Tigers facing greatest challenge since they were kingsJake Niall
Chief football writer, The Age
October 4, 2020Richmond wasn't far from beating the Brisbane Lions in a game that was played with the most intensity of any yet this season, possibly excepting the Port Adelaide-Richmond game in Adelaide.
The Tigers closed to within eight points with more than sufficient time left. Had Shai Bolton's astonishing Daicos dribbler not found the edge of the post - as detected by a pedantic snicko - then they would have reached that deficit earlier in the final quarter, when Brisbane were wavering.
Dusty Martin missed a shot. A poor kick into attack missed an open Jack Graham. Numerous other opportunities were fumbled. Damien Hardwick's snap autopsy after the game was on the money: Brisbane had been cleaner.
This game was a kind of mirror-image reversal of the usual Brisbane v Richmond matches, in that Richmond literally had the Lions' share of general play in the first half, but couldn't convert that ownership of contested ball, clearances and territory into scores.
In the previous meetings of 2019 and this year, Brisbane had been the inefficient team which couldn't muster a winning score from abundant chances.
Tom Lynch's absence meant the Tigers were back to 2017 in their reliance upon a combination of smalls and Jack Riewoldt. Mabior Chol doesn't yet have the forward craft to drag defenders away from Riewoldt.
Further, the Riewoldt of 2020 isn't quite the Jack of 2017, and Dusty Martin did his best work upfield rather than as a forward isolated one-out.
The no-Lynch problem was compounded by the return of his usual opponent, Harris Andrews, who didn't have a threatening forward to subdue and was allowed almost unfettered freedom to act as a spoiler or interceptor.
High balls into the Tiger attack were too easily defended and turned into counter-attacks. Richmond were playing a team in their image, with this proviso - it was at the little G, the Gabba, rather than the big G in Melbourne.
Hardwick, having initially grumbled about "trigger happy'' umpires (at half-time) and started on the futile road of whingeing about umpiring (albeit the Lions did benefit from four timely 50-metre penalties in the first half), wisely back-pedalled and praised Brisbane while also observing that the Tigers could play far better.
Hardwick's right: they can play miles better than they did on Friday night. The corollary is that they must do so to have a serious chance of franking their four-year term of dominance with a third flag.
Richmond will not be thinking beyond next weekend's semi-final, in which they will be heavy favourites. Should they navigate that assignment, as they should, the prize will be another meeting with Port Adelaide at their Adelaide Oval cauldron - a rested and well-prepared, hungry Port, which will be respectful rather than fearful of the Tigers.
Upend Port, and they're in the grand final for the third time, potentially against a Lions' team on a ground that, for the first time since 2004, is worthy of the moniker Gabbatoir for visiting teams.
Richmond's 2017 and 2019 flags had far lesser degrees of difficulty than the task required in 2020. The insurgent 2017 Tigers did not leave the MCG, had home finals against Geelong, the Giants and a supine Adelaide (which hasn't recovered).
The more formidable 2019 Tigers, after mid-year adversity with a slew of injuries, had the adolescent version of Brisbane at the Gabba last year, then an admittedly capable Geelong (sans Tom Hawkins) in the preliminary final. GWS, enervated and beset with injury, was an easy kill in the grand final.
Only once did the Tigers have to meet a Melbourne team with surging momentum, fierce support and which was utterly at home at the MCG: Collingwood in the 2018 preliminary final.
If Hardwick's team haven't looked longingly at Hawthorn for years - they only succeeded once they eschewed Hawthorn's kicking game and crafted a method that fitted their personnel - Hardwick might benefit from a conversation with his mate Alastair Clarkson about Hawthorn's 2015 campaign.
The 2015 Hawks were beaten by a vibrant younger team, West Coast, on the latter's home turf in the qualifying final. They outclassed Adelaide in the semi, then went to Perth for a second time in a fortnight, this time against Fremantle.
Like the 2020 Tigers, the three-peat Hawks had also had off-field disciplinary issues in the prelude to the finals, with Luke Hodge booked for drink-driving. But piloted by Hodge and Sam Mitchell and with Cyril Rioli's wizardry given full expression, they prevailed over a less capable Fremantle in Perth and a less seasoned West Coast at the MCG, where the Eagles then struggled with the width of the MCG's spaces - and with Hawthorn's slicing foot skills.
Richmond's method is more frenetic, less reliant on maintaining possession, and even with Lynch, they don't have Hawthorn's ludicrous array of talent forward of the ball.
They play a completely different game, in a vastly different environment of a COVID-19-compromised season. Their method is predicated on pressure, which is why they've been so imposing in the games that count.
As with Clarkson's Commandos of 2015, Richmond knows what's required to win finals. They must know, too, that as their leaders enter twilights and the draft's gravity pulls at the powerful, they can't assume they'll get another crack.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-finals-2020-richmond-tigers-facing-greatest-challenge-since-they-were-kings-20201003-p561q2.html
