Chris Greenway's Footy Commentary!

Rd 4 Richmond V Melbourne 19/04/2009

The build up to this match was odd. The media spent most of the week savaging Terry Wallace for Richmond's poor performances and asking when he'd be sacked, many predicting if the Tigers lost to Melbourne that Terry would be axed the next day. No one really thought Richmond would lose to Melbourne, because although the Tigers had been very poor, Melbourne were worse, although they at least had reasons; inexperienced list, inexperienced coach, no money, finished last in 2008.

It's hard to do a proper review of the match. It was rather surreal to watch actually. The Tigers started off well and got out to a good lead, but as so often happens they couldn't handle pressure and turned a 15 point lead into a 3 point deficit by quarter time. During the 2nd quarter Melbourne did largely as they liked and no one from the Richmond side even bothered to try and stop them. Melbourne extended their lead and were over 30 points up at half time. Apparently Terry Wallace asked the players to give a decent performance in the 2nd half of the match and a few of them did, notably young Robin Nahas, they made a small inroad into the lead and this seemed to make the coach happy enough. Richmond had their chances to win the match in the last quarter as the young Demons tired, but they wasted most of them and lost by 8 points. Disgusted doesn't even begin to describe it.

3. Brett Deledio: four words: too little too late.

5. Troy Simmonds: I have no idea what's wrong with him, he's just having no impact whatsoever and doesn't seem to care much.

7. Nathan Brown: we see glimpses of his best, but that's all. The leg injury has robbed Richmond of his best.

8. Jack Reiwoldt: goes missing for long periods of every game, didn't get a touch until the 3rd quarter.

11. Joel Bowden: for what it's worth one of the best Richmond players, he can at least use the ball well.

12. Matthew Richardson: with 4 goals won the battle with his Melbourne opponent, however he also kicked 3 points that were all gettable and would have won the game. The game plan has gone back to: 'kick it to Richo'.

13. Jordan McMahon: returned after a strong performance for Coburg, got plenty of the ball as it went into the defensive half a lot, but his kicking is just deplorable. The Western Bulldogs must think about how they got Richmond to hand over pick 19 for this deficient player and laugh and laugh.

14. Dean Polo: had a bad one. Was responsible for Aaron Davey who had a lot to do with Melbourne winning the match.

16. Luke McGuane: in between, had his hands full as the only tall defender and did manage to pull down some grabs and kick a goal.

17. Chris Newman: actually pulled out a few long kicks from defence, but is not handling the captaincy well and the club looks to have made another mistake there.

18. Alex Rance: again tried hard and gave it everything, but even at this early stage his kicking is a concern.

20. Mitch Morton: showed a nice defensive side to his game, but I'd rather he spent the bulk of the game forward kicking goals.

21. Shane Tuck: you can see how hard he tries, but too often his lack of polish lets him and the team down.

23. Daniel Jackson: he isn't working as a tagger, someone suggested that he play full forward and that may work, his poor decision making might not be as damaging at full forward.

27. Tom Hislop: showing why Essendon let him go. Not up to AFL senior level.

35. Matt White: struggled, was ineffective.

38. Robin Nahas: only his 2nd game and should not have been dropped, was one guy who stood up and tried to get the Tigers back into the game in the 3rd quarter.

39. Daniel Connors: only did a few things, had a minimal impact, starting to wonder if I was wrong about this one and he really hasn't got it.

40. Kelvin Moore: looking increasingly as if last year was a flash in the pan.

41. Nathan Foley: the only midfielder that Richmond has and even his disposal is sloppy at times.

42. Andrew Collins: not a bad and long awaited debut. Kicked a couple of goals, but would have to be disappointed with the lack of commitment and desperation shown by his team mates.

44. Angus Graham: terribly terribly slow. It is an indictment on the club's recruiting that this great log is their only viable option as 2nd ruck.