Senior Tigers Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin and Dion Prestia lap up the final moments of the grand final. Photo: GETTY IMAGES

In the end, Richmond won its second AFL premiership in three years in the same manner it has won most of its victories over that period; with fierce desire and with ruthless efficiency.

The Tigers’ 12th flag was a complete rout. Their 89-point demolition of Greater Western Sydney was the third highest winning margin in grand final history. The Giants’ paltry 3.7 (25) was the equal sixth-lowest score.

And frankly, it was a result which was always on the cards. As much as people wanted to create a narrative of two teams going hammer and tongs and down to the wire, the pointers were more ominous.

The Giants had come from sixth place on the ladder to make their first grand final, following two heart-stopping wins on the road. When it came to the crunch, GWS didn’t have a lot of petrol left in the tank.

But, really, how many other teams, even better prepared, would have been able to match Richmond in a game that not only would give the Tigers some sort of payback for letting a big chance slip last year, but vindicate a superb three years of football?

This was Richmond’s 12th victory in a row. It was a 56th victory from the Tigers’ last 74 games a strike rate of nearly 76 per cent. This win could very well have been the third leg of a premiership treble but for a surprising stumble on preliminary final night last year.

And that little gnawing away of regret seemed to inform much of Richmond’s play in the game that mattered most.

They were tough, they were relentless, they gave GWS nary an inch of room. But once the Tigers got on top, they were also intent on showing they could play attractive, skilful football with the best of them.

First, though, there was an opponent to be ground down. Given the physical nature of the Giants’ earlier finals victories, Richmond needed to show, at least symbolically, who was boss early on.

And it did that in general play, if not on the scoreboard. Twenty minutes after the opening bounce, the 2019 grand final was still searching for its first goal.

Not that there was any shortage of action. Jack Riewoldt took what appeared to be a huge grab within the first minute but wasn’t smiled upon by the umpires.

And the Tigers’ intent was apparent very early, skipper Trent Cotchin wrapping up the much larger Shane Mumford in a crunching tackle, Jason Castagna heading goalward on a jinking run, Richmond with six forward entries before the Giants had registered any more than one.

GWS was hardly gun shy, but at times just a little too tentative, Zac Williams marking on 50 but refusing to back himself to make the journey, his intended pass intercepted by an eager Richmond defence.

The Giants did manage the first goal of the game. It was a cracker, too, Jeremy Cameron, reprising his monster efforts of last week, putting his side on the board from outside 50 on an angle.

But the Tigers hit back quickly. And hard. Dustin Martin opened their account after Kane Lambert nailed Lachie Whitfield in a tackle.

And right on quarter-time came a pivotal moment, Daniel Rioli streaming towards goal and letting fly, his shot getting home from right on 50 just as the siren rang. That was to prove just an appetiser.

Harry Himmelberg missed an early opportunity for GWS as the second term began. The Giants weren’t in a position to afford such largesse. And they’d soon pay for it.

Riewoldt, warming to his task, made the most of some early contact by direct opponent Phil Davis and was awarded a softish free kick. He converted.

Debutant Marlion Pickett was already making a big enough impact, and a beautiful spin out of a centre bounce set up Castagna, who missed. Giant Aidan Corr, under heat from Daniel Rioli kicked across the face of his defensive goal and out on-the-full.

And within a couple of minutes the margin had blown out to 26 points. First, Martin stayed back as Sam Taylor attacked an awkwardly bouncing ball near goal. The gamble paid off, Martin swung on to his right and dribbled through his second goal.

An even more deflating moment would follow for the Giants, when Adam Tomlinson was nailed in another crunching Richmond tackle, this one by Bachar Houli. Rioli’s subsequent pass hit Tom Lynch firmly on the chest, and it was five goals to one.

It would get even worse for GWS with Riewoldt’s second and third goals, first marking in front of Davis, then managing to bump even Shane Mumford’s hefty frame out of the way for another grab, duly converted for three goals in the term.

It was a 35-point gap come half-time, a deficit the size of which had only ever been overhauled once in grand final history. And even Carlton back in 1970 had at least managed more than a solitary goal in the first half.

Any signs of a comeback were going to have to be shown immediately. They weren’t. In fact, the longer it went, the more the Giants came apart at the seams, the Tigers’ capacity to force the turnover and score from it never more apparent.

Lynch made it 42 points five minutes into the second half thanks to an ill-advised look-away handball from Brent Daniels, duly turned over, the prolific Dion Prestia finding the spearhead on a good lead.

Martin had his third goal when Jeremy Cameron’s attempted centre for GWS was intercepted by Shai Bolton with predictable consequences.

And arguably the loudest roar of the entire day came when Pickett, having set up Martin for another goal, somehow managed to drift into 40-odd metres of space, his deadeye shot greeted by the sight of virtually every new Tiger teammate getting around him.

This was some debut, the 27-year-old finishing with 22 disposals. Unlike Richmond’s other grand final debutant, Billy James back in 1920, you can back it in Pickett will be playing a lot more than one solitary game.

Lambert made it a 10-goal gap before finally, finally, GWS put its second goal on the board, Jacob Hopper snapping from 25 metres out just on 25 minutes into the third term. That was effectively two quarters on from the first.

This was a pretty tough afternoon for a club which can still look back on this season with a sense of accomplishment, but will find it hard to forget the extent of its humiliation on the biggest stage.

So what was left to play for come the final term? Well, pride, some honours, like a Norm Smith Medal, and for moments the Tigers knew would never be forgotten.

From that point of view, it was pretty appropriate that, as Richmond added another five goals, the last four came from most of the club’s spiritual leaders, two to Jack Riewoldt, one to skipper Trent Cotchin and Martin’s fourth.

By then, Martin was a shoo-in for his second Norm Smith Medal, becoming only the fourth player to win two of them, alongside Gary Ayres, Andrew McLeod and Luke Hodge.

That’s pretty illustrious company. And a 12th premiership puts Richmond equal with its MCG co-tennant Melbourne, behind only old foes Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood, and a latter-day power in Hawthorn.

They’ve always been a loud, boisterous club, Richmond. And now that several decades worth of barren years are behind them and what is becoming a golden era continues without any sign of abating, they’re going to get a lot louder still.

RICHMOND 2.3 7.5 12.9 17.12 (114)
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY 1.2 1.6 2.7 3.7 (29)

GOALS – Richmond: Riewoldt 5, Martin 4, Lynch 2, Rioli, Soldo, Pickett, Lambert, Bolton, Cotchin. Greater Western Sydney: Cameron, Hopper, Himmelberg

BEST – Richmond: Martin, Riewoldt, Prestia, Pickett, Edwards, Vlastuin, Houli. Greater Western Sydney: Taranto, Shaw, Haynes, Hopper, Williams.

INJURIES – Richmond: Nil. Greater Western Sydney: Nil

UMPIRES: Stevic, Ryan, Chamberlain.

CROWD: 100,014 at the MCG.