The news all week was about Jack Dyer. They did mention that Richmond were playing Hawthorn, but it was officially Jack Dyer week. I had no problem with that. Jack was not only an icon of the Richmond Football Club, but of the game. I had many happy memories of him as a commentator, admittedly a Richmond biased commentator, which is possibly why the memories were so happy, and I was sorry to see the old fella go. Richmond had built up the game and dedicated it to Jack. Neither side really had a lot to play for. The Tigers had Jack and pride I suppose, the Hawks had a bit of pride, but not much else, they were unable to make the finals and win or lose they still were not going to get a decent draft pick out of it. It started with a Hawthorn goal, which was then answered by Richmond. The Tigers hardly gave a yelp in the rest of the quarter and it looked like another shellacking was in the offing. The second quarter was a little better and the fact that Richmond made the most of limited opportunities and a bit of mongrel from hard nuts like Zantuck kept the Tigers in it. A great third quarter got the Richmond crowd roaring and gave the Hawks a scare. They were hard put to eke out a 4 point win in the last quarter and had Zantuck kicked a little straighter towards the end Richmond may have just pinched it.

At least they had a go and Rodan played his usual dangerous game. Bobbing up here and there and kicking a goal. Schulz showed some potential. Tivendale was good as always this season. Coughlan and Johnson were both good with Johnson just shading Coughlan. Ottens stood up when he had to and that augurs well for 2004. Chaffey played his usual solid, hard game and was unfortunately reported. It really was not a bad game to lose, it creates a slightly better draft pick and it was an honourable loss.

Unfortunately yet another September on the sidelines.

Tuesday 21/10/03

It's all over. The season has been long finished. Collingwood lost another Grand Final and Brisbane won another one to do the first threepeat since the mighty Melbourne side of the 50's and gain immortal status. Rodan survived the first round of delistings and was not offered as trade bait during the horrid period that is trade week. On Monday he signed a new two year contract and ensured that he will be a Tiger for the next two years and deservedly so. A couple of unkind scribes said that Rodan was a passenger this season. Now they were obviously watching a different bloke called David Rodan. Let's look at this in perspective. The kid is 19 years old. He's playing his 2nd season of AFL football, in that time he has not missed a single senior regular season appearance and in fact I can only remember him missing one pre season practice match earlier this season, he even played for Coburg on the week off. He continued his average of a goal per game and that's the just the ones he kicked, not the ones he assisted. He was played in the midfield, on the forward line, given the totally alien roles of defence and tagging on a few occasions. No, the kid is a good player and earns his spot every week, give him a year or two and he may even be a great player.

That's it David Rodan 2003, take a bow D-Rod, you earned it.