Richmond’s VFL squad has suffered its second loss of the season, going down to Geelong by eight points at the ME Bank Centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers displayed a much faster and more competitive brand of football than in their opening round loss to Coburg, led by the likes of Matt Thomas, who finished with 30 disposals and 11 clearances.
Richmond’s midfielders managed to compensate for the loss of their three highest ball-getters against Frankston the previous week – Jaryd Cachia (suspended), Nathan Foley (injured) and Corey Ellis (elevated to the AFL).
Matt McDonough (seven clearances), Reece Conca (19 disposals and six clearances), and Connor Menadue (six clearances), alongside Thomas, were instrumental.
Dylan Grimes lays a strong tackle. Photo: Matt Johnson
Liam McBean continued his strong goalkicking form with an equal game-high of three majors.
Others to impress included Jason Castagna, who won 25 disposals, and Matt Dea, who finished with 20 possessions and provided constructive run off the backline.
The lead changed up to six times in a frenetic final term, however some errors from Richmond allowed the Cats to kick two quick goals in the final moments, which secured victory for the visitors.
Richmond VFL coach Tim Clarke said the Tigers would rue those missed opportunities in the dying moments of the game.
“Geelong is a very good football team and they were unlucky to lose a few guys early, which gave us the opportunity to run away with the game,” he said.
“But we couldn’t control the ball offensively and put them under any kind of pressure. For them to get the two goals late off our turnovers really hurt us.
“You cannot afford to turn the ball over the way we did today and not challenge a team offensively. It keeps them in the game and it means you cannot put enough scoreboard pressure, on and that’s what we couldn’t do today.”
Clarke said the key message to his players would be to simplify their ball movement, and not to overwork the footy.
“Moments in the game when we had an opportunity to do something simple with the footy, we tried to do too much,” he said.
“When you look at the way we want to play as a footy club we went outside of that today in different areas. And it hurt us.”
Richmond will hope to snare a win next Saturday when they meet the North Ballarat Roosters at the ME Bank Centre in Round 4.
FINAL SCORES
Richmond 5.2 8.5 12.7 15.11.101
Geelong 6.3 9.5 11.8 16.13.109
GOALS
McBean 3, Scott 2, Wynne 2, Gleeson 2, McFarlane 1, Gale 1, Hampson 1, Menadue 1, Wall 1, McDonough
BEST
Thomas, Menadue, Conca, Wall, Castagna, McDonough, Dea, Barlow, Wynne
