richmond club history.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-09-08/tiger-tough-not-enough
