Before the season, both of these teams were identified as being at the very beginning of a rebuild. Before the start of the season, many would have picked the West Coast Eagles to be further along than the young Tigers. However, the Tigers have undoubtedly lapped the Eagles, and despite some “experts” picking the Tigers to go winless this season, coming into this contest, they sit on four wins, well ahead of the Eagles, who have only won a single game so far this season.
Regardless of their current ladder standings, both teams would have earmarked this match-up on their respective fixtures. For the Eagles, a chance to face the Tigers on their home turf would be an ideal match-up, while Richmond would have licked their lips at a match-up with a team also in a rebuild. The two met earlier in the season in Round Nine, with the Tigers emerging victorious in a two-point game.
Heading into the game, the Eagles had lost their last seven games in a row, with their last win coming over the Saints back in Round 10. On the flip side, the Tigers broke their seven-game losing streak last week with a win over the Bombers; however, their form before that was awful, losing three games on the trot by over 10 goals.
Despite the Eagles doing most of the attacking early, Seth Campbell got the Tigers on the board with the first goal of the game. Liam Ryan then kicked an equalising goal after Banks caught him above the shoulder just before a marking contest. The Eagles had multiple opportunities in front of goal, but failed to make the most of their chances until Jamie Cripps kicked truly with 18 minutes of the first quarter elapsed.
They were lapses that would cost them dearly.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, Cripps’ goal seemed to spur the Tigers into action. Within a few minutes, Tim Taranto kicked back-to-back goals. These goals allowed the Tigers to take a five-point lead into the first break.
Richmond picked up in the second quarter the way they ended the first. First, Seth Campbell kicked his second goal, before Maurice Rioli unselfishly passed the ball to Toby Nankervis on the goal-line. With half the quarter gone, the Eagles finally managed a goal through Bailey Williams. Clay Hall then kicked an easy goal from a forward-50 stoppage to reduce the margin back down to four points.
Young Eagle Jobe Shanahan had a chance to put the Eagles back in the lead, only to push his set shot across the face of the goal and into the post. With less than a minute left until half time, Jonty Faull and Jacob Hopper latched onto an unforced defensive error by the Eagles to put the Tigers up by nine points heading into the main break.
Less than a minute into the second half, Jonty Faull extended the Tigers’ lead back out to 15 points. Unlike the second quarter, where the Eagles took a while to get into gear, they were able to respond through Liam Ryan’s second goal of the game. However, the Tigers then opened the shackles and unleashed a barrage of goals against the young Eagles.
Jacob Hopper, Jonty Faull, Tyler Sonsie, Rhyan Mansell, Jayden Short, Tim Toranto and Thomas Sims all kicked goals in a 20-minute run, which saw the Tigers blow the lead out to 52 points. The run of goals and the subsequent lead essentially killed the game as a contest heading into the final quarter.
With the game over as a contest, the Eagles were able to kick multiple goals in a row, with one to Jobe Shanahan before two consecutive goals to Harley Reid cut the margin back to 35 points. This was the closest the game got, as Rhyan Mansell kicked the final two goals of the game to extend the final margin between the two sides out to 49 points.
Incredible Rioli Efforts
In the first half, Maurice Rioli had two pieces of individual brilliance that helped set up goals for his team. The first, an impressive chase-down tackle on Brady Hough to stop Hough from running into the Eagles’ forward 50. The defensive effort led to the Tigers’ second goal of the game.
In the second quarter, Rioli performed another piece of brilliance. Rioli made a diving smother on Harry Edwards before keeping his feet under pressure and finding his big ruckman, Toby Nankervis, alone in the goal square to push the Tigers’ lead to 16 points.
These types of acts became synonymous with the name “Rioli” through the last couple of decades, so to see Maurice Junior applying this type of pressure for his team would have gladdened the hearts of the Tiger faithful.
Ryan’s Goal of the Year Contender
Not to be outdone, Eagles’ enigmatic small forward Liam Ryan kicked what some are already calling the Goal of the Year. Ryan ran onto an over-kicked pass from Bailey Williams, snapping it from the boundary with little control. The ball then pitched and bounced on the Optus Oval turf, completely bamboozling Richmond defender Tyler Young.
As the commentators were quick to point out, the pitch and bounce of the ball would be more suited to something you would see on day five of a test down the road at the WACA and not with a football, especially while under pressure.
Reid shoulders the burden alone
Surely no one can question Harley Reid’s commitment to playing his best with the Eagles, even if it seems to mean that he has to do things by himself at times. Reid had a 27-possession game against the Tigers, with 20 possessions coming in the first half, before Jack Ross was sent to shut down Reid’s influence in the second half.
Despite his earlier efforts to keep his side in the game, Reid was thrown forward late in the contest and kicked two goals. Unfortunately, Reid’s more senior teammates were unable to step up. Perhaps most notable is the drop-off from Tim Kelly since crossing to the Eagles. Touted as a megstar whilst at Geelong, Kelly returned from a self-imposed demotion to the WAFL only to return with numbers of 15 possessions and two free kicks against him for the game.
And not to gloss over the job of Jack Ross, either. Harley Reid was one of the main reasons the Eagles were in the game at halftime. That his second-half fall from grace, and the that of the Eagles occurred concurrently, is no coincidence. Ross put the shackles on Reid and beat him on work ethic, and that is something the young star will have to work on, but it is clear that Ross is now Adem Yze’s weapon of choice when an opposition midfielder is getting off the chain.
Are the Tigers better without Tom Lynch?
A few weeks ago, Tigers key forward Tom Lynch lost control of his brain, resulting in a five-game suspension. Since Lynch was suspended, the Tigers lost to Geelong by 12 goals before beating Essendon and West Coast. Lynch, who still has two games remaining on his five-game ban, will miss the Tigers’ games against Collingwood and Gold Coast before returning for the final three games of the season.
However, the Tigers almost seem to be better without Lynch in their lineup. Utilising a much younger forward line, the Tigers kicked 16 goals against an admittedly weak Eagles. However, the team had multiple avenues to goal, including Tim Taranto, Jacob Hopper, Rhyan Mansell, Seth Campbell and Jonty Faull, who all kicked multiple goals.
Yze will surely bring Lynch back into the side when he has served his suspension, but whether it’s something he should do remains to be seen.
Dragged
It’s not often that coaches will make statements with the use of the substitutions, but that seems to be the case for both coaches when it came time to pull players off the ground. Richmond coach Adem Yze removed winger Luke Trainor from the game in the third quarter after he managed only six touches and a single tackle before being subbed out of the game.
Trainor is a good kid, and has had some fine moments in his debut season, but he may have hit that rookie wall in this game.
Andrew McQualter substituted key forward Jack Williams in the third quarter. In three quarters of football, Williams gathered 0 possessions, took 0 marks, and laid 0 tackles, a rare stat sheet for a player who was on the ground for most of the game and wasn’t injured. While the Eagles’ ball usage coming into the forward 50 wouldn’t have helped, Williams did very little to ensure that he would be picked next week.
The Unforced Error That Cost So Much
Sometimes in a game, you can sense the momentum shift, or swing completely to the side of one team.
Ryan Maric, and an unforced error helped this happen for the Tigers. A standard 25 metre short pass missed the target badly, allowing Jacob Hopper and Jonty Faull to swoop on the opportunity. The ensuing goal to Hopper was the type of result that is often deemed a “coach killer” but really, it is a poor reflection on Maric, who is supposed to be one of the better ball users in the Eagles team.
It is only when you eliminate these types of errors from your game that the Eagles will improve, because this was basically a gift, and it was the gift gave the Tigers the momentum heading into halftime and kickstarted the Richmond run in the third quarter – you know, the one that killed West Coast’s chances.
The month ahead
After losing their eighth game in a row, the Eagles will face off against cross-town rivals the Fremantle Dockers in Round 20. The Eagles lost to the Dockers earlier in the season, and they certainly don’t look any better now than they did at the start of the season. The week after, the Eagles face off against another struggling team in Melbourne at Marvel Stadium. The game will be Melbourne’s first home game at Marvel Stadium this season, and only their third game at the stadium this season in general.
The Eagles will then return to Optus Stadium again to host the Crows, who are currently battling for a spot in the top 4 and will be keen to leave Perth with all four premiership points. The Eagles then round off the next month against the Western Bulldogs. However, with this loss, the Eagles are pretty much guaranteed to finish last on the ladder, where they sit three and a half games behind North Melbourne, who were overtaken by Richmond following this game.
The Tigers are now on a two-game winning streak, but are likely to return to earth next week when they face Collingwood at the MCG. The Pies have only lost three games so far this season and sit half a game clear at the top of the ladder with their game against Fremantle to come tomorrow. The Tigers will then face off against the Gold Coast Suns and the Saints before finishing their next month against North Melbourne.
Given their current run of form, the Tigers would consider themselves a good chance to beat St. Kilda and North Melbourne. Winning these two games could elevate Richmond as high as the 12th spot on the ladder, depending on how other results and percentage points fall each way. Not bad for a team many picked to finish dead last at the start of the season.
