23 weeks ago the 2005 season began with Richmond playing Geelong and in some cute fixturing by the AFL it ended the same way. Despite the fact that Richmond had conceded that they were unable to make the finals this game still had some impact. If Geelong could win they got a home final, if not they were going to have to travel interstate. Richmond wanted to end the season on a winning note and give the respected Wayne Campbell a fairytale farewell.

Geelong had the advantage of a pretty strong breeze in the first quarter. If it held up then that meant the Tigers would be kicking home with it. In the first 10 or so minutes Richmond did all the attacking, but were only able to kick 2 points mainly because of that breeze. The cats hit back and by using the ball more efficiently were able to kick 4 goals and go into the break with a handy lead.

In the 2nd quarter Richmond lifted their workrate and found that it was easier to kick goals with the breeze than against it. A couple of goals to the Cats, one as the result of an unpaid free kick to the Tigers, kept them with their noses in front at half time, but this was a contest now.

The 3rd quarter was distinguished by some very unnattractive and negative football by Richmond where their sole intention was to keep the ball away from Geelong, but they also never looked like scoring themselves. Unlike last season where the side played like this because Frawley did not know or understand any other type of football this was done so that they could negate Geelong and keep them within reach and then come home with that breeze. Unfortunately when it broke down the Cats scored and they had a 26 point lead going into the last quarter.

The game became an arm wrestle and then the Tigers pounced. With minutes left the forward line started to open up. Deledio, Bowden, Tuck, Tambling, Richo, Stafford and Pettifer all became very dangerous men. Pettifer kicked a goal and the Tigers crept to within 2 goals, a snap by Simmonds made the difference a point and there were 41 seconds to go. Desperate play by Geelong denied the Tigers, but they were able to go off with their heads held high because they had a red hot go.

Player review:

1. Rory Hilton, got under the skin of Steve Johnson, but that was about it. Johnson was just about best on ground.

2. Darren Gaspar, superstar forward Nathan Ablett, son of the great Garry, hardly touched it.

3. Brett Deledio, I love watching him get the ball, use that explosive pace and deliver it giftwrapped into the forward line. Monty for the Rising Star.

5. Troy Simmonds, memo to Terry Wallace: play him in the ruck.

9. Wayne Campbell, even in his last game he contributed and was very useful. It'll be a great shame to not see him there any more

10. Greg Stafford, became the second big target in the forward line and made it hard for the Cats to match up on.

11. Joel Bowden, one day soon he's really going to hurt a team and they're going to have to man up on him. Without that breeze he would have kicked multiple goals and really made the Cats pay for their lack of respect.

12. Matthew Richardson, worn like a glove by Scarlett. He worked hard for his 2 goals.

15. Kayne Pettifer, underlined his improvement with another couple of goals and started to find space as he has done late in the season.

17. Kane Johnson, always there when the hard ball needed to be won. He's no media show pony, but he is a hardnut captain.

20. Ray Hall, although he was quieter than last week he also kept his opponent well out of it.

21. Shane Tuck, yet again the dominant midfielder. I can't see anyone beating him for the Jack Dyer medal.

24. Mark Coughlan, again a little quiet, but still gathered plenty of the ball. He really needs the end of the season to rejuvenate himself.

25. Jay Schulz, for some reason spent most of the game in defence. I know he was earmarked for CHB at the start of the season and he did the job okay today, but he's a forward, not a defender.

27. Andrew Krakouer, hard to really know what to make of his game, laid some good tackles and always looked dangerous around goal, but went missing a lot.

30. Richard Tambling, learning slowly, needs to add a defensive side to his game, he'll be exciting with a pre season under his belt.

31. Chris Hyde, played a good tagging role until he copped a corky and spent the rest of the game on the bench.

33. Brent Hartigan, I do like Hartigan, but he's going to have to work on the decision making. That cost the side today.

35. Chris Newman, very solid in defence and his marking was a feature late in the game.

39. Andrew Kellaway, courageous return game, kicked a rare goal and regularly put the body on the line to win the ball.

40. Kelvin Moore, played forward again. Largely ineffective. Should have been swapped with Schulz or Hall.

41. Nathan Foley, wasn't given much game time and consequently had little impact.