Australian Football

Match Report

Richmond has stamped itself as the AFL's current force with a dominant win over Grand Final debutants GWS. The awestruck Giants managed to hold on for the best part of a quarter before Richmond's manic intensity and pressure began to take its toll. GWS had managed to kick the opening goal of the Grand Final through a lovely long kick from Jeremy Cameron, but when Dustin Martin marked and kicked the Tigers' first major, it effectively opened up the floodgates, and the Giants were unable to hold back the Tiger tide from that moment on.

A long drop punt from Daniel Rioli right on the quarter-time siren extended Richmond's lead to seven points, and the six-minute break that followed did nothing to halt the flow, which would last until the match's final siren, just before which Jack Riewoldt put an exclamation mark on the contest with a beautiful long goal, his fifth.

Some speculate that the Giants had "played their Grand Final" a week earlier, when they defeated Collingwood by four points in an epic Preliminary Final, but to suggest this as a major factor in this result would be to do a vast injustice to Richmond. While the 'letdown' associated with that win and the emotional and mental uncertainty that comes with playing in a first Grand Final may have played a part in blowing out the margin to 89 points, the Tigers' win was in the large part a result of a highly effective system, talent and unbending will.

Had Collingwood managed to beat GWS a week earlier, the Magpies may have put up a stronger showing than the Giants, but they would have needed to play out of their skins to get anywhere near this Richmond outfit. The Tigers indeed might have preferred to have played off against Collingwood for the flag. It was the Magpies who had unexpectedly ended their 2017 premiership defence in the 2018 Preliminary Final.

While the two sides did not end up crossing paths in September, they did meet in Round 19, and the Tigers won emphatically. That win was Richmond's fifth in a row after their bye round, at which point they sat outside the top eight and were no certainties for the finals. They did not lose again. The Grand Final win over GWS was their twelfth consecutive victory.

And those twelve wins were all achieved without Alex Rance, who many considered vital to Richmond's premiership chances, after he suffered a season-ending ACL injury in the opening round of the season.

As would be expected in an 89-point thumping, the Tigers had many fine players, but none more so than Dustin Martin, who stepped up at all the pivotal moments in the match to stamp his influence on the contest. Those moments included four goals. Martin was rightly presented with the Norm Smith Medal, his second, as best on ground.

Not far behind was Bachar Houli, who consistently repelled GWS attacks and set up attacking moves with his link-up handballs through the middle of the ground. Had it not been for Martin, Houli himself could easily be a dual Norm Smith Medallist.

And Marlion Pickett showed no signs of being overawed by the occasion. Such was his influence and poise, he too was amongst the Norm Smith votes, and his story will long be seen as one of the great Grand Final fairy tales.

Riewoldt's five goals and Dion Prestia's 22 touches also placed them among the Tigers best, but in reality Richmond had no weak links, the Grand Final win very much the result of an even contribution from 22 committed players.

The first 25 minutes of the match gave little indication of the slaughter that would unfold after quarter time. It might have done so had Richmond managed to have something to show for its early dominance on the scoreboard. The Tigers were all over them the Giants in the early stages. Their trademark swarming in attack ensured the Giants couldn't get the ball out of defence. Richmond's work-rate when they did not have the ball ensured GWS had no room to move. It was as if the Tigers knew what the Giants would do with the ball before the Giants themselves did.

As a result, the ball lived almost exclusively in the Tigers front half for the first 15 minutes of the match, but their reward was only three behinds.

From there the Giants began to get some constructive movement going and create some forward opportunities, and it was they who secured the first goal of the match, courtesy of a strong contested mark and lovely long kick from Jeremy Cameron.

A statistical quirk of all AFL Grand Finals since 2014 had been that the first goal of the match had been kicked by the team that ultimately lost. Unfortunately for the Giants, that trend was to continue for a sixth consecutive year.

Having secured the lead, the Giants perhaps might have just relaxed subconsciously in the final three minutes, and that was all Richmond needed to swoop. Continuing their fierce forward line pressure, Kane Lambert dispossessed Lachie Whitfield and Jack Riewoldt collected the loose ball and delivered it to Dustin Martin, who kicked the Tigers' first.

With 17 seconds remaining, Marlion Pickett, the debutant scrambled a kick forward and it was snapped up by Daniel Rioli who kicked a running goal barely a second before the quarter-time siren sounded. Richmond took a seven-point lead into the break, the margin only narrow but the momentum suddenly all with the Tigers.

With the game still in the balance, GWS had an early chance to strike in the second term when Harry Himmelberg, who had been prominent in the first quarter, marked and had a shot at goal. He missed narrowly, and it was to be some time before the Giants would have another clear kick for goal.

Jason Castagna ignited the vastly pro-Richmond crowd with a thrilling sprint but his shot missed. Soon after, Jack Riewoldt kicked his first major after being awarded a dubious free kick. The margin was only 13 points after Riewoldt's goal, but the Tigers were about to 'plant the foot'.

Marlion Pickett, who was looking more and more comfortable on the big stage as the game progressed, executed a brilliant 360-degree blind turn to deliver the ball to Castagna, whose shot hit the post. GWS's attempts to take the ball out of defence were invariably slow and stuttered, and a Tiger avalanche appeared imminent.

Pickett was influential again when his searching kick forward was read brilliantly by Martin, who outmanouevred Sam Taylor and kicked his second goal. The score was 29-9, and the alarm bells were ringing loudly for the Giants. When Rioli found Lynch for another Richmond goal, there was a growing sense of inevitability about the result.

A brief period in which GWS stemmed the Richmond scoring flow, and even had some semblance of control, followed, but it produced only three behinds, through kicks under pressure from Greene and Matt de Boer, and long set shot from Brett Daniels that missed well to the right. As time on unfolded, the Tigers wrested back the advantage in general play, and this translated to Jack Riewioldt's second and third goals of the term. The last of those gave Richmond a 35-point half-time advantage, and the Tigers had one hand firmly on the premiership cup.

For the Giants to have any chance of reeling in the deficit, they needed at least the first goal of the third quarter. It didn't come. Instead, fans were treated to more of the same, the ball living almost permanently in Richmond's forward line in the opening minutes. The Tigers could have nailed the GWS coffin shut in that period, but set shots from Castagna and Lynch were complete 'shanks', failing to score, and Riewoldt missed a long set shot from an angle.

Finally, as the ball continued to be fired inside Richmond's 50, Lynch marked and kicked his second, opening up a seven-goal gap between the two sides. That gap would become a gulf before long. A deft hanball from the boundary line resulted in Martin's third goal, and then 'Dusty', on his way to a second Norm Smith Medal, marked a pass from Pickett, and promptly passed it back to Pickett, who marked directly in front of goal.

With his first shot at goal in AFL football, Pickett bisected the posts. The Richmond crowd erupted. The margin was now 54 points, and although a quarter and a half remained, the Tiger celebrations were kicking off, the crowd fully appreciating Martin's unselfishness and Marlion Pickett's moment, one of the most special in the game's long history.

Richmond added another major through Lambert before the Giants at long last kicked their second via a snap from Jacob Hopper. The Tigers responded almost immediately, this time creating another moment of premiership romance when 22-game ruckman Ivan Soldo marked and goaled. As the sides headed into their final huddles, the margin was 62 points, and the only real question was what that might contract or expand to by the final siren.

Thoughts of Richmond taking their foot off the pedal came to the fore when Himmelberg marked and goaled two minutes into the final term but that notion was quickly extinguished. Indeed, GWS did not score again. The Tiger procession then resumed, and it became a half-hour long celebration. Shai Bolton and captain Trent Cotchin joined in the celebrations with their first majors, while Martin franked his match-winning performance with his fourth.

Jack Riewoldt also added his fourth and he capped off a magnificent match with a fifth from a beautiful long set shot with five seconds on the clock. The siren sounded moments later and the Tiger premiership celebrations, which had in fact been going on since early in the third quarter, officially began.

The Tigers' win was a triumph of talent, coaching and adaptability. Coach Damian Hardwick has done a remarkable job in remoulding a defence of which Alex Rance was such a vital part. Hardwick has also displayed an ability to grow and change the Richmond style. The premiership Tigers of 2017 had a small forward line with only one key tall, Riewoldt, and a solitary ruckman, Toby Nankervis. In 2019, Riewoldt was joined up forward by Tom Lynch, and Nankervis in the ruck but Ivan Soldo, giving Richmond a different structure, but one just as successful.

With a fully fit Rance to rejoin them next season, there's every reason to believe that this is a Richmond dynasty in the making, and that 'Tiger Time' has only just begun.

GOALS
Richmond: Riewoldt 5; Martin 4; Lynch 2; Rioli, Soldo, Pickett, Lambert, Bolton, Cotchin
Greater Western Sydney: Cameron, Hopper, Himmelberg

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Richmond: Martin, Riewoldt, Prestia, Pickett, Edwards, Vlastuin, Houli
Greater Western Sydney: Taranto, Shaw, Haynes, Hopper, Williams

BEST - HERALD SUN
Richmond: Martin, Pickett, Prestia, Houli, Vlastuin, Riewoldt, Nankervis, Castagna
Greater Western Sydney: Taranto, Haynes, Shaw, Williams, Hopper

NORM SMITH MEDAL: Dustin Martin (Richmond)

NORM SMITH MEDAL VOTING
15 - Dustin Martin, Richmond - 33333
6 - Bachar Houli, Richmond - 222
4 - Marlion Pickett, Richmond - 211
3 - Jack Riewoldt, Richmond - 111
2 - Dion Prestia, Richmond - 2

NORM SMITH JUDGES VOTING (3, 2, 1)
Alastair Lynch (Chair) - D. Martin, B. Houli, J. Riewoldt
Chris Johnson - D. Martin, D. Prestia, J. Riewoldt
Matthew Lloyd - D. Martin, B. Houli, M. Pickett
Bruce McAvaney - D. Martin, B. Houli, M. Pickett
Angela Pippos - D. Martin, M. Pickett, J. Riewoldt

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
Greater Western Sydney: Nil

UMPIRES: Stevic, Ryan, Chamberlain 

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

COMMENTATORS: Bruce McAvaney, Brian Taylor, Wayne Carey, Cameron Ling, Matthew Richardson, Daisy Pearce