Chris Greenway's Footy Commentary!
Rd 9 Richmond V Essendon 23/05/2009
It was an unusual build up to the game. Normally Dreamtime games are all about the build up, not dissimilar to Anzac Day in some ways, but this year it was all overshadowed by the faux sacking of Terry Wallace and the drama around it. Somewhere along the way Richmond had to lose two players due to injury: fallen idol Ben Cousins and emerging ruckman Angus Graham. Graham was a big loss and it gave Troy Simmonds a reprieve and Adam Pattison another chance. Will Thursfield was a late withdrawal (I really wish they’d come clean what’s on with Thursfield, is he injured or not? If he is, rest him, if he’s not, play him or let him go at the end of the season), and Daniel Connors came in.
Given the seasons of the 2 teams, Essendon has won against the odds and played an exciting brand of football, even running the red hot St Kilda close the week before. Richmond on the other hand has been hit with injury, morale and confidence is at an all time low, they’ve won one game and haven’t been able to play a consistent 4 quarters for the entire season. The Bombers were expected to have a pretty easy win.
I didn’t expect a lot to tell the truth. I attended a local football match and actually got more enjoyment out of that than I expected to get from the match that night. The Tigers started surprisingly well. It was hard to equate this team with the disappointing outfit that had shown up most weeks. They were running hard, tackling well, winning the clearances, taking chances and exciting the crowd with flair and daring. Deledio’s goal in the first quarter was indicative of the play and it was enjoyable to watch. The Bombers were struggling, particularly down back where Nathan Brown had turned the clock back to 1995 and was putting on a clinic over the usually dependable Adam McPhee.
Funny thing was despite how much I enjoyed the 1st half and the fact that Richmond took a 16 point lead into the long break I had this nagging thought in the back of my mind: when was it going to stop? The team were not able to play good football for an entire game and they did not let me down this night, either. Around the midway mark of the 3rd quarter the switch was flicked and nearly every player in yellow and black stopped. They stopped doing all the things that had earned them the lead and went back to doing all the negative, selfish, fear filled things that had taken them to a 1 win from 8 attempts record. A couple of things had concerned me up to that point: one was the midget forward line; it consisted of: Kayne Pettifer, Nathan Brown, Mitch Morton and Robin Nahas with Simmonds and Pattison interchanging and lurking around. You can’t expect to kick a winning score in today’s game with a forward line consisting of 4 players that don’t top 6’2”. Riewoldt had kicked 6 for Coburg the week before, but even when they lost a tall in Thursfield he wasn’t selected. Mystifying. The other thing was inaccuracy. The Tigers had kicked more points than goals and most of those were very gettable shots. It’s hurt them before and it was going to do so again.
The Tigers were lucky to even get on the scoreboard in the 3rd, they kicked one goal and the Bombers relished the freedom they suddenly had and turned a half time deficit into a 3 quarter time lead. The last was more of the same. I do wonder why Richmond even bothered to come out if they weren’t going to actually play. The game turned into a rout, the Bombers were in cruise mode and they still won by 40 points. A couple of token resistance goals were kicked, but it really was very disappointing. It’s pretty sad when the side do play well and get into a winning position, but I know with certainty that they’ll lose the game.
