Game Detail

Round: 3   Venue: M.C.G   Date: Sat, 14-04-2012 1:45 pm   Attendance: 49,826
Richmond	4.4.28	6.8.44	15.11.101	20.13.133	C:
Melbourne	2.3.15	5.6.36	6.6.42	11.8.74	C:
	RI by 13	RI by 8	RI by 59	RI by 59

Weather

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Match Report

Melbourne’s nightmare start to the season continued when they were thumped by the previously winless Richmond. The Demons were competitive early – even hitting the front in the second term – but once again it was a terrible third quarter that cost them. Richmond piled on 9.3 to the Demons’ 1.0 during that 30 minutes to completely blow the game apart and continue Melbourne’s misery in 2012. The final statistics were highly significant. The Tigers won the uncontested possession count 292-151 and had 100 more handball receives than the lacklustre Demons. Former Carlton player Shaun Grigg starred for the Tigers, finishing with 37 possessions, midfielder Nathan Foley finally looks like he is returning to top form and Trent Cotchin was all class with 22 touches and three goals. Demons co-captain Jack Grimes suffered severe concussion after laying a heavy tackle on Tiger Daniel Jackson and landing on the artificial turf surrounding the fence. A loss would have been disastrous for the Tigers after there was real optimism at Punt Road heading into the season, but a 1-2 record gives fans some genuine hope again.

GOALS:

Richmond: Cotchin, Miller 3, Conca, Nahas, Deledio 2, Maric, Martin, Riewoldt, Houli, Vickery, Grigg, Jackson, Tuck
Melbourne: Clark, Howe, Trengove, Dunn 2, Watts, Jones, Sellar 



BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Richmond: Grigg, Conca, Houli, Deledio, Cotchin, Rance, Martin, Tuck, Nahas
Melbourne: Howe, Jones, McKenzie

BEST - THE AGE
Richmond: Grigg, Tuck, Nahas, Conca, Houli, Cotchin, Foley, Deledio
Melbourne: Howe, Frawley, Jones, Watts, McKenzie

COACHES COMMENTS
Damien Hardwick (Rich): The guys have worked extremely hard over the course of the summer, [we] have worked on a number of things. The thing with Collingwood and Carlton, they are two extremely strong footy sides. There's a couple of other sides that have a draw similar to ours, so we're really happy that the guys got some reward for effort.

Mark Neeld (Melb): We were certainly in the game at half-time … [and] in the last quarter, yeah, I know people will say the sting goes out of the game and the speed goes out of the game … but I thought there was a lot of resolve shown by us in the last quarter to even it [up] on the scoreboard

Umpires: Schmitt, Armstrong, Mitchell 


Player Stats