It's like football's version of Groundhog Day. We've all seen it before. The promising start, players playing above themselves, the stars on fire. First the injuries to key players start to bite, then middle of the road players suddenly lose their form and their way, the rest of the side drops in confidence, opposition are made to look far better than they are, thumping great margins become the order of the day and at the end of it the Richmond Tigers are back down on the bottom end of the ladder with nothing, not even a decent draft pick, to show for their season as the early season form is forgotten and put down as some sort of aberration.

No one really expected a win, there were injury clouds over Matthew Richardson and although named in the selected side he was not expected to play. There were also doubts over key big men Troy Simmonds and Trent Knobel. Surprisingly the exciting Danny Meyer was dropped to make way for Rory Hilton, Hilton in turn failed to recover from a finger injury and was replaced by Chris Hyde. Ray Hall picked up an ankle injury and Shane Morrison came in for his first game of the season.

As has happened a number of times, and this is even when the side were winning, Richmond started off slowly, but Adelaide's inaccuracy in front of goal kept the margin from blowing out early. Dreadful skill errors and a distinct lack of willingness to take risks by senior players who should know better allowed Adelaide to establish a match winning margin by half time.

Sparked by some audacious risk taking from second year player Daniel Jackson and the freeing up of Kane Johnson in the middle the Tigers got back into the game. Richardson, on one leg, asserted himself in front of goal. As quickly as it had started the fightback was snuffed out when the younger players like Jackson, Raines and Deledio went off for a rest and the usual suspects reverted to what I term 'Frawley football' in honour of our clueless coach Danny Frawley. Frawley football took the Tigers to the bottom of the ladder last season so it was never going to win this game and the fact that the same players go back to this style of football week after week when they're put under pressure marks them as amongst the dumbest in the game and the side will never progress as long as these people are in the side. Adelaide waltzed away to a 70 point win. Thank God the mid season break is upon us. The Tigers need it to get some players fit and regroup. Hopefully Wallace can impress upon them the differences between the games they won earlier in the season and the one they played last night and maybe they'll at least give their supporters something to cheer about.

Player review:

2. Darren Gaspar, did his best, but he was never going to be able to win with the ball being delivered as well and as quickly as it was.

3. Brett Deledio, quiet early, but had a great last quarter. Sometimes I wonder if he looks so quick, because the rest of his team mates are painfully slow. We need another 5 of him at least.

4. Andrew Raines, he makes a few mistakes, but at least he's prepared to have a go. He will eradicate those errors in time and the Tigers may have a second champion called Raines.

5. Troy Simmonds, better than last week, he did at least hold his marks, however he missed kickable goals and the side just cannot afford for him to do that.

6. Mark Chaffey, beaten again. You honestly have to feel sorry for him. He works his guts out, but he's just too small and too slow for the role he's being asked to play.

9. Wayne Campbell, I still like him coming off the bench, but his age and the loss of speed and kicking power are beginning to become very damaging for Richmond.

10. Greg Stafford, took a lot more of the ruck work. I liked his game, but he needed to have more influence.

11. Joel Bowden, the top possession winner for the Tigers, but made too many mistakes for his game to be rated.

12. Matthew Richardson, on one leg kicked 4 goals, far and away Richmond's best player.

13. Trent Knobel, had another bad game. He's not getting the support he requires from his fellow big men.

15. Kayne Pettifer, could have been better, he simply has to get more courage, pulls out of too many contests. He should have lifted in the absence of Nathan Brown, but it seems to have worked in reverse.

16. Shane Morrison, his opponent was close to best on ground. Slow and stupid. Underlined why it took until Round 13 for him to get a game.

17. Kane Johnson, once he was moved off Mark Ricciuto into the middle became a very damaging player for the Tigers, it's no coincidence that this move happened at about the same time as the fight back.

21. Shane Tuck, along with Johnson Richmond's most influential midfielder, never stopped trying.

23. Daniel Jackson, took some risks and started a string of goals. One of the best games he's played.

24. Mark Coughlan, finally hit the wall. Given that he only played a handful of games last season, had a limited pre season and has played a lot of time in every game this season coming back from osteitis pubis it is really not all that surprising.

27. Andrew Krakouer, 4 possessions and spent the last half on the bench. Looks disinterested. Very worrying.

31. Chris Hyde, made a courageous comeback sans head guard. Was just getting into the game when he was crunched in the head by Brett Burton. Did make it back on the ground, but was obviously shaken.

32. Greg Tivendale, better than last week, but that's not saying a lot. Still didn't justify selection in my opinion. For God's sake Greg you've got one of the best left feet in the game, use it!

34. Mark Graham, moved back and forward with limited success. Still like to see his spot go to a player with a future beyond this season.

35. Chris Newman, another hard working defender. He's become the go to guy to kick out from defence and he generally does it well, sahem we can't utilise him in the midfield.

39. Andrew Kellaway, worked hard and didn't make many mistakes, but it's the same old story, he's being forced to play on bigger, stonger opponents again.