‘Only got themselves to blame!’ Richmond’s sliding doors season savaged after another failureCatherine Healey
Fox Sports
July 23rd, 2022 The Tigers are experiencing a tough sliding doors moment in 2022; one where they could be sitting pretty in the top four instead of their looming exit from the top eight.
Richmond have won just one of their past five games – with three losses all coming under six points in the dying stages of matches, and one draw against Fremantle on Friday night.
The Tigers have now blown seven fourth quarter leads this season, and only have two points to show for it.
On the other side of the coin is Collingwood, who are on a remarkable eight-game winning streak and well entrenched in the top eight.
The Magpies have come away with three straight wins of seven points or less in the past three weeks – and a whopping six of those eight wins have been by less than two goals.
“Collingwood are the opposite of that. The difference is Collingwood are challenging for top four; Richmond’s trying to hang in for finals,” Fox Footy’s Jonathan Brown lamented.
“Richmond should be in the top four – knocking on the door at least.
“Since Round 6, five games decided by a goal or less. They’ve lost four of them and a draw.
“They’ve only get themselves to blame.”
“They were all over Fremantle in the first half of the game.
“They should have been four or five goals up at half time.”
Garry Lyon agreed Richmond needed a change in fortune with four games to go.
“At the end of the day, they’re now fighting and possibly could be outside the eight. They know exactly where they are,” he said.
“Imagine if you’re a Richmond fan and what you’ve endured over the last three outings. You’ve watched them give up the 40 points against Gold Coast, they’ve come and played North Melbourne on the back of the Kangas sacking their coach and then tonight.
“No momentum gathered by both sides. From what you showed us pre-game about having to get yourself at the right time … they’ve kicked seven goals apiece under a roof at Marvel Stadium.”
Nick Riewoldt said Friday night’s 52-all draw was “not a great spectacle”, with questions still remaining over Richmond’s form.
“I walk away … all the questions we had in the pre-game about premiership credentials, now’s the time to elevate yourself … both of these sides are playing just middle-of-the-pack footy at the moment,” he said.
Fox Footy Live analyst Ben Dixon said Richmond still had time to turn their form around, but admitted the losing trend was “worrying”.
“We can look at the pressure the applied and their transition of the ball in the first half and they had everything going right – and then they couldn’t finish,” he lamented.
“Then it went from couldn’t finish to couldn’t transition the ball. They’ve got a few holes.
“That eighth spot is going to come down to Round 23, so two points is unacceptable from the position of the game in the first half.”
Tigers veteran Trent Cotchin tried to downplay yet another lost opportunity for four points, saying he remained “glass half full”.
“A lot of the things that we really value within our four walls have been in our favour for the majority of games,” he said.
“It’s those lapses that are really killing us at the moment and it’s something we’re trying to rectify. We didn’t really have moments or long periods of the game tonight where Freo got on top of us, so we’ll take that as a win.
“We didn’t get the four points, but to come away and execute on some of the things we wanted to going into the game is really positive.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/only-got-themselves-to-blame-richmonds-sliding-doors-season-savaged-after-another-failure/news-story/0c750d49927630d3582daf4d9cf954b5
