Tom Lynch celebrates one of his five goals for Richmond. Photo: AFL MEDIA
They struggled. They wobbled. And briefly, Richmond looked in all sorts of trouble. But this time, just when another big preliminary final upset was brewing, the Tigers found something.
The result, of course, is another grand final appearance for, by anyone’s measure, the most consistently good team of the past three years.
Can they convert that into a second premiership in that period? That will be a bigger test still. But the manner in which Richmond recovered its poise in its eventual 19-point win over Geelong suggests this is more mature and composed bunch of players than those previous versions.
A 21-point half-time deficit in a match to determine a grand final spot is no small thing. But after being shown the way by a Geelong team which stole the initiative, right from the first seconds of the second half, a different Richmond re-emerged.
The tone was set at the very first bounce of the third quarter, when Tiger skipper, who’d been hobbled early by a leg injury, threw himself at Geelong ruckman Rhys Stanley, taking down the big man, the ball spilling to Josh Caddy, who found Dion Prestia, whose pass hit a dangerous Tom Lynch squarely on the chest.
Lynch converted his third goal of the evening, the margin shrunk to only 15 points, and the Tigers would add another four without reply, and in total, eight goals to two for the second half.
The momentum was irresistible by the end, the Cats still clinging on for dear life and the result only confirmed with about five minutes to play, but still a sense of inevitability lingering over much of the last term.
Lynch would finish with five goals, exactly the sort of dominant goal-kicking key forward the Cats so sorely missed. Prestia was superb, as, really, he has been the whole season. And Bachar Houli played another huge game off half-back, just as good, if not better, than his effort in the 2017 grand final against Adelaide.
It was a turnaround of massive proportions, but at the same time not one accompanied by any sort of good fortune. The Tigers simply wrenched the initiative back with their bare hands.
And they’d needed to after Geelong had made much of the early running.
So cleanly and so easily did Richmond score its first three goals you couldn’t be blamed for foreshadowing the sort of one-sided affair many had tipped after the suspension of Geelong key forward Tom Hawkins.
Gary Ablett put the first on the board for Geelong, but the Tigers’ response was lethal, three goals coming in under three minutes around the 10-minute mark of the first term.
A long ball from Daniel Rioli found Dustin Martin in plenty of room and he predictably beat Mark Blicavs in a one-on-one markind duel only 20 metres out.
Next Richmond attack saw Tom Lynch cleverly work Harry Taylor under the ball, mark and convert. And the next goal came with ridiculous ease just a minute later, Toby Nankervis winning the ruck tap, Dion Prestia thumping the ball into the teeth of goal, Lynch reaping the benefits in the goal square.
The Tigers led by only 13 points but the Cats already looked in trouble. Their response to that couldn’t have been more emphatic. Geelong would kick the next five goals of the game, and six of the seven which came before half-time.
The revival started uneventfully enough, a snap from the busy Tim Kelly after a handball from Luke Dahlhaus bring the gap back to eight points. Kelly’s energy and nine first-quarter disposals were keeping the Cats in it.
But even more so was the effervescence of small forward Gryan Miers. He had the next after some excellent defensive pressure by the Cats inside the forward 50 saw Jayden Short under pressure trying to clear the lines but instead landing the ball in Miers’ lap. Miers kicked the next, too, after a beautifully weighted pass from Quinton Narkle, and suddenly, Geelong was up by a goal.
That wasn’t Richmond’s only concern. Jack Graham had hurt his shoulder badly and was off the ground for some time, emerging perhaps surprisingly later with the joint heavily strapped and his efforts heavily compromised.
Geelong had enjoyed 11 of 12 inside 50 entries in the back half of the quarter. And that dominance continued in the second term, also, the Cats winning the first centre clearance, and Miers brilliant again, his handball finding Kelly and the lead extended to two goals within 22 seconds.
The first signs of life for Richmond in quite a while came from a missed snap by Shai Bolton then a very uncharacteristic miss from Dustin Martin, who seemed to be having an unusual amount of trouble hitting his targets for once, the champion also managinghe free to land an unpressured kick into goal into Cat defender Tom Stewart’s clutches.
But Richmond was at least starting to get its hands on the football again. And with a bit over two minutes left in the half, Jason Castagna pulled the difference back to 14 points.
The Tigers had a taste for it, the massive upset at the hands of Collingwood in this same game last year no doubt reverberating silently around the sub-conscious. Just as well, because the free kick and 50-metre penalty conceded to Patrick Dangerfield right on half-time, which meant another “gimme” Geelong goal, could otherwise have been a killer.
But Cotchin’s captain’s effort right after half-time really was a game-changer. It was the Tigers who dominated the key stats thereafter. It was they who kicked the big goals at the big moments.
And it was that renowned feverish pressure which forced the opposition into error and hesitancy. Geelong had played on at every opportunity to great effect in the first half. It simply wasn’t allowed to after half-time, and even senior Cats began to second-guess teammates and think twice when there was no time to.
Technically, they were still a chance until Dion Prestia’s snap from 40 metres out with only five minutes 17 seconds left made the margin 18 points with the ball camped almost permanently in the Tiger forward line.
But this Richmond team at its pressure-packed best is like a tidal wave of momentum opponents can resist only so long. The Cats succumbed eventually last night. Right now, you wouldn’t like the chances of either Collingwood or the Giants being able to resist it long enough either.
RICHMOND 3.3 4.5 9.7 12.13 (85)
GEELONG 4.3 7.8 8.9 9.12 (66)
GOALS – Richmond: Lynch 5, Martin 2, Castagna 2, Prestia 2, Lambert. Geelong: Kelly 3, Miers 2, Ablett, Narkle, Dangerfield, Henderson.
BEST – Richmond: Lynch, Houli, Prestia, Martin, Edwards, Cotchin, Ellis. Geelong: Kelly, Selwood, Dangerfield, O’Connor, Stanley, Miers, Tuohy.
INJURIES – Richmond: Graham (shoulder), Broad (concussion). Geelong: Nil
UMPIRES: Nicholls, Chamberlain, Ryan
CROWD: 94,423 at the MCG
