Memorable Moment #16: Matthew Knights' last game (+ video)

[one-eyed]

A Bombers fan on BF has posted a youtube clip of the last minute of Knighter's 279th and final game plus his lap of honour and chairing off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqQJBfwFl5w


For the record, Richmond's season was shot by round 17, 2002 on the back of 8 straight losses after making the Preliminary final the year before and went into the game 15th on the ladder at 4-12. While Essendon was 10th on 8-7-1 and still fighting for a finals spot 1/2 a game outside the Eight.

Round 17         Friday Night, July 26, 2002        @ the MCG       Crowd: 39,650

Richmond     1.2   2.3    6.6     7.11-53
Essendon      4.2   5.8    5.9     7.12-54

Knighter "retired" at 31 and on the night finished with 21 disposals (11 k, 10h), 6 marks and 3 inside 50s.

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/stats/games/2002/041420020719.html

[mightytiges]

West and Eade's media conference yesterday was almost word for word the same as Knighter and Spud's.

The only difference was Spud forced Matty to make a decision about retirement during the season after dropping him back to the VFL. Matty decided to make that Essendon game his last and allow a kid to take his spot for the rest of the 2002 season. All this after Richo had been banished back to Coburg for a week for cracking it with Rodan in the goalsquare. Libba coincidently retired at the same time as Knighter.