This was published 2 years ago
That’s all we have for you tonight as Richmond had a memorable win over Geelong and Gold Coast Suns thrashed West Coast in Perth.
Thanks so much for the comments and interactions, please join us again tomorrow for our AFL Saturday blog.
Until then, bye for now.
Gold Coast have scored their biggest-ever win away from home with a 70-point win over West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium tonight.
Matt Rowell led his side with 29 possessions and Noah Anderson had 27 possessions while Ben King kicked four goals as the Suns won their third game out of the last four.
Suns defender Charlie Ballard also posted an exceptional 10 intercept marks along with nine spoils while as a team the Suns had 63 inside 50s compared to just 31 for the Eagles.
The Suns have a 4-5 record this season.
The Gold Coast Suns are closing in on a third win in four games with a comfortable lead over West Coast in the final term.
Ben King has kicked four goals and Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson have again dominated in midfield against an Eagles side who lost Jamaine Jones (broken nose) and Jack Darling (arm injury).
Suns 108, Eagles 43 with seven mins to go.
Cats coach Chris Scott spoke to the media after tonight’s loss to Richmond.
Really mindful you’re probably missing eight of your best 22 players but did you feel there were some skill issues and uncharacteristic Cats things that popped up tonight that were a bit unexpected?
I’m a bit more positive than that. I mean, the numbers would suggest that we had, you know, more than our fair share of opportunities to really put them under pressure and I think the first quarter, if you ice late it to that, they took their chances, and we didn’t, felt like we were on top, but to your point with the players missing - like, we sort of went into the game really keen to win. If we came away having won, given Richmond played really well, they sort of looked like old Richmond a bit to me, and say it a lot, timing is important in this game. To my eye, they looked like they were playing a lot more the way they did when they were higher up on the ladder. So given we went in with the expectation that they would play close to their best, we went in thinking, OK, we’re going to need to play really well. I think we did for big parts of it. Certainly, the young players we had in our team give us great reason for optimism. So I’m pretty philosophical about it. It’s hard, because in the immediate aftermath, you just want to win the game and everything...and anything but that feels like a disappointment.
But even in the immediate aftermath, I kind of look at it and think, yeah, maybe we let ourselves down with some execution. I thought even this is not saying Richmond had good luck but I just thought we had some bad luck sometimes. Like, just the rub of the green didn’t go our way, the bounce of the ball that sort of thing but again, if you get a little bit more sophisticated than that, kind of look at the players in our team, Ratugolea’s played every game, but he’s still a new player to our team really this year. Certainly in that position. And he was fantastic. I thought Bruhn was good. I thought Jhye Clark when he came on, everyone would’ve seen little patches of what he’s going to be. There’s a lot we’ll take away from the game and be positive about.
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick spoke to the media after tonight’s win.
Is this the “I told you so” moment?
(CHUCKLES) No, not really. I was just proud of our footy club overall. We’ve been through some adversity, as have other clubs, the side across the road [Geelong] have obviously hit a bump in the road with their injuries. But we asked some guys to play some foreign roles and they’ve stepped up and executed. That’s a really pleasing thing. Our leaders have been great just the way they’ve continued to promote the positive messages we’ve been trying to portray. They’ve done a wonderful job of keeping the energy up. It was pleasing. It’s always good to beat a really good opposition in Friday Night Footy. Makes the week a little bit more enjoyable which is great.
All jokes aside, you stayed really positive. You didn’t seem to blink throughout any of the tough times at the start of the year. You obviously still have a lot of belief in this group?
Whether it is a sign of an impending retirement or simply two veteran stars taking a moment to celebrate their long careers - Jack Riewoldt and Tom Hawkins swapped their guernseys after the siren tonight.
The pair even signed their respective jumpers before the exchange which has some people guessing they thought it would be their last time playing against each other, hence the jumper swap.
But for now, let’s just enjoy two champion forwards who kicked goals tonight with Hawkins kicking three and Riewoldt two goals.
Richmond superstar Dustin Martin has let the critics know he still believes in his club’s veteran stars after their win over Geelong tonight.
Martin kicked four goals and Trent Cotchin kicked three to be among the team’s best in a win over the reigning premiers.
“Good even spread tonight. The old boys have still got it,” Martin told Channel Seven as he joined Cotchin for a post game interview.
Cotchin praised Dion Prestia in his 200th game and also commended Martin’s ability to still be a match-winner.
“He does it every week - it’s few and far between for me,” Cotchin told Channel Seven.
“But I’m just rapt to be out here with such a great group. And we’ve got guys on the sidelines that are ready to come in when they’re called upon. Really excited about what’s ahead.”
Richmond has turned back the clock and come up with an impressive win over Geelong as Dustin Martin kicked four goals and Trent Cotchin returned to the side with three goals.
The Cats were fielded their youngest team since 2020 and couldn’t match the efficiency and drive of the Tigers but the likes of Ollie Henry, Tanner Bruhn and Jhye Clark showed glimpses of their development.
Cotchin came back into the side and showed he could be a damaging player up forward as the Tigers look to move up the standings.
Mark Blicavs has kicked a running goal for the Cats who are finishing strongly, sadly it will be too little, too late to claim this win.
Dustin Martin has bounced up at the other end to take a mark and snap his third goal, although Geelong will argue he shoved Zach Tuohy out of the way with two hands before claiming the mark.
Tigers 101, Cats 78 with two mins to go.