To the bitter end: Round 11 wrap (Friday)

The Bulldogs thrashed Richmond by 68 points, ending Terry Wallace’s career on a sour note.

Richmond led at half time but, as they did against Essendon, they almost stopped in the second half as the Western Bulldogs’ class showed through. In the end it was the same old Richmond: energetic and inefficient in the first half, insipid and outclassed in the second half. They finished with a Geelong-like 428 disposals but many were pointless handballs. Mitch Morton and Jack Riewoldt provided good targets in the first half but faded with the team in the second half. Joel Bowden and Chris Newman battled hard against a flood of goals.

The Bulldogs seemed flat in the first half, racking up as many clangers as Richmond. In the third quarter they slammed on seven unanswered goals with Adam Cooney and Daniel Giansiracusa providing the spark. Shaun Higgins lead the way with three first half goals and provided consistent class throughout the game.

The game started with Liam Picken tagging Brett Deledio to great effect, and Daniel Jackson going head to head with Cooney. Jackson clearly won that battle in the first quarter and racked up possessions at will, but as the game progressed Jackson faded and Cooney stepped up. The Bulldogs ended the game with an amazing 14 individual goal kickers.

Although Richmond lost the game, they won the fantasy footy contest, racking up more points in both Dream Team and Super Coach. Daniel Jackson was at the top of DT with 129 (53 in the first quarter) and Shane Tuck was at top in SC with 123. Higgins (DT 106/SC 111) and Mark Coughlan (94/94) rewarded those coaches who kept them. Josh Hill was the Junk Time Junkie racking up 55 DT points in the last quarter. Ryan Griffen gets a huge “spud” with the equal worst SC score on the ground (31) and the 4th worst DT score (36). Seriously, will this guy ever have a break out year?

As Richmond announce their caretaker coach, fantasy coaches need to contemplate what effect the coaching change will have on Richmond fantasy scores. Personally, I cant see a new coach letting players accumulate pointless possessions while getting thrashed by 68 points. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a reduction in fantasy scores.

What do you think? Which Richmond players will be dropped or have fantasy scores reduced?