Tigers have proven the doubters wrong with 2017 grand final win

There are the issues of God, climate change, and a Richmond premiership. In relation to all three, both fervent believers and vehement sceptics exist. The difference between the first two and the last is that the scientific evidence against the Tigers was stronger.

Along with many others, I went with the evidence. Ultimately, they would be toothless tigers, paper tigers, more inclined to go missing than Tasmanian tigers. They simply couldn’t be trusted to fire when the heat was on.

Tigers win first Premiership in 37 years

After a rocky start Richmond took control of the second-half, romping to a 48 point win.

Tigers’ second quarter blitz

Richmond scored three goals in five minutes to storm ahead in the grand final.

Riewoldt produces grand final mark

Richmond full forward Jack Riewoldt rises above the pack to take spectacular mark.

Tigers express joy; in expletives

Normally reserved with the media, Richmond Tigers players let it all out after winning the AFL grand final.

Killers surprise with Aussie cover

Midnight Oil did end up at the grand final, via a cover from the Killers.

Upset in grand final sprint

The sprint saw an early upset on grand final day.

Cotchin: Rioli creating own history

Richmond captain Trent Cotchin knows that Daniel Rioli will step up in his own way on the big stage.

Tigers win first Premiership in 37 years

After a rocky start Richmond took control of the second-half, romping to a 48 point win.

And now, they’ve proven us – the doubters, deniers, and sceptics – wrong.

Most tellingly, what they’ve done this season had never previously been achieved. Since the Victorian competition began its expansion 30 years ago, then became the AFL, no club has climbed this far in a year to win a premiership. Adelaide’s rise from 12th to the 1997 flag was the mountaineering record. Given that prior to 1987 there had never been more than 12 clubs in the competition, the Tigers are now football’s Edmund Hillary.

When Malcolm Blight oversaw the Crows’ ascension in ’97, and likewise when Tom Hafey took Collingwood from last to a grand final in 1977, each was a coach in his first season of a new appointment. That speaks of team transformation.

Damien Hardwick has done something far more unlikely. He’s taken Richmond to the title in his eighth year, which speaks of personal and professional transformation. Not only that, Hardwick has done it at Richmond, the club of the self-defeating, self-cannibalising, and at times (you’d be forgiven for thinking) self-loathing Tigers. It’s a ground-breaking achievement and, like Mark Thompson’s first flag at Geelong in 2007, it will re-shape football wisdom on coaches and their shelf lives.

Just when we thought modern sport science and tactics were the ultimate determinants of success, along have come the Western Bulldogs of 2016 and now Richmond. And perhaps we should throw in Adelaide and Sydney, the losing grand finalists of the past two seasons, for all four clubs display a common quality.

Get the latest news and updates emailed straight to your inbox.

Among the millions of words spoken about football this year, there’s one that, with increasing frequency, has found its way into the conversation. That word isn’t mark or kick. It’s not rotation or tackle. It’s not pressure, or zone, or corridor.

The word is “connection”, and not the kind that describes the effectiveness with which a team’s midfield links to its forwards. It is, in a sense, new-speak for what was once called team spirit. The Swans have long preached it. The Crows, due to two tragic deaths at their club and the loss of a series of star players to other clubs, have had it thrust upon them.

Then there are the premier teams of these two seasons, which appear to have made a weapon of this age-old virtue. The day after the Tigers won their way to the grand final, Bachar Houli spoke of the team having observed the connectedness of last season’s Bulldogs. The Tigers sought to find their own form of connection. The disciplined way players of both these clubs worked for each other on their way to premierships has been palpable to anyone who watched them.

Connection can take different forms and is, in some cases, ephemeral. At a more mundane level, it’s often the case that it appears during the week after a disastrous loss. Players experience scrutiny, exposure, embarrassment, frustration … then there’s a rebound born of collective will to clean the slate.

There’s also a more elusive and durable kind of connection.

After a good start to this season – a promising five straight wins – Richmond confronted two major crossroads. These provided the perfect challenge. Starting with a heavy defeat in Adelaide, there followed three excruciating one-kick defeats.

It was sink or swim time. Tiger teams of the past 30 years might have imploded; memberships microwaved, chicken-liver carriers standing by their phones for the call to Punt Road, secret meetings at a Malvern pub. More importantly, a seven-and-a-half season coach might have been in the firing line. But the new Richmond stood its ground.

The next test came in round 16 when the team produced by far its worst performance of the year. On a Saturday night at Etihad Stadium, the Tigers reached half-time against St Kilda with just one goal and trailed by 82 points. It was an inexplicable shocker.

Again, the Tigers held firm. Two weeks later they gave GWS a three-goal start on the MCG but kicked the next eight, notching a solid win in a low-scoring game. That was the second of nine victories on the way to this unexpected flag, a streak broken only by a loss at Geelong three weeks out from the finals.

September, though, further galvanised and energised the team from Punt Road. Despite the club’s failure to win a final in recent forays, Richmond’s unique character seems to be such that they can be a dangerous September foe.

From 1967, when the Tigers made the finals for the first time in 20 years, they didn’t mess around. Through the next 15 years, up until the era-ending 1982 decider against Carlton, 20 finals wins were achieved against just five losses.

No club, not Hawthorn in their great modern incarnation, not Collingwood in their most formidable years, nor even Melbourne in the 1950s, can boast such an extended record of success in the biggest games.

Now, out of nowhere, the 2017 Tigers – united on the field and urged on by their rabid and fiercely loyal faithful – have tapped into the formula.

Last year was one for the battlers and most of us thought we’d never see anything like it again. Well, we just have. It’s a funny game, footy.

Was Dustin Martin the right choice for the AFL Norm Smith Medal? #AFLGF #AFLgrandfinal

— Real Footy (AFL) (@agerealfooty)
30 September 2017

Search This Blog

Australia Breaking News | Top Stories | Entertainment | Political | Movies | Sports - Times of News