Australian Football

Match Report

After being on the end of a good ‘going over’ at the hands of the Crows last week, the Tigers were keen to get back on the right track and show, like last year, that a setback in Adelaide wasn’t necessarily a season-defining experience. Their opponent this week, Hawthorn, is rebuilding, as is widely understood, but two impressive wins in the first two rounds signalled that said rebuilding may be starting to bear fruit early. Facing the reigning premiers on the rebound would be a good test of that theory. Anticipating a good contest, a record crowd between the two clubs of 70,701 turned out on the day.

The weather did the Hawks no favours. The day was hot and sunny, perfect for football, but sure to test a club coming off a six-day break, as against the Tigers ten days. Such are the vagaries of the AFL fixture.

The game opened with intent and while the Hawks looked up to the challenge, it was one of the Richmond small forward brigade, Jason Castagna, who posted the first goal of the game two minutes in after being awarded a 50-metre penalty, the second of the match. Hawthorn captain Jarryd Roughead got one back a few minutes later after some [Cyril] Rioli magic but it was the Tigers that held the upper hand through most of the first quarter. Goals to Shane Edwards and Sam Lloyd, on his return to the senior side, further consolidated the lead, but a counter strike from Luke Breust keep the Hawks in it. The game was still tight going into the first break, but late majors from Toby Nankervis, from his shin after a Dusty handball, and Jack Riewoldt, from a brilliant grab out of the ruck, lifted the lead to 17 points at the change.

An early second quarter goal to Kamdyn McIntosh stretched the lead to four goals and it was looking like the Tigers could gain a stranglehold on the game, but to Hawthorn’s credit, at each stage when their opponents looked like doing so, the Hawkers fought back. Two goals to power dynamo Paul Puopolo, interspersed by the first goal from Tiger debutant Jack Higgins, kept things interesting. A plethora of behinds followed and it wasn’t until late in the half that Castagna broke through again, only to be countered again by Breust. The Tigers went into the long break with a 19-point lead, comfortable but by no means unassailable given the Hawks tenacity.

The second half opened well for the Hawks with Roughead marking strongly over Alex Rance and goaling. But from then, notwithstanding a nice roving goal from the ever-dangerous Rioli, it was Richmond’s quarter, so much so that the lead was extended to a game-high 33 points at the final break. Two early goals from Jack Riewoldt set the tone, the first from an over the top handball after a series of passing by hand and foot, and the second from a set shot after a well-anticipated intercept mark. A straight shot from Shaun Grigg followed and thereafter play seesawed between opposing forward lines without either side registering a major. The stalemate was broken by a flying soccer snap from the jubilant Higgins to complete his second debut ‘snag’, as he later put it. It was the final score of the term.

An early running goal from Castagna early in the fourth put the Tigers 39 point ahead, the result seemed beyond all doubt. Hawthorn had other ideas. Slowly but surely they worked their way back into the game, never quite to the extent of genuinely pushing for a win, but enough to put a shock through the Tiger camp, not to mention gain respectability for themselves. The Hawthorn comeback started through a Roughead goal, and although small Tiger forward, Dan Butler responded brilliantly through a flying back hell goal, from that point on Hawthorn piled on five goals to one.

Majors came from prolific ball winner Tom Mitchell, from a long bomb, Roughead, for his fourth, also from outside 50, as well as from Puopolo, Breust, and O’Meara, but it was a Riewoldt goal from a strong mark in the midst of the goal onslaught that was perhaps the most important because it stemmed the flow and gave the Tigers some respite, which in the end was what they needed to get home, by 13 points. All credit to Hawthorn for the feisty way in which they finished off the game.

Trent Cotchin and Alex Rance were two standards for Richmond, while Reece Conca, Bachar Houli, and Nick Vlastin were strong contributors. For the Hawks, Tom Mitchell continued his good form, while Ben McEvoy, Isaac Smith, and Jarryd Roughead were very good.

Though disappointed with the way his team played out the game, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said, "where we had to defend hard and fast, I thought we did that really, really well…overall, I was pretty happy with our endeavour in and around the contest, which was much improved over last week.

"We've still got a little bit of work to do in that area of our game though, which is another exciting prospect for me to get us better."

His Hawk counterpart Alastair Clarkson was proud of his players' efforts to come home hard after being well beaten. "We fell a bit short, particularly early, but we're really pleased that we ran the game out. That should give us a bit of hope," he said.

Next week Richmond take on the Brisbane Lions at the MCG, while Hawthorn confronts Melbourne on the same ground the following day.

GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 4; Castagna 3; Higgins 2; Grigg, Edwards, Nankervis, Lloyd, McIntosh, Butler
Hawthorn: Roughead 4; Puopolo, Breust 3; Rioli, Mitchell, O'Meara

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Richmond: Cotchin, Conca, Houli, Vlastuin, Rance, Martin
Hawthorn: Mitchell, McEvoy, Smith, Roughead, Gunston

BEST - THE AGE
Richmond: Rance, Cotchin, Riewoldt, Houli, Conca, Martin
Hawthorn: Mitchell, McEvoy, Roughead, Smith

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
Hawthorn: Nil

UMPIRES: Fisher, Rosebury, Hosking 

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Eddie McGuire, Anthony Hudson, Brad Johnson, Garry Lyon, David King