The AFL's rivalry round, whilst you could see some of the match ups, such as the Collingwood V Carlton game, the 'Showdown' between Port Adelaide and their cross town rivals Adelaide and the 'Western Derby' with the West Coast Eagles taking on Fremantle, as being genuine long lived rivalries, other matches had people shaking their heads in bemusement. The Western Bulldogs V Rochmond match was one such. The Bulldogs are definitely rivals, but only in the sense that every team is a rival. The whole round was an AFL marketing exercise that was trying to sell a few extra tickets. I suppose there had been a few incidents in recent times that gave some spice to the match. The king hit by Tony Liberatore on Richmond champion Matthew Knights Rd 2 2001 was one incident, but Libba was suspended for 5 weeks following the hit and the Tigers took revenge by winning the return game later in the season, besides it was 4 years ago and neither Libba or Knighta are still playing, ironically the man coaching the Bulldogs that day; Terry Wallace, is now Richmond's coach. The defection of Nathan Brown from the Dogs to the Tigers at the end of the 2003 season was another thing I am sure people pointed to as was the fact that Terry Wallace, once a Bulldog coach was now a Tiger coach.

The start of the game encapsulated many of the things that Tiger followers had wanted to see from a Terry Wallace coached Richmond, hard running through the middle of the ground, long kicking to the power forward Matthew Richardson, crumbing from Krakouer and the silky skills of Nathan Brown. Interestingly something else that added a little extra drama to the matchup was that Richmond captain Kane Johnson was out due to a heel injury, this gave Andrew Raines his first run in the seniors for 2005, and as a result Nathan Brown was captaining Richmond for the first time against his old side. After a strong early showing from the Tigers, the Bulldogs went into 'flood mode' and the scoring opportunities dried up. Richmond took a slender lead into the 2nd quarter.

The game turned into an arm wrestle during the second term with neither side really able to gain an ascendancy. The Dogs managed to grab the lead back. The dominant Matthew Richardson was still trying manfully for the Tigers and Nathan Brown was winning his ongoing battle with the pro Bulldogs crowd. The loss of Brent Hartigan to a hamstring injury had hurt the Tiger midfield as the youngster had been best on ground until his hamstring twanged.

The third quarter saw the Dogs get on top well and truly and they shot out to a 19 point lead. If the Tigers did not stand up they were going to blown out of this game. Matthew Richardson stood up and some hard run through the midfield by emerging players Shane Tuck and Chris Hyde along with some steady defence from the rocklike Darren Gaspar and the creative Joel Bowden got the Tigers back into the game.

The last quarter was going to be interesting. The Bulldogs had their opportunities early, but could not kick goals and this game was never going to be won by kicking points. Richmond worked their way back into it and the lead seesawed. In a tense final 15 minutes the lead went back and forth until Wayne Campbell got a free on the boundary possibly too far out to score. Young Bulldog Cameron Faulkner made the fatal mistake of walking across the man on the mark and Campbell was awarded a 50 metre penalty which made the goal a formality. A 4 point lead with less than 3 minutes to go forced the Bulldogs to try and score maximum points quickly and the Tigers defended frantically. The siren went and Richmond celebrated. Two wins in a row! The Tigers are roaring and they're in the 8!

Player ratings:

2. Darren Gaspar: defenders don't often get noticed. Gaspar has well and truly returned from the knee injury and was the dominant defender today. Earned praise from commentators and team mates alike. Back on the way to all All Australian selection.

3. Brett Deledio: the rookie sensation played a different role off half back for much of the game, although he moved forward in the last quarter. Has a cool head and very safe hands. I look forward to seeing many more games from him.

4. Andrew Raines: the son of the Premiership centreman was not meant to play this game. Only Kane Johnson's omission due to injury allowed it. He didn't get a lot of game time, but what he got he made count and showed that this won't be the last time he plays seniors this year.

5. Troy Simmonds: in and out of play, for a big man he doesn't mark the ball often enough and we still expect a lot more of this player.

6. Mark Chaffey: struggles with pace, but never stops trying and he does occasionally produce a strong mark and is useful in small bursts.

7. Nathan Brown: captaining for the first time was very close to best on ground. 3 goals made him well worth his money.

9. Wayne Campbell: in games like this experience counts. Was calm when he needed to be and did kick the goal that won the match.

10. Greg Stafford: great focal marking point around the ground, his efforts in the frantic final minutes had a lot to do with the victory. Game time was limited due to a shoulder complaint.

11. Joel Bowden: so cool and creative off half back, picked up a stack of possessions and drove the side into attack frequently.

12. Matthew Richardson: if 15 marks, 16 kicks and 4 goals isn't a best on ground effort I don't know what is. over four quarters he was the Tigers best and there was no way they would have won this game without him.

13. Trent Knobel: he's still big, ungainly and slow, but he's a big body at the centre bounces who can slap it out and really work his opponent over. I'm beginning to see why he was picked up in the pre season draft.

15. Kayne Pettifer: no multiple goal heroics today, but he still did well. Has added a little physical side to his game that has been missing before.

21. Shane Tuck: one of the emerging midfielders for Richmond. He's hard, tough, fair and is able to find options where there don't seem to be any.

23. Daniel Jackson: has been disappointing in the first 2 rounds, this week given more game time and thrown into the middle he was good. Makes mistakes, but doesn't drop his head and always does the one percenters.

24. Mark Coughlan: gets better and better with each game. He's making his way back and on track. Speed, strength and dispoal are improving week by week, by the middle of the season he'll be back to his brilliant best. In the meantime he's earning his spot.

27. Andrew Krakouer: in what seems to be becoming a habit Krakouer kicked the opening goal for Richmond, as often seems to be with the young goal sneak it was a miracle goal. This week he was in the play for most of the game, struggles to keep pace for the entire game, but it was pleasing to see that he did not go missing after the first quarter and picked up 18 possessions.

31. Chris Hyde: along with Tuck and Coughlan making up the Richmond engine room, he was tireless and worked hard all day, beat his opponent and got 29 possessions, most of which he made count. An eye catching performance.

33. Brent Hartigan: the hardluck story of the day. Effortlessly gathered 12 possessions in the first quarter in the middle and was eyeing off a best on ground performance until his hamstring went and condemned him to at least 2 weeks on the sidelines.

34. Mark Graham: used sparingly and took a few marks. Not really noticeable overall.

35. Chris Newman: took the majority of the kick outs and had an enthralling battle with the dangerous Bulldog Brad Johnson. Although Johnson probably took the honours Chris Newman showed why so many observers rate him highly.

39. Andrew Kellaway: not really noticed often, but looking at how many marks he takes, how many opposition forward thrusts he blunts you really wonder why. He's slow and awkward, but the side would suffer without his courageous and reassuring presence in the backline.