Woeful Tigers capitulate to resurgent Lions
Rohan Connolly | May 10, 2009
RICHMOND has lost plenty of games of football over the modern era. And now it's finding new ways to do so. At least there's a variation on a recurring theme.
Last week, in Sydney, it was a very ordinary first quarter that cost the Tigers victory, just 2.1 while the Swans slammed on 5.6. So yesterday, Richmond came out roaring, and while it was no cricket score, 4.5 at quarter-time represented its best first term of the season, Brisbane Lions having been at the same time held to just 1.4.
So what happened next? Yep, you guessed it, the Tigers mucked up the last two-and-a-half quarters instead. And while the scoreboard at the end told of a 26-point defeat, hardly a pasting, purely in psychological terms, this loss was right down there with the Carlton obliteration in round one and the defeat three weeks ago against the previously winless Melbourne.
Richmond didn't exactly have Brisbane on toast yet early yesterday the Tigers were at least grabbing a couple of slices from the bread bin. Which made their subsequent capitulation once the Lions got their act together even more galling for their fans.
Richmond was 25 points up at the nine-minute mark of the second quarter. It would then concede 11 of the next 12 goals. Angus Graham kicked the Tigers' seventh goal at the nine-minute mark of the second term. Their next would come on the three-quarter-time siren, and the next after that nearly into time-on of the last. Just three goals in the second half won't win you too many games of football.
Any hope that remained of salvaging the result was well and truly gone by the time Jonathan Brown had slammed on Brisbane's fourth goal in just 10 minutes at the start of the last term to give his side the same-sized gap it had been looking anxiously at from the other side of fence earlier. And by then, that start seemed like some long-distant fairytale. In that story, Richmond was "on" at the first bounce.
A full-on defensive zone made life very difficult for Brisbane's ball carriers, forced into hurried disposal and forced wide.
And after a couple of wasted chances, the Tigers started to make it count on the scoreboard, too.
Ben Cousins and Troy Simmonds emerged from the interchange bench just before the nine-minute mark, and had an immediate impact. Simmonds had a goal within a minute, marking a nice centre from Jay Schulz. Then it was Cousins' turn. He'd already had a couple of handballs when he was slung by Luke Power after another possession, and after the resultant free kick and 50-metre penalty, banged one through from the goal square.
Richmond was dominant at the stoppages, and when the Lions did go forward, they made a meal of it, Travis Johnstone and Daniel Bradshaw spraying shots out on the full.
Brett Deledio, in great nick, crumbed a goal-square contest between Graham, also very good early, and Daniel Merrett, and gave Richmond its third, and when Matt White dobbed another on the run, the Tigers were 26 points up and well on the way.
But Brisbane was about to drag itself back into contention with the sort of class and power that Richmond simply couldn't match.
The names were the familiar ones. There was the hard running and smart ball use of Power, the graceful but powerful midfield presence of Simon Black and the forward smarts of Bradshaw. And most of those qualities were rolled into one in the form of Brown, an intimidating and game-winning powerhouse.
If the Brisbane skipper hadn't exerted his usual influence over proceedings by quarter-time, he'd sure make up for it. It was Brown who reduced the gap to 19 points after Graham, at least one bright light to come out of a sorry afternoon for Richmond, had put the Tigers more than four goals to the good.
He brought it back to a couple of goals with his next, following a strong, smart grab after holding out Joel Bowden. By then, still comfortably before half-time, he'd taken eight marks, four of them contested. It was precisely the sort of inspirational lift his Lions needed. And if that wasn't enough, Power's gutsy mark running with the flight at considerable risk to life and limb should have been.
It wasn't long after that Scott Harding levelled the scores with a free kick for over the shoulder. The Lions hit the front with Michael Rischitelli's goal early in the third term. The Lions had dominated the play, but hadn't yet built a lead they could be comfortable with.
The horrifying head clash between Troy Selwood and Alex Rance, and the subsequent five-minute hold-up might have halted the momentum, a theory that had a little more credence after Simmonds brought the gap back to only three points right on the three-quarter-time bell.
But it was a theory which wouldn't last long. Brown booted his third with a booming shot on the run just four minutes into the final term. A minute later again, Justin Sherman hacked one out of the air. Bradshaw made it very difficult for the home side with his third goal of the day, before Brown, fittingly, closed the deal with his fourth.
Pretty simple, really, and for Brisbane, pretty effective. For Richmond, pretty dismal, even if a new modus operandi of good start, shocking finish, represented novelty value, novelty the Tiger hordes are well and truly sick of.
BRISBANE LIONS 1.4 7.5 9.7 15.7 (97)
RICHMOND 4.5 7.6 8.10 10.11 (71)
GOALS Brisbane Lions: Brown 4, Bradshaw 3, Brennan 2, Rischitelli 2, Adcock, Sherman, Black, Harding. Richmond: Simmonds 4, Graham, Cousins, Deledio, Schulz, White, Nahas.
BEST Brisbane Lions: Brown, Power, Black, Bradshaw, Merrett, Drummond. Richmond: Graham, Foley, Deledio, Polo, Simmonds, Tuck.
INJURIES: Richmond: Rance (cheek bone, concussion), Brown (groin) replaced in selected side by Edwards, Pattison (replaced in selected side by Schulz).
UMPIRES: Kennedy, Findlay, Avon.
CROWD: 34,646 at the MCG.
MAIN MEN
JONATHAN Brown was the game-breaking presence in a match which cried out for one, his vice-like marking, four goals and intimidating physical presence the difference. Luke Power and Simon Black represented the mid-field class that Richmond simply couldn't match.
TURNING POINT
Richmond youngster Angus Graham had put the Tigers 25 points up nine minutes into the second term. Brisbane skipper Brown's goal minutes later not only closed the gap but started a Lions surge in which they would kick 10 of 11 goals and take the game by the scruff of the neck.
THE UPSHOT
BRISBANE is now 4-3 and well placed for a run at the top four after its two best wins of the season. For Richmond, the picture looks bleaker by the week, a trip to Adelaide to take on the Power the next daunting assignment
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