We had plenty of opportunities to clinch the game, but once again failed at the final hurdle, and once again we outnumbered the opposition in scoring shots only to squander many opportunities in front of goal.
A telling stat this year has been the number of games we were so close in, but yet so far. All of our losses bar the Round 1 loss to Carlton (which we were still right in the match early in the final term), have been decided by 21 points or less, which is a sign of immaturity in terms of experience at the club.
Even if we had only won half of those close games we’d be near certainties for a finals berth.
With our finals dreams once again over for yet another season, this week against Carlton provides the opportunity for us to at least shape the top eight, and beating our arch enemies would slightly numb the pain of another September-less season.
With no Judd and the Blues playing poorly in general, this is as good a chance as any to outlay some pain on a team that has caused us significant grief over the past few seasons.
In my opinion this game will be decided by how well we can contain the dangerous indigenous trio of Eddie Betts, Jeff Garlett and Chris Yarran.
Betts and Garlett in particular have terrorised Richmond defenders for years, although this year we are better equipped to handle their exploits with the likes of Steve Morris and even Brandon Ellis down back to try and quell their brilliance.
To win we will also have to find other avenues to goal apart from Jack Riewoldt. Robin Nahas has been productive over the past month but there needs to be another target, preferably a tall, who can at least take a grab and create a contest deep inside our 50.
It remains to be seen whether Luke McGuane is a long term key position forward for us, but in the short term he needs to lift and provide us with something of value in attack.
The inclusion of Jake King will be a bigger boost to the side than what the media outlets or average punter would lead you to believe, with his presence and defensive mindset being sorely missed over the past few weeks where we have struggled to produce any consistency with our game in the forward half.
Dustin Martin will also be better for his game last week, and if Ivan Maric can control the ruck against young dynamo Matthew Kreuzer that will be an immense help to the supply of ball we can get to our running midfielders.
The punters have backed us in as favourites despite our poor track record against the Blues, but as I mentioned earlier, if we were ever to beat them, this would be the week.
If that happens, then maybe, just maybe the season is not totally dead and buried.
Go Tiges!
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