There was a low-key build up to this game media wise. Most of the talk about Richmond centred on our less than impressive performance against Collingwood the previous week or Richo's accuracy woes. A lot of the media attention was on the Bulldogs and the plight of their captain who had done his knee an injury in their first up win and was going to spend the season watching from the sidelines. Most people favoured the Bulldogs to win the game, one thing that was in Richmond's favour was that without Chris Grant the Dogs were very light on for height in either attack or defence, even without Ottens and Holland Richmond is a tall side. Also on the plus side for the Tigers was the return of Mark Chaffey from suspension. In my opinion Chaffey is a highly underrated player and having him in our back pocket again adds a new dimension to the backline and immediately frees up David Rodan to the forward pocket where he belongs. Memo to Danny Frawley: NEVER waste David Rodan in defence EVER again!

As a game this was not a classic, few Richmond games these days are. Neither side showed great skill in the first half and the Tigers were lucky that the Bulldogs were not more than 14 points ahead going into the long break. The second half saw a lot of Richmond players come into the game, especially Leon Cameron and Greg Tivendale. After a quiet first half D-Rod caught fire in the last quarter, went nuts like only he can and finished the day with a couple of nice goals and this kid hates a goal! Hopefully this will cement him into the forward line or the midfield, it's what he's built for, and it's where he belongs. We walked out with a good win and some hope for the future. Rodan was named amongst the best.