Well, we had to know the streak wouldn't continue forever but it would have been nice if it could have lasted at least one more week!

I didn't get to see the game because it started at 2:15am my time, and then I had to go out of town the next day so I didn't even know the outcome of the game until I returned home late that night. For once I'm somewhat relieved that I wasn't able to see or hear the game!

The big news coming out of the match was the clash, and I mean that literally, of Matt Maguire and Chris Hyde. Both players were knocked unconscious after colliding in a display of all-out footy. Both were taken off the field and were transported to the hospital. While early indications are good for both players, I'd like to extend my best wishes for the boys in their recoveries. We love hard hitting action and rivalries, but we never wish injury on any of the boys.

It's best to put this game behind us and move forward. I still believe in Terry Wallace and I don't think this is a setback for the club. We're headed in the right direction!

From: Chris Greenway
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 7:40 AM
Subject: Thus endeth the streak
Hi Becky,
I'm sure you know by now, but the Tigers went down somewhat ingloriously to the Saints. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that they were far too good for us to the tune of 68 points. Disappointing though that may be and it is frustrating to see Richmond get stagefright every time they have something to prove in a big match I don't feel that bad about it. It's hard to take many positives out of that sort of beating, but I think there are a few: Coughlan was very good and actually beat his more highly fancied opponent in Luke Ball, if he can do that against someone who is younger, supposedly fitter and tipped for the Brownlow one day off an injury plagued season and a limited pre season, what else can he do? By the way he's not even back to his brilliant best yet, either. I think this match helped Terry Wallace identify who amongst his personnel is going to take the journey to September glory and who won't. That's not a bad thing, although I'm sure a few players would disagree with me at the end of the season. It showed him and his team how far they've got to go and it was a reality check for the players who after the last 3 weeks may have been tempted to overrate themsleves and believe that they were a little better or further advanced than they actually are. On the past 3 weeks, if this had been last season I'm pretty sure we would have lost at least one of those matches and possibly even all of them. Yes, they're still bottom four, but they're not wooden spooners any more and they will improve as the season goes on.
Chris.

From: Anonymous
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 6:32 PM
Hey, we're still a bottom-row team that hasn't been able to change everything around in 6 months, playing a team that could have been in the grand final last year - this is a surprise? What we will get this year is a sensible and realistic appraisal of where we're improving, rather than blind panic that we're still not a power team. A lot of teams are still way ahead of us, but we're carefully working our way back. That's as good as we should realistically hope for.