A Tiger's tale

by CATHERINE DURKIN

I REMEMBER in my early years of primary school, we had a 'support your footy team day'. I came to school decked from head to toe in yellow and black and I felt proud wearing the Richmond colours. When we were sitting on the carpet of my year-one classroom, I felt my beanie being ripped from my head. I turned around to see who the culprit was and found myself face to face with a black-and-white-striped six-year-old. He grinned at me, which uncovered a hole where his two front teeth should have been and he mouthed, "Richmond suck". Of course I complained to the teacher about the 'meanie who stole my beanie' and of course she put him on time out for 10 minutes to think about what he'd done. But it was on that day, no matter how impractical it may sound, that my rivalry with Collingwood began.

As I grew older, I began to appreciate the fact that just about every Richmond or Collingwood supporter has a story to tell to back his or her hatred for the other, no matter how just or unjust they may be. When taken into consideration, such enmity only can lead to one thing. A great game of footy.

And this is exactly what was expected. The Pies were seething after their nail-biting loss at the Gabba, which many attributed to poor umpiring, while the Tigers, coming off a 40-point flogging, had a point to prove. Preferably four.

There was a brief scuffle at the opening bounce but ultimately the ball was tied up and the central umpire (Matthew Nicholls) started again. The first clearance was a hurried kick out by Kayne Pettifer, which Shane Wakelin swallowed. Collingwood quickly rebounded through the pace of their midfield and Rocca slotted an early goal. Clearance after clearance, goal after goal, the Tigers couldn't get a sniff. As I looked up at the brilliant, cornflower-blue sky, overflowing with frustration at the Tiger's poor skills, I noticed a sky-writer out on a daily trip. I watched as it produced the letters "GRRRR." I snickered to myself at this as I presumed this echoed the thoughts of many of the Richmond supporters around me.

The second quarter wasn't much better and the first passage of play was an exact replica to the one that took place at the beginning of the first quarter. At the 12-minute mark, Collingwood's first behind was scored off the boot of Alan Didak, which was quickly followed by a 50-meter bomb from Richmond's Jake King. The joy from this goal carried on to the next passage of play, which saw Richo taking a freakish mark on a slight angle. The joy then turned to despair as Richo did only as Richo can and kicked it out on the full. But no matter how many times he misses, you still can't help but love the guy.

It seemed that Richmond's midfield had taken the approach that if they couldn't penetrate the forward line; they'd go for it themselves with consecutive goals to Jackson and Foley from outside 50. Collingwood soon cottoned on to this tactic and their run and chase through the midfield intensified, seeing several Richmond players pinged for holding the ball.

After some dubious free kicks prior to half time, the boys in green decided to put the whistle away during the third quarter, which was a welcome change for the supporters and the game became a fluent and more open contest. Whatever Wallace had said at half time had put a bit of lead in the Tigers pencil and they began to slowly claw their way back. But lord knows, it was a long way back. Within six goals at three quarter time, there was hope for a comeback. But as Richmond supporters, we have to think this. Without hope, we'd probably all go mad.

Collingwood's inaccurate kicking in the opening minutes of the final term kept the belief alive of a late revival in the Tigers camp. But the Collingwood back line had other ideas and as we've seen so many times before, Richmond shot themselves in the foot with inaccurate and indecisive kicking. Not to take anything away from Collingwood. It was their pressure and attack at the ball that caused Richmond to get the fumbles. Following two spectacular marks by Heath Shaw and Dale Thomas, Richmond supporters began to file out, defeated.

It had been an influential win by the Woods. Back to the drawing board, Terry.

2 May 2008

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