This was that rarest of beasts a game that Richmond were heavily favoured to win. That perception made sense. Carlton were bottom of the ladder with 2 and a half wins for the season. Richmond had 9 wins and were trying to force their way back into the 8. The last time the teams met Richmond waltzed away to an 85 point victory, a record winning margin of encounters between the suburban rivals.

Richmond still had Darren Gaspar out, although they had played the selection game and allowed everyone to believe that he would play almost up to the opening bounce. Mark Chaffey withdrew due to groin soreness. The replacements were Kelvin Moore and Brent Hartigan.

The game did not start well with Carlton kicking very straight and putting 2 goals on the board before the Tigers scored courtesy of brilliant youngster Brett Deledio. Richmond were unable to get any sort of momentum and Carlton seemed unable to miss the goals with an amazing 7 straight for the quarter. Richmond's cause was not helped by Matthew Richardson being knocked unconscious due to an accidental clash during a marking contest.

Although Richmond did stage a couple of minor fightbacks they were never really in this contest from that opening term. Kelvin Moore did well for such a young, inexperienced player, but he was no replacement for Richardson. Troy Simmonds was unable to mark well or kick easy goals. The team balance was entirely out and many of the older, more experienced players let their younger counterparts out. On the oppositie side of the coin Carlton played the best football they had played all year.

A 35 point loss to the bottom team is not going to get anyone a finals berth and makes it almost impossible for Richmond to make the finals this year unless they win all 4 of their remaining games and with strugglers Hawthorn looking like the only possible win that is unlikely. Maybe the conclusion is that the Tigers are simply not ready for finals football this year.

Player review:

Given the performances of the weekend there's no point in reviewing the players, they were uniformly, across the board, with apologies to Shane Tuck, Kelvin Moore and Brett Deledio, very poor and disappointing. A lot of people were let down.