Less than a month ago, Richmond blew a 40-point lead against the Suns. On Sunday, the shoe was on the other foot, with the Tigers clawing their way back from a 42-point deficit to register a crucial victory against Brisbane to keep their finals aspirations alive.
Richmond trailed by 36 points at half-time, before piling on 10 goals to three from that point, to secure a famous victory in Shane Edwards’ 300th game.
The Tigers are ninth, just two points behind eighth-placed St Kilda, ahead of a date with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night, followed by Hawthorn and Essendon, both at the MCG.
“I thought our boys were incredibly brave, the way they came back; 38 points down against a rampaging Brisbane… it showed the character and, probably in fairness, how much they love Shane Edwards,” Damien Hardwick said.
“I thought the significance of this event might have probably overwhelmed us a little bit at the start, but credit where it’s due. I thought Dylan (Grimes) and ‘Nank’ (Toby Nankervis) got them back on task and delivered the result we were all hoping for.
“It was Richmond beating Richmond in the first half. We had some really poor errors that gifted them some goals, we gave away five or six goals from free kicks again, which we’ve got to get better at. We knew that we had to get our pressure up to speed, we’d be hard to beat.
“We’ve been through some tough weeks, no question. What this means, well, we can only wait and see.”
Co-captain Grimes was subbed out early in the second half with a hamstring injury.
“I don’t want to speculate, but it’s not great. We hope it’s not too severe, we’ve got our fingers crossed at this stage,” Hardwick explained.
