Richmond as premiers in 2017 (top), 2018 preliminary final losers (bottom left) and this season against GWS in round 17.
1 .How will history will look back on this Richmond era?
We know that Meatloaf remains a somewhat touchy subject in AFL circles, but the American rocker’s claim that “two outta three ain’t bad” could easily be applied to Damien Hardwick’s Tigers.
If they claim a second flag in the space of three seasons – and redress last year’s preliminary final nightmare in the process – then these Tigers will rightly be held up as one of modern football’s great sides.
If they miss out, then it could be seen as a wasted opportunity, akin to the one Essendon let slip at the turn of the century.
Under legendary coach Kevin Sheedy, the Bombers claimed three straight minor premierships from 1999-2001.
They won 56 of 66 home-and-away matches (85%) and famously stormed through the 2000 regular season, losing just one game (to the Western Bulldogs after 20 consecutive wins).
Their finals record wasn’t bad, either: six wins from eight finals during that period. But that fabled Essendon team is defined as much by its losses as it is by its wins.
The heartbreaking 1999 preliminary final defeat to arch rival Carlton preceded the record-breaking 2000 campaign, and the curtain was brought down in the 2001 grand final by a Brisbane side at the beginning of its “three-peat” under Leigh Matthews.
Richmond’s numbers aren’t quite as impressive. It has claimed one minor premiership over the last three seasons – but was just half a game away in 2017, and only percentage kept it from top spot this year.
The Tigers’ home-and-away record is 49-17 (74%) in that period and its finals record leading into the 2019 decider is 6-1.
Right now, the grand final win over Adelaide and preliminary final defeat to Collingwood have Richmond’s reputation hanging in the balance.
Victory over Greater Western Sydney would put history on the Tigers’ side.
2. A year after his high-profile move to GWS, Brett Deledio couldn’t bring himself to watch his former teammates attempt to break the Tigers’ premiership drought.
The man who starred over 12 seasons at Richmond spent grand final day in 2017 doing everything he could to avoid the broadcast.
This year, the latest in a long list of calf injuries has ruined Deledio’s chance at writing a fairytale ending to his career.
The 275-game stalwart returned from a three-week layoff for the elimination final against the Western Bulldogs, but failed to see out the game as the troublesome muscle played up again.
He sat forlornly on the bench and waved goodbye to Giants fans post-match in the knowledge it would most likely be his final farewell.
Result pending, Deledio may well miss out on a flag for a second time, and he won’t be the only one thinking what might have been.
Giants stalwarts Callan Ward and Stephen Coniglio – a pair of warriors as committed to the expansion club’s cause as anyone else over the journey – will both miss through injury.
Ward has been out for most of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. If anyone deserved to be there on grand final day, it was probably the Giants’ co-captain and games record holder.
Coniglio has failed in a bid to overcome his own knee issue, which has kept him sidelined since the Giants last met Richmond, in round 17.
There are also stars who left of their own accord – much like Deledio almost three years ago. Whether they watch their former teammates in action on Saturday or not remains to be seen.
Dylan Shiel and Devon Smith made their own beds when they left GWS for seemingly greener pastures at Essendon in recent years.
Injury ravaged Tom Scully is at Hawthorn and Adam Treloar has been at Collingwood for some time now. He was on the losing side in the preliminary final. WA duo Nathan Wilson and Rory Lobb returned home to Fremantle in recent seasons.
3. There are no shortage of heartbreak and “nearly-was” stories this year. Like GWS, Richmond has plenty.
And at the top of the list is Jack Graham.
The young star, pivotal in the flag two years ago when he stood up in his fifth AFL game against childhood idol Rory Sloane, is out with a shoulder injury.
Reports say he dislocated the shoulder five times in the preliminary final but played through the pain to help the Tigers stage an irrepressible comeback.
There’s Jack Higgins – the loveable lad who played 20 games in his debut season last year and featured in the first 13 this season before a brain bleed brought his progress to a screeching halt.
Naturally, football took a back seat at that point. But it won’t stop the 20-year-old crossing his fingers in the hope another opportunity knocks for the Tigers once he returns to the fray.
Sydney Stack was a sneaky Rising Star chance at one point. He was overlooked at last year’s draft and picked up late by the Tigers, and broke into the senior team in round three.
The West Australian teenager, clearly talented but with a troubled past, quickly became a cult hero at Punt Road with a serious of energetic and eye-catching performances. But a syndesmosis injury ultimately killed his dream of a premiership in his first year.
But that has also paved the way for an incredible grand final selection story, with former South Fremantle star Marlion Pickett set to become the first player since 1952 to make his AFL/VFL debut in a grand final.
The Tigers last Sunday pulled Jack Ross and Kamdyn McIntosh out of their line-up for the VFL grand final team. McIntosh played in the flag two years ago, and he and seven-gamer Ross seemed then to be the obvious replacements for Jack Graham.
But Pickett, meanwhile, won the Norm Goss Medal in the Tigers’ VFL premiership win over Williamstown on the same day that his old side South Fremantle was trounced by Subiaco to the tune of 96 points in the WAFL decider.
That has inspired Richmond to roll the dice with him for Saturday, making him only the sixth player in VFL/AFL history to debut in the big one. The others were Harry Prout (Essendon 1908), Bill James (Richmond 1920), George Rawle (Essendon 1923), Frank Vine (Melbourne 1926) and Collingwood’s Keith Batchelor in 1952.
By the way, that South Fremantle grand final smashing we just mentioned did bring two key points into sharp focus. Firstly, that the WAFL needs to find more effective equalisation measures after Subiaco’s dominance of the competition continued.
Secondly, that the AFL needs to better compensate state league teams who lose star players via the mid-season draft. Both should be major talking points behind the scenes in the off-season.
But we digress, and it seems we’ve forgotten someone.
In many ways, he’s become the forgotten man since his bid for a remarkable finals comeback was put on ice a few weeks back.
It’s Alex Rance – the man some claim to be the greatest defender of all-time.
The All-Australian full-back wrecked his knee in round one in an incident that left most of us scratching our heads trying to work out how on earth Richmond could get to the last Saturday in September after that.
It seems “system” really does get the job done.
4. It is no Winx or Black Caviar, but Richmond is a red-hot favourite heading into the grand final.
Fair enough, too, given it is on the verge of matching a club-record winning streak after surging through the back half of the season unbeaten.
The Tigers have won all 11 games since the bye, by an average margin of 34.7 points, and have enjoyed a smoother run through September to the grand final.
Whether or not playing two matches in five weeks leading into the decider – courtesy of the contentious pre-finals bye and a win in week one – has a negative effect remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, the Tigers ($1.38) are the TAB’s shortest priced grand final favourites in more than a decade, since Geelong way back in 2008.
We all know what happened to Mark Thompson’s Cats on that warm September day.
Underdogs have won last three grand finals and five of the last seven. The overall record with the TAB is a narrow 13-11 in the favourites’ advantage. Read into that what you will as the $3.30 Giants look to extend the underdogs’ recent run.
Also, gamble responsibly.
But back to that Richmond winning streak. The club record stands at 12 straight wins, set way back in 1932-33 as Jack Dyer led the Tigers through a glorious era in the club’s history. Richmond will equal that mark if it can overcome GWS on Saturday.
5. In reaching its first grand final, GWS has finally shed the disparaging “Ferrari” tag that has haunted it in recent seasons.
In fact, not only has it rid itself of the label, it has shattered it.
Leon Cameron’s side has been more like an army tank than prancing horse during its charge to the season decider, firing in all directions despite missing a few of its big guns.
But if you believe in omens, we might just stick to the Ferrari theme for one more week.
German driver Sebastian Vettel’s win at the Singapore Grand Prix could be a sign from the sporting gods. Ferrari saluted with Vettel and teammate Charles Leclerc finishing one-two.
Renault, the striking yellow-and-black team spearheaded by Daniel Ricciardo, didn’t finish anywhere near the podium, Niko Hulkenberg ninth and Ricciardo 14th.
A sign of things to come? Almost certainly not. But at this time of year, some fans will take any sort of omen they can get.
Incidentally, Ricciardo, a mad West Coast fan from Perth’s northern suburbs, welcomed Richmond fans on to his bandwagon when he switched to Renault.
The move was met by ridiculous, yet sadly not unexpected questions from local media around tenuous links to AFL football (like the colours of cars and footy clubs) when Ricciardo fronted up for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in March this year.
“If I see Richmond jerseys around Albert Park on the weekend, I will look to them as my friends,” Ricciardo said at the time (politely).
