Richmond was on the brink early in season but is on brink of finals successHerald-Sun
September 13, 2015IF you asked David King and Mark Robinson to talk passionate footy analysis in Round 1 and didn’t stop them, they might still be going in September.
In short, it takes the impossible to render that pair speechless.
Yet as Richmond’s season began to slip away in Round 5, Richmond chief executive Brendon Gale made the impossible possible.
The Tigers had just lost to Melbourne, a display for which a livid Damien Hardwick labelled his players as not “tough enough” and “insipid”.
Not for the first time a Richmond coach was under the cosh.
Yet as the pair probed Harvard-educated Gale on SEN Radio about his coach’s security in the lead-in to an MCG clash against Geelong the following week, he stopped them in their tracks.
“When you put in a performance like that, no matter how you are travelling people look to blame and it’s convenient to go the coach,’’ Gale said.
“I want to be absolutely sure and clear for the avoidance of doubt. Any discussion about Damien Hardwick’s tenure at Richmond is bulls**t.”
Jaws dropped.
Tumbleweeds spun across the landscape.
Crickets chirped.
One of those experts finally filled the dead air with something that sounded like, “Huh”.
Can the defining moment in a club’s season be a sweary administrator, or “stiff in a suit”, as Gale described himself in that interview, drawing a line in the sand?
Richmond will today take on North Melbourne having won 13 of its past 16 games, in its third finals campaign in a row.
Its form line is so compulsive, the Tiger Train running so smoothly, it has almost been forgotten how fresh the sniff of blood was for Hardwick’s head in late April.
Finally, a club that from 1981 to 1996 had nine different senior coaches had finally decided to stop behaving like ruthless Richmond.
On the day of Gale’s quotes the Tigers lost to Geelong, then again the next week to North Melbourne. They then trailed Collingwood by four goals in Round 7.
Crisis point had arrived.
By day’s end, Richmond had overhauled Collingwood by five points as its stars came out to play, Brett Deledio (two goals) and Trent Cotchin (11 last-quarter possessions) dragging them over the line.
Yet the seeds of that victory were planted in Gale’s affirmation of this club’s direction, instead of lighting a bushfire under this once-volatile club again.
As he said on that day, “I just hope our people understand how far we have come and I know our people are ravenous for success.
“Success is not linear. Sometimes you have setbacks and questions are asked.
“I heard Chris Scott this week. The better clubs back each other and have faith. Not blind faith, but that’s what we have got to do.”
Richmond has finally proved itself one of the better clubs, a club will no longer eat its own.
Or as president Peggy O’Neil said during that period.
“It’s been a long time since Richmond was volatile,’’ she says.
“That sort of decision-making caused us to lose our way for a long time and I think everyone at the club now is determined and committed to that not happening again.’’
So how did Richmond turn its disastrous start to the season and just how much is on the line today?
With a transformed game plan, by the faith of its administrators, by its quality players turning into out-and-out stars, and by the discovery of depth even Gale questioned in Round 5.
Richmond is hoping to follow the journey of Geelong — Frank Costa’s mantra of going from good to great — and needs a finals win to start.
The beginning — for this year at least — was the free air created by Gale, the middle was the game plan change — and the end starts today.
Champion Data’s stats gurus still talk in hushed tones about Hardwick’s game plan alteration.
Call it an overhaul, rather than a tweak.
If the bedrock of Hardwick’s game plan has a defence he believes is the league’s best and contested ball, the club’s ball movement was vexing.
Against North Melbourne, it went haywire.
Richmond played as if on fast forward, coughing up 29 scores from 41 inside 50s and handing 15 of North Melbourne’s 16 goals from direct turnovers.
It was unprecedented.
And it was abandoned immediately.
A side that played on 35 per cent of the game that day would beat Collingwood the following week playing 13 per cent of the time, then just seven per cent in a rousing away win over Port Adelaide.
From Rounds 7-19, Richmond won on a streak yet didn’t score over 100 points in any of those victories.
The comparison from Rounds 1-6 to 7-23 is off the charts.
Their kick-to-handball ratio went from 16th (lots of handballs) to second, their opposition points from turnovers from 16th to first.
A team that already had elite defensive personnel had found a game plan to match.
Since then they have knocked off Fremantle, Hawthorn and Sydney and yet also done much more.
Hardwick’s statement this week that recent finals losses are “irrelevant” is easy to debate.
But you cannot argue about his lauding of the club’s depth, an issue Gale highlighted in Round 5 when he said: “All teams have injuries but we struggle more than most when we have them because of our lack of depth”.
Said Hardwick: “It is (Kamdyn) McIntosh, it is (Brandon) Ellis, 12 months of development in a footy club is enormous. It is another pre-season in a footy club, the maturity of Cotchin, Dustin Martin. Batch (Jake Batchelor) has had fantastic consistency, Nick Vlaustin has had another year.”
This week’s All Australian 40 nominations also show that Richmond finally have consistently performed stars: Cotchin, Alex Rance, Martin and Brett Deledio.
Says Cotchin of those dramatic weeks when all was going wrong: “From a playing point of view we knew what we were doing right.
“We had those 15 minute periods where we lapses and quarters where we lapsed and it cost us games.
“Now everyone knows their role and plays it and it gives you confidence of what we feel as a group is required against good teams.
“To be completely honest with you its hard to reflect (on those finals). In the last couple of years all you can remember is the disappointment.
“But this year is the most consistent we have been with the same behaviours.”
Hardwick simply refuses to buy into the narrative that this is a final Richmond must win given past failures.
But Gale is adamant Richmond has no scars from two diametrically opposite yet equally agonising defeats.
In Round 2013 the Tigers finals drought was broken yet it lost to archrival Carlton from 33 points up, then last year they lost a final in 17 minutes as Port Adelaide poured on seven scintillating goals.
“No there are not. Life is a great teacher. Sometimes you learn more from those experiences, as hard as they are, than unpleasant ones.
“They are great opportunities and important milestones for the club. Would we get it done? No we couldn’t.
“It is in the past and absolutely irrelevant this Sunday at 3.20pm.”
Gale laughed this week as he reprised the force of his SEN interview.
“I am probably a little embarrassed in hindsight. Thanks heavens SEN doesn’t go to Tassie because my mum would have been absolutely disgusted.
“But we felt Damien had all the attributes to a successful coach. We have to provide an environment for Damien and the players to realise their potential.”
Maybe Richmond legend Kevin Bartlett deserves the final word given he is one of those sacked coaches, a coaching execution that saw him spent 16 years in exodus.
He still jokes now he never should have allowed wife Denise to answer the door when Cameron Schwab knocked, but he knows the importance of Gale’s solidarity.
“It showed strong leadership at Richmond, which has had a dark past of not supporting coaches,’’ he said.
“It was strong and bold and showed everyone at the club was behind the coach.
“It wasn’t corporate speak about process and KPIs that left wriggle room.
“It was good old fashioned footy speak that was succinct and to the point: this is rubbish.
“Yes there is pressure on Richmond but there is pressure on North Melbourne. They both have something to lose.
“Quite clearly Richmond are better than against Carlton and Port Adelaide. They are more mature, they are playing better footy.
“You can’t change the past, all you can do is make yourself better for the future.”
In short, it takes the impossible to render that pair speechless.
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