It wasn’t that long ago that Richmond fans were calling for the head of now premiership coach, Damien “Dimma” Hardwick. Dimma took the reigns of the struggling club in 2009. By 2015 he had taken them to three successive finals series but failed to take them past the first game. 2016 saw the Tigers drop back down the ladder to 13th place. Dimma’s position as head coach looked untenable.
Fast forward to the first week of September 2018 and not only are the Tigers on a 20 game winning streak at the MCG, the longest in history, but they’re favourites for their second successive flag. Hardwick’s tactical nous and devotion to his charges asks for a comparison to his opposite number in tonight’s final, Alastair Clarkson. The reputation the Tiger’s developed last September and the great season they backed it up with this year begs the question: are Richmond the new Hawthorn?
Not if the real Hawthorn have anything to say with it. The Hawthorn list management team has breathed life into the side that looked finally spent by the end of 2016. They still made finals that year but it looked like they were on their last legs and would need to commit to a rebuild. Rebuild is not a word in the Hawthorn vocabulary though. Instead they traded out all draft picks at their disposal to add Sydney ball-magnet Tom Mitchell and injury plagued Rising Star winner Jaegar O’Meara.
O’Meara will play his first final tonight and has played a remarkable 20 games this year after only six over the three years prior. Tom Mitchell is the best ball-winner in the league and this year’s Brownlow Medal favourite. Clarkson has taken the Hawks back to the top four without Lake, Gibson, Hodge, Lewis, Mitchell, Rioli, or Birchall. He has also found quality in unlikely places with first year draftee James Worpell named on ball and Irish project player Connor Nash coming off the bench for only his fourth game of AFL.
When the Hawks were at their peak Richmond were the giant slayers. They recorded several rousing victories over Hawthorn that routinely defied expectation. Now the roles are reversed, the Hawks as David and the Tigers, Goliath. It’s part of what makes tonight’s match so intriguing, especially to punters. For those wanting to get a slice of the action OLBG.com.au has a selection of the best bonus bets. Hawthorn’s form coming into this game was superior and they have been bolstered by three massive ins in the form of James Frawley, James Sicily and Jonathan Ceglar.
Richmond’s form towards the end of the season was not as convincing. Bottom ten sides Essendon and Bulldogs pushed them both. They responded by dropping premiership player Brandon Ellis while Kane Lambert takes his spot as he returns from injury. They’re still without gun pressure forward Dan Butler. All of this doesn’t change the fact that they’re the best MCG side to ever play the game and have beaten Hawthorn in their last two encounters.
Tonight’s winner will go straight into a prelim at the MCG and have an easy path to the Grand Final. The loser will take on the winner of Melbourne v Geelong, two of September’s danger sides with very deep midfields. Everything is on the line and we’re in for a cracker of a game.
