I’d like to tell you that this was a brilliant showcase of footy, befitting the ANZAC Eve time slot, but I’d be lying to you, and I only do that when you deserve it. You don’t deserve it at the moment.
This was not an attractive game of footy. Without sounding derogatory toward the Tigers, this was much more of a Richmond style of game than it was a Melbourne game. The Tigers are scrappers – that’s where they find themselves in 2024, trying to scrounge out wins with pressure and turnover in the face of a severe lack of high-quality players due to injury.
And that can work if the opposition refuses to get into the trenches with you. You can outwork an opposition who wants to finesse the ball. You can outwork a team that doesn’t have the same desire to get their hands dirty. But when the other side is willing to match the effort, you have to find other ways to beat them, and the Tigers don’t really have anything outside that scrappiness.
The Dees do.
After a first half that resembled a wet weather game in terms of scoring, the Dees were able to shift gears in the third to find space, work through the guts, and give their forwards a chance.
And that was enough for them to get the win.
43 points is roughly about the right margin. Melbourne made the most of their opportunities whilst Richmond wasted theirs.
Let’s jump into The Mongrel’s Good, Bad, and Ugly of this one.
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