A major reason why 2024 has been the extraordinarily close, dramatic season it has been is the simple fact that the bottom three teams are orders of magnitude worse than everyone else.
And the chasm between them and the rest of the competition has rarely been starker than on the home-and-away season’s final Saturday afternoon.
Watching West Coast’s first half against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium was like watching a pack of hyenas mercilessly disembowel a still-struggling but feebly dying zebra on the African plains. It was ferocious, it was gory, precious little if any resistance was put up by the victims, and so comprehensive was the obliteration it was difficult to look away.
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The Eagles became the first team in 13 years to trail at half time by a triple-figure margin in an AFL match; and the most extraordinary thing about their afternoon was that somehow, they only ended the day with its second-worst loss.
It says something about the depths to which North Melbourne sunk in Tasmania against Hawthorn that they ended up five goals worse off than the side that was 100 points down at their main break and seemed on track to give the 190-point league record losing margin a fair shake.
In many ways, what unfolded in Launceston was even more ghastly to watch than the carnage at GMHBA Stadium: where the Eagles were simply blown off the canvas and barely even able to touch the footy, never mind do anything with it, the Roos were on many occasions the architects of their own destruction.
They turned the ball over with kicks across half-back horrendous both in their execution and decision-making; panicking defenders lost all touch with their Hawks opponents to let through 40 scoring shots from 66 entries; the Hawks waltzed the ball from end to end with only the most minimal pressure applied to them.
The Kangaroos and Eagles have been, by some distance, the two worst sides in the AFL for three seasons now; for all the fleeting glimmers of a more promising future, the highlights of Harley Reid and the casual brilliance of Harry Sheezel, this is now an awfully long time they’re spending at rock bottom.
And what should cause them the greatest shame of all is that the team which has beaten both of them for the wooden spoon, the team with just two wins to their name in 2024 compared to their three and five respectively, the one in the first season of a rebuild that looms as being every bit as long and painful, put in a spirited effort on Saturday afternoon that made their fellow cellar dwellers’ pitiful displays look even more pathetic than they already seemed.
Nobody could be fooled into thinking Richmond are a good or even adequate side after watching their 28-point loss to Gold Coast. Even a newcomer watching Aussie Rules for the first time would note the sloppy turnovers, the poor decision-making or the loose checking from defenders and see the Tigers for what they are: God awful.
With first-choice players on every line missing huge chunks of the season through injury, having tried a staggering 42 players of their 46-strong list at AFL level, Adem Yze could hardly have asked for a more impossible challenge in his debut season at the helm – though in many ways, such catastrophes have lessened the pressure on the first-time coach, as everyone in the footy world save for Kane Cornes seems to have agreed to cut the poor guy some slack.
But what was readily apparent throughout the four quarters at the MCG, even as they were clinically outmatched by a Suns team with infinitely more talent and experience that took control of proceedings early on and diffused every Richmond fightback with a minimum of fuss, is that this is a team, for all their faults, united under the man in charge.
To beat the Suns and their star-studded midfield for total disposals and smash them for marks, 98 to 83, is no mean feat; neither is matching them tackle for tackle for much of the afternoon despite that edge.
The bull that is Matt Rowell and his silky-smooth outside deputy in Noah Anderson may have won the day for the Suns with their decisive work on-ball, but matching them for quantity if not quality was a ragtag band of Tigers midfielders ranging from the headhunted former Giants pair Jacob Hopper (13 clearances) and Tim Taranto (14 tackles) to the less prolific but equally hard-nosed Seth Campbell.
Back in defence having been trialled up forward for parts of the season, Noah Balta superbly shut down a 50-goal spearhead in Ben King, who threatened a major day after an early goal out the back but would finish with a mere five disposals and no further additions to his major tally. Ben Miller, one of the quiet big improvers in the AFL this season, was almost as impressive in blanketing the in-form Mac Andrew, matching the gun Sun athletically and showing excellent judgement in the air with his timely spoiling and occasional intercept marks.
If there’s one player that sums up the Tigers in their present state, it’s Rhyan Mansell. Taken as a pre-season supplementary pick before the 2021 season, the intervening four years have seen him establish a spot in the team as a pressure small forward light on stats but big on heart.
Rhyan Mansell celebrates a goal. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
Mansell finished his season with just seven disposals and a solitary goal, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that danger lurked whenever the ball was in his vicinity. He will have better, luckier days for greater reward, but for the moment, his effort and intensity are palpable and team-lifting amid a wretched season – and you can see from every goal he kicks or sets up that it just means the absolute world to him.
It’s this sort of attitude, never mind skill, never mind strategy, that was so abundant at the MCG where it had been conspicuously lacking in Geelong and Launceston. And this is not the only time this season, nor even in the first three, where the Tigers’ plucky endeavour and unflashy grit have kept them in games against far superior opposition far longer than they’ve had any right to with the personnel at hand.
It’s only natural for youngsters new to the highest level to give it their all until their raw enthusiasm is worn down by the brutal realities of a senior football match; but to see the same willingness from the departees, both those already out the door and those who haven’t announced their intentions yet but for all intents and purposes have bags packed already, was another sign that Richmond are broken only in body and not in soul at this low ebb.
Jack Graham, likely to be found in West Coast colours when next we see him, burrowed into packs all day and sprinted hard to create an outnumber wherever he could, as if keen to replay the club at which he won two premierships and will be remembered forever. Shai Bolton was quieter and far poorer – his day summed up in the third term by a critically indecisive moment in midfield where he dallied after playing on from a mark and found himself run down – but his struggles were more indicative of a difficult season rather than having mentally checked out.
Heading off into that good night rather than for opportunities elsewhere, Marlion Pickett’s turn as sub in his farewell game was certainly memorable; crashing packs, strong overhead and sending the yellow and black faithful into raptures with a richly deserved final-quarter goal, there was a 15-minute period after he came on when he was clearly the most impactful player on the ground.
Most impressive of all was Daniel Rioli; a Gold Coast Sun in 2024 if the reports can be believed, his tireless running from half-back all the way to the forward line, often as the fastest man in a Tiger forward chain consistently driving them further on, was inspirational from a triple-premiership Richmond icon who you’d have forgiven for having mentally checked out of a year where success has been so sparing.
Only Anderson finished with more than Rioli’s 562 metres gained, while 30 disposals was second-best for the Tigers behind Jacob Hopper. Throw in two goals landed with typical Rioli class, and maybe, just maybe, he’ll have convinced the Suns that their top-five pick is worth reuniting him with Damien Hardwick.
Put simply, he had every reason to go through the motions on Saturday afternoon; instead, even if it proves his final match in yellow and black, he rubber-stamped and best and fairest that should by all rights be his in a few weeks’ time.
But the most admirable sign of all for the Tigers wasn’t the strength of their personnel, nor their willingness to manfully guts out an honourable loss rather than caving under the kosh of a futile task; it was in their never-surrender attitude after half time despite a 32-point deficit.
Realistically, the Tigers didn’t have a prayer of reeling it, and again looked broken when the margin blew out to 33 early in the last quarter.
Yet both times, they fought hard, reassumed control at stoppages, swung momentum back their way, and both times slammed on two quick goals to reduce the margin and force the Suns to respond rather than coast for home.
Of the forwards, Jacob Bauer’s dead-straight set shot for a goal from the boundary line was a thing of pure beauty; with no Lynch to serve as spearhead and Jacob Koschitzke a non-factor, the youngster punched above his weight all day to halve contests, fly for the footy and again show that the Tiger cubs are going to be alright.
Cold reasoning tells you that the Tigers took on a mediocre Suns outfit that had won just one game in 2024 on the road, and were no real match for them; that had they faced a powerful Hawks or Cats like the Kangaroos and Eagles did, similar carnage would have unfolded.
But I struggle to believe that; sure, the margin may have been more swollen than 28 points, but the bar is and should be low for the Tigers. This year they have faced an injury list every bit as debilitating as the one which saw the Eagles lose a dozen games by a hundred points, yet just four times all season has their losing margin exceeded 10 goals, and only two by more than 63.
Easybeats they may have been, and ones with defeats in their last ten matches, but the towel has never been thrown in, the gauntlet repeatedly taken up, and embarrassment to the extent suffered by the Eagles and Kangaroos simultaneously on Saturday afternoon never reached. This is a wooden spooner with dignity intact.
If you were a Richmond fan, it would have been hard to not feel pride in your team’s spirited end to the season – with the added bonus that defeat guaranteed last place and pick 1 in the draft – and farewell the retiring legends of Tigerland with a sense of optimism in generation next, even if laced with the knowledge that the next few years are going to be a tough slog.
Sometimes, when you’re a bad team, heart is all that matters.
The Tigers on Saturday showed theirs remain full even if their footballing skills are not; and that should embarrass Kangaroos and Eagles outfits substantially further along in their own rebuilds who would do well to take a lesson in gumption from the one team they can both look down on on the ladder.