Well, Collingwood did what they came to do at the MCG on a chilly Saturday, beating Richmond by 34 and moved back into the wildcard spots as four clubs jostled around the seven-win mark with September getting closer. Richmond’s hallmark of the season has been third-quarter fadeouts, but they own that quarter in this match. Unfortunately, it was the 1.1 to 6.3 in the second that hurt them this time. Collingwood managed their lead from that point on, and Richmond generated some genuinely interesting football from their rookie cohort. Nick Daicos had 37 disposals and three goals, which is actually unders accoding to the predictions in the media of 50+. Jordan De Goey added 27 and three goal assists. Lachie Schultz kicked three of his four in the final quarter.
But, the green shoots are there for the Tigers. They’re not quite ready to sprout yet, but we knew that well before this game started.
Recent Encounters
Collingwood have won four of the last five, with the only Richmond win coming in 2021 — a 11-point result that now feels like a different era entirely, given that Richmond’s list has been substantially rebuilt since then. The four Collingwood wins have come by an average of 25 points. The 14-point win in Round 3 of 2023 was the closest Collingwood have had to a scare in the recent run. The other three were comfortable from the third quarter onwards, which will sound familiar to anyone who watched today’s game.
Recent form
Collingwood (6 wins, 7 losses, 1 draw coming in): On paper, Collingwood were a better team than their position suggested. Unfortunately, that paper is “The Age”, and they know that collingwood sells copies, which they rely on since the old fish and chip shops stopped wrappign their wares in the local broadsheet.
Realistically though, they have some high quality talent, but just not enough menace to worry the premiership contenders. They beat Port Adelaide well in Round 15, topping off a stretch where they won once in six matches and tumbled to thirteenth. They’ve looked good in their last two, but looking good against Port and Richmond is like saying you’re the Collingwood supporter with the prettiest smile — the competition ain’t fierce.
Richmond (2-12 coming in): Tigers fans are well aware of the state of play. Fourteen losses from fifteen game, but that’s less important in 2026 than the fact that several players have been developing well. Taranto, Alger, Cumming, and Retschko have all produced games that suggest a brighter future, if the team can draft and trade well. The issue with that framing was that next year required waiting until next year, and the people watching this year would have liked to see a bit of mongrel against the neighbouring rivals. From chats I’ve had with the Tigers members I know, they’d have traded three interstate wins of 2027 in if they could have given the Pies a thrashing. Alas, the genie remains in the bottle for now.
Ins and Outs
Collingwood
In: Scott Pendlebury
Out: Mitch Podhajski (omitted)
The man of a million merch sales, Scott Pendlebury returned from management after being sick over the bye and was low-key welcome news for a midfield that functioned more smoothly when one of the competition’s great ball-users was in it. He had 25 disposals and looked as unhurried as a pensioner at a Woolies checkout, paying in a bagfull of coins.
Tim Membrey, a veteran forward without a contract for 2027, continued providing a reliable aerial option and putting pressure on the selection committee to give him another year. He had 2.2, missed a couple, but overall managed to keep getting into the right spots.
Milestone: Ned Long played his 50th AFL game. He contributed 13 disposals and eight marks from the interchange.
Richmond
In: Jack Ross, Rhyan Mansell
Out: Tyler Sonsie (omitted), Liam Fawcett (omitted)
Rhyan Mansell’s return was the significant selection story. He had been absent since Round 1 with a fractured wrist and a stress fracture in his foot, two separate issues that took the better part of five months to resolve. He came back to kick three goals, including a stunner from the boundary that produced genuine noise from the Richmond end of the MCG. Three goals from a player returning after that kind of layoff, in a losing side, was the kind of performance that earned another contract conversation.
Jack Ross came in after passing his concussion protocols, giving Richmond another experienced midfield option.
The Start
The first quarter was a feeling out process, producing a tit-for-tat style of play and gave the crowd a bit of hope for an even contest. Richmond spent a lot of time in attack, but struggled to get inside 50 marks. Alger, a genuine bright point in the Tigers 2026 season, kicked both of Richmond’s goals within the first twenty-three minutes. The opening quarter was, in short, misleading.
Nick Daicos began quietly with only three disposals in the first half, but those three disposals included two goals. He kicked one at the five-minute mark and another at twenty-two minutes, and the precision of the contribution against the volume of it was the kind of ratio Collingwood had not seen enough of in the preceding weeks.
The Second Quarter
The second quarter was a different game entirely. Collingwood kicked six goals to one and built a 33-point lead by halftime, doing so with 88% forward-half time in the opening five minutes of the term, up from 28% in Q1, which told you how quickly the tide turned and how completely.
Houston set the tone at 41 seconds into the qaurter, Lipinski and Schultz followed before five minutes were up, and by the time Richmond’s defence had worked out what was happening, it had already happened.
Mansell got one back for the Tigers at twelve minutes, running down a through ball from Seth Campbell in the goal square for a finish that reminded everyone he could still play, before Membrey kicked two and Buller added another as Collingwood converted from 60% of their inside 50s to Richmond’s 7%. Seven per cent. Richmond created opportunities and produced almost nothing from them, while Collingwood created slightly fewer and scored from the majority.
If you’re wondering what the Monday review will look at, I’d say that will be a big part of it.
The second half
Richmond came out of halftime and did something unexpected in the third quarter: they won it. Sure, the game may have already been beyond them, but when a team has won so few third quarters in a season, it’s worth noting that they got this one.
Taranto had been tagged by Edward Allan in the first half and restricted to limited impact. The tag was lifted at some point in the long break, and Taranto kicked three goals in the third quarter. Taranto kicked one at one minute, his second at eight minutes, and third at nineteen minutes, which shows what he can do with room to move, permission to take a chance, and without the pressure of a game result in doubt.
Richmond scored 4.3 to Collingwood’s 3.4 in the third, which meant the 33-point lead at halftime shrank slightly rather than blowing out. De Goey, Buller and Lipinski maintained Collingwood’s basic position, but the momentum shift was a bit unconvincing.
The finish
Schultz ended that suggestion. He kicked three of his four goals in the last quarter, including two in a six-minute burst, and Collingwood controlled possession with 23-8 uncontested marks in the term while Richmond tried to sustain the energy of their third-quarter effort. Nick Daicos added his third and Grlj and Mansell converted for Richmond, before Taranto’s fourth at twenty-six minutes sealed his career-equal performance.
Final: 106-72. The lead Collingwood built in the second quarter proved exactly sufficient. Richmond fought genuinely from the third term onwards and the margin did not fully reflect the closing fifteen minutes of the game. None of that changed the result.
Controversial moment
The tag. That was the moment that generated the most post-match discussion, not because it was particularly hard or vicious, but because of the effect when McRae called it off. Ed Allan followed Taranto throughout the first half and restricted him to a limited meaningful impact, which was probably more about getting him used to that role than it was about seriously harming Taranto. The decision to change that role after halftime allowed Taranto to kick three quick goals and win the third quarter for Richmond.
Whether it was a deliberate tactical adjustment or simply a consequence of the game breaking up in different directions was something the Collingwood review session will examine. The margin was comfortable enough that it didn’t matter, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do in a match against a tougher opponent.
Midfield matchup
Collingwood took this one, with the Daicosi at the wheel and De Goey in excellent form alongside him. The bare numbers dont’ really tell the story, clearances were nearly level at 30-31, and Richmond won contested possessions 117-103. The difference was what happened after the ball left the stoppage. Collingwood’s uncontested possession count was 283 to Richmond’s 253, their inside 50 efficiency was 55.4% to Richmond’s 35.3%, and they took 20 marks inside 50 to Richmond’s 13. The pressure Collingwood put on the playmaker, and the willingness to chase was in stark contrast to the efforts of the Richmond mids.
Daicos had 37 disposals, three goals, 14 score involvements, nine inside 50s and seven clearances.. De Goey had 27 disposals, 13 score involvements and three goal assists and he was doing the work that created scoreboard pressure for others to convert. Jack Crisp generated 558 metres gained from defence. Dan Houston had 25 disposals, 10 marks and 429 metres gained. Pendlebury had 25 in his first game back and moved the ball cleanly.
Taranto’s four-goal effort deserved more than a footnote in the losing section. He had 26 disposals, seven clearances and eleven contested possessions and was Richmond’s best player from the first bounce despite the tag. Sam Cumming had 27 disposals, 12 contested possessions and four clearances in a performance that looked like a player establishing what his future might be. Patrick Retschko had 511 metres gained and 26 disposals from the backline without attracting the attention his output deserved.
Ruck Battle
Richmond won the hitout count 33-25, meaning Toby Nankervis outperformed his Collingwood counterpart Darcy Cameron in the direct ruck battle. What Richmond were unable to do was convert that hitout advantage into meaningful possession chains or scoring opportunities, which explained the paradox of winning the hitouts by eight, winning the contested possessions by fourteen, and losing the game by 34. The ball was getting cleared but not going anywhere useful. The clearance count of 30-31 was essentially level, and Cameron’s contribution away from the direct ruck contests was solid throughout.
A technical win to Nankervis on the taps, a functional draw everywhere else, and a win to Collingwood on the scoreboard.
The Stats that Sting
- Richmond won the hitout count 33-25, won contested possessions 117-103. That should have set things up, but the efficiency inside 50 was a major issue. Collingwood 55.4%, Richmond 35.3%. Richmond generated 51 inside 50 entries and scored 72 points. Collingwood generated 56 entries and scored 106. The entries were nearly even. But Richmond too often did the old man Simpson entry where they casually walked in, put their hat on the rack, saw no options, grabbed their hat again and went right back out.
- The second quarter produced six Collingwood goals to Richmond’s one from a scoreline level at quarter time. Games can turn quickly. This one turned extremely quickly, and the half-time margin of 33 points meant Richmond needed something extraordinary in the second half. They produced a very good third quarter instead, which was not quite the same thing.
- Jack Crisp generated 558 metres gained from the backline without kicking a goal. The quiet engine that drove Collingwood’s ball movement from defence had been doing this all year and occasionally got passed over in the best-on-ground discussion because Daicos was standing next to him.
- Collingwood laid 61 tackles to Richmond’s 37. Twenty-four more tackles was the pressure differential made visible. Richmond’s ball use in traffic was frequently disrupted, which contributed directly to the inside 50 efficiency gap.
Final thoughts
Collingwood moved back into the wildcard spots after this win, their ninth, and for now are sitting above three other clubs on seven wins each, including North Melbourne and Gold Coast, who played the following day. The draw against Hawthorn in May meant they sat fractionally above the other contenders on percentage alone. Four clubs in genuine contention for two wildcard spots made for an interesting run to the finish, and Collingwood’s remaining schedule was not going to be soft.
Richmond sit at 2-14 after this result and continued generating individual performances that gave the fanbase genuine things to look forward to. Taranto’s four-goal game was not incidental, it was the kind of performance a club built around. Cumming’s 27-disposal, twelve-contested-possession afternoon looked like a player growing into significant responsibility. Mansell kicked three on his return from a layoff that would have ended most careers.
Next up
Collingwood head to People First Stadium to face Gold Coast on Saturday the 4th of July, and the timing could not be more loaded. Looking at the ladder, the Suns sit tenth with 28 points, one spot and two points below Collingwood, meaning that both teams will treat this as a qualifying match. Gold Coast are 7-7 and firmly in the hunt. So are Collingwood. One of them is going to arrive at Round 18 with genuine momentum and the other is going to feel the pressure. People First Stadium is not an easy venue, and Gold Coast at home with something to play for is a different proposition to the Port Adelaide side Collingwood dismantled last week. McRae’s team will need De Goey and Daicos to back up again. I’m tipping Gold Coast by 8, mostly because this match involves Collingwood players having to actually travel, a situation they do about as often as their fans visit the dentist, but this is genuinely a coin flip with stakes attached.
Richmond host Carlton at the MCG on Saturday night in while the (current) ladder says is 17th versus 11th, what the MCG crowd will experience as a game between two clubs with very large supporter bases who both badly want a win for different reasons. Carlton are 7-8 and trying to stay relevant in the wildcard race. Richmond are trying to give their young players another week of development against meaningful opposition. Both those motivations are legitimate and only one of them tends to produce a result. Carlton to win, and reasonably comfortably. Blues by 26.
