Round 11 - Taking care of business

I managed to get along to this week’s game, and it was worth sitting in the freezing cold. The Kangaroos are pretty down at the moment, and it was blatantly obvious that they were a team that was lacking confidence. The could have been 10 separate occassions where a kick or a handball went directly to the chest of a Richmond player. The Kangaroos picked us out and drilled it to us. The only player of any merit in the Kangaroos side was Nathan Thompson, who was very unlucky not to have kicked 8 goals - he ended up with 5 and hit the post three times.

Richmond badly missed Matthew Richardson. For most of the game we completely lacked any semblance of a marking target in the forward line - Kayne Pettifer was playing at full forward. Although he aquitted himself admirably - kicking 4. Nathan Brown’s return was very encouraging: he looks like he might return to form at some stage late in this year. He managed to get quite a bit of the ball, setting a couple of goals up and kicking two himself.

Joel Bowden has cemented his place in the Fantasy Football sides of any astute player. Richmond has a game plan that says “If you can’t find a player on their own to kick to, kick it backwards to Joel Bowden”. It sounds absurd, but it is exactly what our young, impressionable team needs. They’ve clearly had it drilled into them that rather than panic at any stage, we turn around and kick it to Joel and let him set up our play. Kane Johnson might be the captain, and a great captain he is, but Joelly is our conductor, orchestrating any movement forward.

It wasn’t a pretty win, we’ve played much better this season, and had we played a better side we would almost certainly have been beaten. But from a Tigers supporter’s point of view, these are the wins that almost mean more than any other. The wins we should get. They’ve been the games were the tigers of old have inexplicably let slip. But Terry Wallace is transforming this side. They’re not a premiership side. They’re not even neccessarily likely to make the top eight. But they are beating the teams that they are better than. And that is a sweet relief.

Richmond 15. 12. (102)

def.

Kangaroos 9.13 (67)