RICHMOND had done pretty much everything right come half-time of yesterday's clash with Geelong. Hard at it, daring, confident, the Tigers had well and truly earned their six-point lead.
Still, there remained the suspicion the Cats could at any time stir from their relatively subdued state. And it took only 10 or so minutes of the second half for those lingering doubts not only to be confirmed, but underlined in bold and highlighted with a large, flashing neon sign.
It wasn't just the three goals Geelong kicked in that little vignette, but the way it went about restoring the natural order of things that reminded everyone present, particularly their determined enough but ultimately ill-equipped opponent, that it was going to take something above and beyond the ordinary to knock this champ from its perch.
It was two of the Cats' most subdued stars who started what would become a seven-goals-to-one term.
Key Cats midfielder Joel Corey had been well and truly thwarted by Tiger Shane Tuck. As the third term started, he became a running half-back, opposed to first-gamer Trent Cotchin. The kid had been highly impressive, but he found Corey a handful, the experienced Cat picking up half-a-dozen touches in the first eight minutes after the entire first half had yielded only four.
Cameron Ling, too, had found the going difficult opposed to Tiger gun Nathan Foley, who had just on a dozen touches to half-time to Ling's seven. But the transformation of his afternoon was just as swift.
Geelong won the first clearance of the third quarter. The ball was wrestled to the boundary line, deep in the Cats' forward pocket, where Ling promptly took possession, and snapped a beautiful goal only 32 seconds into the new half. It was the start of, in the context of the soggy conditions and difficulty in scoring, a very big roll.
First came Paul Chapman's goal, Geelong now with the lead for the first time. Then, a couple of minutes later, a lovely snap from Gary Ablett. Returned Tiger Joel Bowden bombed one from a fair distance, only for the Cats to respond with another four unanswered goals, Cameron Mooney marking strongly, Ling booting another, Darren Milburn and finally Chapman, right on the stroke of three-quarter-time, turning what had been a neck-and-neck contest into a bit of a rout.
By then, it was 19 inside-50s to seven for the quarter. Foley and Richmond skipper Kane Johnson, prolific early, had been held to only half-a-dozen possessions between them. In contrast, Ling had 10 for the term and two goals, Corey eight, Chapman 10 touches and two goals also. And so on.
As the stranglehold tightened, Richmond's admirable steeliness and discipline became unstuck. Chapman's first goal of the quarter came from a silly 50-metre penalty conceded by Jake King. Milburn's followed a shocking clanger from Johnson, who miskicked a ball in dangerous territory out-of-bounds on-the-full. And so on.
It wasn't a complete unravelling. In fact, the Tigers would outscore Geelong in the final term, the eventual 30-point margin not nearly as embarrassing as what others have copped at the Cats' hands.
But it was a convincing loss and, given the way the Tigers began yesterday, particularly galling. Richmond has inwardly seethed about its gallant loser status of the past few weeks, and early on, it showed, the Tigers with two goals on the board within the first five minutes.
First, late inclusion Cotchin joined that "select" band of several hundred debutants to goal with their first kick in AFL football, front and centre at the foot of a pack near goal, collecting the crumbs and bouncing it through. Less than two minutes later, Brett Deledio and Nathan Brown raced to soccer the ball off the ground in the goal square. Another goal, momentum high, and the Tiger crowd was roaring.
Chapman kicked Geelong's first from a strong mark 25 metres out, then Deledio scored Richmond's third with the sort of incident that makes wet-weather football a lucky dip. The Tiger forward snapped from near the boundary. Even a full-back as accomplished as Matthew Scarlett was made to look a bit of a duffer, failing to move forward to smother the bounce a few metres in front of him, watching in horror as the ball took off after hitting the deck, right over his head and through the goals.
Goals early in the second term to Matthew Richardson and Shane Edwards made it 20 points the difference, and when James Kelly managed to hit the post from 20-odd metres, you could have concluded it was going to be one of those days for the Cats. Another tough, efficient and emphatic victory by this class act later, we'd realised again that we should have known better.
RICHMOND 3.2 5.4 6.7 10.9 (69)
GOALS Geelong: Chapman 4, Gamble 2, Ling 2, Ablett, Hawkins, Milburn, Mooney, Selwood, Wojcinski. Richmond: Bowden 2, Cotchin 2, Deledio 2, Edwards, McMahon, Richardson, Tambling.
BEST Geelong: Ablett, Chapman, Mooney, Kelly, Ling, Blake. Richmond: Richardson, Tuck, Deledio, Cotchin.
Umpires: McLaren, Head, Mollison.
Crowd: 37,275 at MCG.
THE UPSHOT
Geelong's stunning third quarter, in the wet, again proved the
premier has the ability to step up several gears when it chooses.
Richmond threw everything at the Cats and held a six-point lead at
the main break, but seven goals to one in the third term was a show
of pure Cats class, despite the soggy conditions.
TALKING POINT
The debut efforts of last year's No. 2 draft pick, Trent
Cotchin — 16 disposals and two goals — will have pleased
more than just the 18-year-old, the coach and the club. Richmond
supporters truly had something to smile about yesterday, despite
the 30-point loss.
HOT AND COLD
On a dark, damp and windswept day at the MCG, Gary Ablett
(above) returned from a week on the sidelines with another dominant
performance in the Cats' midfield. He had 27 damaging touches for
the afternoon and regularly shook off opponents and burst through
stoppages to send his team deep into attack.
Keep up to date with the latest AFL news.