Finals on the cards? The Tigers are suddenly looking ominousRohan Connolly
ESPN
Jun 19, 2023It can be hard to give up on something that once was great, be it a relationship or indeed a relationship with a football team. Even more so when it's one which managed to land three premierships in four seasons.
I refused to get off the Richmond bandwagon when they failed to make the finals in 2021, and even after they bowed out in the first week of finals action last year, instead tipping the Tigers to reach the Grand Final in 2023.
By Round 7, however, after a home defeat to Gold Coast made it just one victory (and a draw) nearly one-third of the way through the season, reality had slapped us Richmond believers in the face enough to concede defeat.
And now? After 14 rounds? Well, as Al Pacino puts it in Godfather III: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
We've seen this narrative enough before, of course. Who knows, we might even be seeing it concurrently with Geelong as well.
You know how it goes. A fading power's best is still potent enough to beat anyone on a given day. The heavyweight gets on a bit of a roll and scrapes into the lower reaches of the eight, from where it appears more than capable of doing some serious damage. Before either the strain of the effort getting there, the greater inconsistency now, or both, nips it all in the bud.
The rational part of me thinks that's likely to happen in this case as well. And yet...
Since that loss to the Suns, it's been five wins from seven for Richmond, with the two defeats by a total of just 11 points. But there's other factors combining to potentially put Richmond very much back in the ball game this season.
And that's beyond even the most obvious, which is that narrow losses are now being turned into narrow wins, the Tigers having now won their last three games by six, 15 and 20 points.
Richmond's draw is challenging in parts, beginning with Brisbane at the Gabba after the bye next week, and taking in games against Melbourne, and Port Adelaide away. Yet there's also pretty winnable assignments against Sydney at the MCG, West Coast, Hawthorn, and North Melbourne.
And the Tigers' rivals for the top eight currently ahead of Richmond on the ladder? Essendon looks like it will make it at this stage. But St Kilda has now alternated between win and loss for nine games in a row. Adelaide hasn't played finals for six years and has the second-youngest and least experienced list in the competition.
Both Fremantle and Gold Coast proved on the weekend they're still prone to the odd shocker. We're not talking about the best of the best here.
Richmond's best, however, is being produced for longer periods now under Andrew McQualter. It's not just Tim Taranto picking up a ton of touches. The often hard-to-pinpoint but critical x-factor is coming back.
Shai Bolton has been a major part of that, and after winning plenty of football over the past weeks, he also hit the scoreboard hard in Saturday night's win over St Kilda.
Trent Cotchin's 300th was a bit of fairytale, but he's been very good for a couple of games now, winning more clearances over the past fortnight than he had in the previous eight games. Ditto the last two for Dustin Martin.
Nick Vlastuin, Nathan Broad and Noah Balta are providing the defensive anchor for Richmond and plenty of rebound besides. And what was a problematic forward set-up is starting to tick over a lot more efficiently again, even with spearhead Tom Lynch still a long-term casualty.
That 13.12 (90) scoreline in the pouring rain against the Saints shouldn't be underestimated. And it followed 16.14 against GWS and another winning score against Fremantle in Perth in between.
Richmond was ranked last for scores per inside 50 after Damien Hardwick's last game in charge, the pivotal Dreamtime loss to Essendon. But that had improved to 15th before Saturday night's victory, in which the Tigers managed 25 scores from their 58 inside 50s, again well above what had been a dismal strike rate.
There's more upside, too, ahead of this week's break for Richmond, in who might return after it. One obvious addition is midfielder Jacob Hopper, whose presence would alleviate some of the load on Taranto.
Another less-heralded but potentially important presence also is that of clever forward Noah Cumberland. He's had his issues with the coaching panel and more recently injury, but I think the Tigers always look more dangerous with him lurking near goal.
Tom Lynch? His return from a serious foot injury is still a light on the distant horizon. But the irony here is that while it's hard to see Richmond going far in finals without Lynch were the Tigers to make it, his absence and that old line about "necessity being the mother of invention" might just be underlining why there's still a bit of life in this playing group yet.
All over? You still wouldn't want to be an aspirant for the final eight taking on the Tigers in the run home, whether Richmond ends up getting there or not. And if they don't? Well, in the manner of all truly great eras for teams, I'm not sure it will be all over even then.
https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/37875804/afl-round-14-rohan-connolly-richmond-tigers-ominous-andrew-mcqualter-finals-table
