AFL Report Card: Round 21Ben Waterworth, Ben Cotton, David Zita and Ronny Lerner
Foxsports
9 August 2021RICHMONDThis was a dramatic tale of two halves. In the first two quarters, the Tigers’ season looked like it was headed for the scrap heap. Despite the sizeable carrot of finals footy dangling in front of them, they started the game with no energy and were bossed around by the Kangaroos for the better part of an hour, slipping 26 points in arrears at one stage. But a goal after the half-time siren from Jack Riewoldt gave them a pulse, and it served as the spark for a spectacular revival in the second half, as Richmond channelled their old selves, overwhelming the Kangaroos with intense pressure and slick ball movement to execute a 59-point turnaround by kicking 12 of the last 15 goals.
In the votesIf it wasn’t for Jack Graham the Tigers would probably already be coming to terms with their first finals-free season in five years. Determined to turn the tide in his team’s favour, 22 of his 36 disposals came in the second half, and he also finished with a game-high 10 score involvements, as he willed Richmond to overcome the vastly-improved Kangaroos. Nick Vlastuin also made an impressive return in his first game since Round 16, amassing a career-high 30 touches to go with a game-high 14 marks to be one of the most influential players on the ground.
Room for improvementQuite a few cracks were papered by the final margin in the end, and the Tigers were probably lucky that they were playing the bottom side. If Damien Hardwick’s men started a game like they did on Saturday against probably 14-15 other teams, the game would’ve been over by half-time. The Tigers were lethargic and passive in the first half and allowed the Kangaroos to dictate proceedings. If Nick Larkey nailed a few simple set shots, it would’ve been very hard for the Tigers to get back into the game. Richmond cannot afford to start games like that if they still want to play finals.
GradeB
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