Stuart Wilson is the first of five bloggers from our new 'Yellow and Blog' brigade. This is his third blog for richmondfc.com.au and we encourage you to leave your thoughts in the comments section

Former premiership coach Denis Pagan once referred to playing in a draw as ‘dancing with your sister’.

I guess I’ll take his word for it, however I must admit the feeling after last week’s tie with St. Kilda was a different one then what I’ve had in previous years after a drawn contest.

I do agree with coach Damien Hardwick that the draw is unacceptable, however I couldn’t help but feel a little more content with it than usual, as it’s becoming more clear every week now that this football club is finally heading in the right direction.
While St. Kilda generally don’t blow many sides out of the water, as I was walking to the Tigerland Superstore to pick up my new Richmond guernsey I was a little nervous at how the game might unfold. St.Kilda had beaten us the last 13 times and after their nail-biting loss to Geelong the week before I feared they would come out all guns blazing.

Of course that nervous feeling turned to deep worry about five minutes into the contest, when Jack Riewoldt soared for one of his trademark grabs only to smack his head on the MCG turf, consequently leaving him in a daze.

He left the field in the arms of trainers which immediately sounded the alarm bells in my head that we may not be seeing him again for the rest of the night, given the new concussion rule that has been brought into the AFL this season. My worst fears were later confirmed in the second quarter when Jack slipped into that ugly red vest.
At the ground most were unaware of the Riewoldt situation on the bench, and it wasn’t until I got home and watched the game on replay that I saw his ‘outburst’ at the Richmond trainers and coaching staff for not allowing him back onto the field.

I find it laughable that people can criticise Jack for the way he reacted Friday night. I think it is pretty clear that he wasn’t exactly himself after the incident, with the knock to his head certainly affecting him and his behaviour on the bench.

Couple that with the fact that Riewoldt is naturally a passionate footballer who would do anything to help out his teammates and you can see why he reacted as such.
However, there was some good to come out of what otherwise was a nasty incident.
Richmond was branded as a ‘one-man team’ throughout most of the pre-season, with much being made about our apparent over-reliance on Jack Riewoldt to kick a winning score for us each week. Many of these ‘experts’ may now have some humble pie to eat after we pushed last year’s grand finalists to the absolute limit, and ultimately we were unlucky not to take the four points.

With Riewoldt going down it obviously changed the way we had to structure the forward line, with Mitch Morton becoming the focal point in attack. While the Saints did pick up an early three goal lead, I thought Richmond started to outwork their opposition from quarter time onwards, running hard both ways and spreading from the contest to receive the football.

The coaching staff did a fantastic job with their rotations through the forward line, having success with Dustin Martin (3 goals), Tyrone Vickery and Jake King (2 goals each). Shaun Grigg and Trent Cotchin continued their good form from Round 1 through the middle, while Brett Deledio’s role on Brendon Goddard was instrumental in the fight back.

If a few very contentious umpiring decisions hadn’t of gone St. Kilda’s way maybe we would have been talking about Richmond’s first win of the season, instead we must now look to this week’s clash against Hawthorn to try and notch up our first win.

Backline depth will be sorely tested over the next two weeks against Hawthorn and Collingwood, who arguably have the best key forward duos in the competition at the moment. With Alex Rance and Luke McGuane both being suspended for the next two weeks, Richmond will have to dig deep into their key defender stocks to combat the combinations of Roughead/Franklin and Dawes/Cloke.

This week’s game against the Hawks, like most matches these days, will be won and lost in the midfield. If the Hawthorn engine room is firing and providing plenty of supply to Franklin and Roughead it is going to be incredibly tough for the Tigers to stay in the contest, however I feel our improving midfield should be able to at least hold their own against the experienced Hawks.

This week also marks Richmond’s first home game of the year, so I urge all Tiger supporters to get down to the ‘G Saturday night and cheer our boys on to what hopefully is our first win of the season.
Go Tiges!