‘Come back to haunt them’: Damning Tigers trend plays out a FIFTH time in ‘trauma’ lossBen Cotton
Fox Sports
July 10th, 2022 9:24 pmRichmond has been called out for its fourth-quarter fade-outs, with dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna concerned it could cost the club a finals berth.
The Tigers were up by 42 points against the Suns at one stage of Saturday night’s clash including 28 points in the fourth quarter, but were overrun down the stretch culminating in Noah Anderson’s epic goal after the siren.
It came in a game where Tom Lynch (hamstring), Ivan Soldo (broken thumb), Toby Nankervis (PCL) were all struck down with injury, joining Dustin Martin (hamstring) and Trent Cotchin (clavicle) on the sidelines, while Nick Vlastuin also missed through suspension.
And now the Tigers’ spot in the top eight is vulnerable, sitting on equal wins to the ninth-placed Saints and a game ahead of the Western Bulldogs, Suns and Port Adelaide.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, Montagna called the “trauma” loss to Gold Coast a “devastating blow” for Richmond for several reasons, but believes another fourth-quarter fade out would be the most frustrating element.
“One, they’ve blown four points. Two, they’ve left the door ajar for five teams to fit into one spot (in the top eight), they could’ve closed the door … the injuries,” he said.
“The frustrating part for Damien Hardwick — they’ve won the third-most quarters — only Geelong and Melbourne have won more quarters for the season than Richmond, but yet they are just clinging onto eighth spot because of poor performances particularly in just one quarter.”
In five of Richmond’s seven losses this year (Round 1 vs. Carlton, Round 3 vs. St Kilda, Round 11 vs Sydney, Round 15 vs. Geelong and Round 17 vs. Gold Coast) its led in the fourth quarter only to get run over the top of.
“This has become a bit of a trend for them this season, this fade out in the fourth quarter,” Montagna added.
“This could come back to the haunt them if they do end up missing the eight. They don’t have those wins banked, injuries become a bit of a factor.”
“All of a sudden having one more tilt at a flag — which we all thought was possible with the way they were playing through the middle part of the season — they’ve now left themselves vulnerable, and they’ll be kicking themselves if they either miss the eight or get knocked out in the first week.
“I still think they’ll be OK, but gee whiz they wouldn’t want to miss finals and not have one more crack with this team, this amazing side and another tilt at a fourth flag.”
It comes ahead of Richmond’s run home against North Melbourne (Marvel Stadium), Fremantle (Marvel Stadium), Brisbane (MCG), Port Adelaide (Adelaide Oval), Hawthorn (MCG) and Essendon (MCG).
North Melbourne legend David King did note that the missing Tigers stars were a “little rider” on the loss to Gold Coast.
“All of a sudden they’ve gone from being full bill of health, which we thought was their secret weapon, to now all of a sudden being injury riddled again,” Montagna said. “And they haven’t got enough wins banked to make sure they make the finals.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2022-richmond-tigers-fourth-quarter-fadeouts-trend-loss-to-gold-coast-suns-noah-anderson-goal-after-the-siren-run-home/news-story/f205532151ab737c538dde5ec993dbde
