Captain Blood, Richmond Tigers
Herald-Sun blog
Friday, August 29, 2008 at 12:20pm
This could be the most important game of our 2009 season.
Richmond v Melbourne could be the least interesting game of 2008 after the AFL’s decision to let Sydney keep two points from its 19-man draw, which means the Tigers can’t get into the eight barring a miracle (although that might be irrelevant by Sunday anyway if the Swans beat Brisbane).
But we should look at this game as the first of 2009. After the final siren on Sunday we won’t play again until March next year - so we will carry all the positives, or negatives, for six months.
With that in mind, we should be out to crush the Demons. I do feel a little sorry for them, but you have to kick teams when they’re down. Hell, everyone has jumped at the chance to do that to us over the past two decades.
A loss would put a big dent in our 2009 campaign, but I really can’t see that happening. And I don’t want us to fall over the line as we did against Fremantle, either.
A big margin would be great, but more important is the way we go about it. Let’s see some dash and daring, some flowing attacking play that will give us something to hang on to over the long summer.
I’d like to get a look at Alex Rance, but it’s hard to see how he will squeeze on to the bench. We’ll find out later today.
Finally, a thank-you and goodbye to Greg Tivendale. Not every player can be a star and he gave plenty of years of service to the Richmond Football Club. It would be nice to see him take a long, bouncing run down the wing on Sunday and kick one of those signature left-foot goals. Maybe he could get on the end of a kick-out from Jordan McMahon, his heir in the looking-a-million-dollars-when-he-kicks-but-somehow-makes-unbelievable-mistakes department.
It’s a little sad that Tivvers is going to put his hand up to play again next year. Face reality and enjoy your last game, mate. And thanks for the memories.
Eat em alive!
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/afl/fanforce/index.php/heraldsun/comments/welcome_to_round_1_2009_tigers
