Coming into the Round Nine clash between the Tigers and Eagles, I really didn’t know what to expect.
On any given weekend, we have found we can find a version of either team that does not seem to have the desire to run defensively, and make the sacrifices to be a good side. But there are always moments. And when you are able to string those moments together, good things start to happen.
This season, Richmond have been able to string those sequences together more often than the Eagles, and two wins on the board are the proof of that, but in recent weeks, there have been signs that West Coast was not all that far away.
And they got perilously close to gaining their first four points of the season at the MCG.
One desperate lunge.
One maniacal, never-say-die chase.
And one brilliant rundown tackle decided this game.
As Tom Gross received the footy, streaming toward attacking fifty for the Eagles, his eyes must have lit up. This was the moment players dream of – the chance to kick the winner in the dying moments. Inexplicably, he took a bounce after just a few steps, and the pursuing Tiger pounced.
Tom Brown reeled Gross in and took him down with the tackle of the year, winning a free kick, relieving the pressure on Richmond, and snuffing out the chances of West Coast’s first win of 2025.
It was pulsating stuff in a game that threatened to go down to the wire all afternoon, and it did, with Brown’s lunging takedown the icing on the cake that gave the Tigers their third win of the season.
Remember when the experts said they wouldn’t win one?
Plenty of highlights and lowlights to get through in this one, that defied the expectations of many, and had me glued to my seat for its entirety.
Time for The Mongrel’s Big Statements.
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