The Tigers had been under pretty intense media scrutiny all week and I was getting heartily sick of the phrase "This is a side that was 6 and 2 after 8 rounds and has now slumped to 8 and 6." Myriad reasons were tossed around for this, but no one mentioned a lack of football smarts or less than brilliant coaching. Despite this the Tigers were still slight favourites. I didn't share the optimism. The announcement of the team on Thursday confirmed that the coaching panel had not learned anything. Hyde, after his best game for Richmond was dropped, and Dragicevic after being given about half a quarter against Adelaide was also dropped. How on earth was he supposed to impress with about 15 minutes of game time? Blumfield was brought back in and I could see the sense of that, an experienced player with talent, although I thought he may have been given another week with Coburg to make sure that the quad was right, however the other addition made no sense at all: Fiora. The guy was given a spell of one week with Coburg because he doesn't know what to do with the ball when he gets it. Coburg lost and Fiora was not mentioned amongst the best. I'm confused.

The game being at Telstra Dome was not going to be weather affected and that was a plus, Geelong's captain and ruckman Steven King pulled out before the game and that wouldn't hurt Richmond's chances either. The way they started this game you'd never know their season was on the line. Negative football which allowed Geelong to generate run out of the midfield and Graham to absolutely kill the defender on him, which should have been Kellaway, but for some reason known only to the inept Richmond coaching staff wasn't. Leon Cameron in his 250th game was the only reason we had even scored a goal by quarter time. The second quarter was more of the same. Four of Richmond's brightest prospects had all spent more time on the pine than on the field. We needed crumbers, midfielders and one quick player who could carry the ball out of the backline. Rodan and Krakouer are midfielders and crumbers, they were both on the bench, Coughlan is a gun midfielder and he was on the bench, Fiora for all his failings is quick and can run the ball, also on the bench. I'm convinced Frawley is trying to get sacked so he can pick up the St Kilda job, which will probably be up for grabs at the end of this season. We had 4 goals on the board all from Cameron and we were 27 points down at halftime. About halfway through the third quarter Frawley finally listened to every critic on the radio, the TV and at the game and put Rodan, Krakouer, Fiora and Coughlan on the ground. He also put Kellaway on Graham and released the side to play attacking football. All of a sudden the game turned. Coughlan worked with Johnson to take control of the midfield. Krakouer started to shark loose balls, Graham went out of the game, Rodan vacuumed up anything on the ground and hammered it into the forward line and Fiora provided run from half back, plus Campbell had been allowed to play in the middle where he could do some damage. When Richo threaded one through from the boundary on the siren we were only 20 points down and looking dangerous. The last pulsating quarter was all Richmond. Coughlan had a blinder with 14 possessions and a goal. Holland moved into the forward line and marked everything that came near him. Rodan and Krakouer led their opponents a merry dance and created opportunities for their teammates. With two minutes to go we were 2 points up in a game we had no business winning, we had kicked 7 straight goals. Paul Chapman dropped a ball onto his boot centimetres from Geelong's goal line. Firstly he missed it altogether, secondly even if his boot did graze it he was over the line. It was a point. The goal umpire called it a goal. Geelong won by four points. Campbell went off with a snapped achilles tendon, his season over, Johnson did a hammy, 3 - 4 weeks out. Our season was shot. Forget about finals yet again. Had we played attacking football for the whole game the Cats wouldn't have even been in the hunt. Had Frawley got his matchups right and put the correct players on the ground this would have been an easy morale boosting win for Richmond. You blew it Danny. We lost our most important game of the season and I'm afraid that it is all YOUR fault! Rodan had a decent game when he was on the ground and picked up 13 possessions. This kid deserves a finals series, but he won't get it this season.