The Suns chose a bad time to deliver perhaps their worst half of the year. Sean Lemmens was one (among several) who will not enjoy the review of this game; Eventually, pressure striker Nick Holman was sent back to harden the defense.
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Halfway through, with the Suns 34 points behind and their season well and truly at stake, co-captain Jarrod Witts called in his troops to chat, clearly looking for an answer. He and Miller have almost carried this team on their backs for too long.
But less than two minutes into the second half, Jack Graham moved away from another stop and broke from 40 yards out, to gain a 40-point lead. And that should have been the game, if not the end of the resistance.
But what Witts said, he received an answer. The Suns began to dominate around the clearings, falling back to 20 points with four goals for the fourth, Ainsworth and Miller getting some reward on the scoreboard for their efforts.
Richmond was able to regain some control, the Suns lost some of their nerves and Bolton passed to Riewoldt at the end of the quarter to restore a 28-point margin; enough, surely, to endure the Suns.
The pattern was repeated in the final quarter: Anderson led the Suns to 15 points, only to see Riewoldt give the ball a free run to score, and then threw his third: a clutch shot from strong against the limit.
But the Suns came out of the clouds from there, scoring four goals to sneak home, leaving Richmond to count their losses. While it was from the Suns, it was a bitter loss for the Tigers, a missed opportunity they may bitterly regret in September.
The Tigers lick their wounds
Richmond is looking for a number of serious injuries after the clash, with Toby Nankervis suffering a knee cruciate ligament injury and Ivan Soldo breaking a thumb.
“We may not have a ruck next week, it will be a challenge,” coach Damien Hardwick said sadly. “It was a hard night in the office, no doubt.”
Lynch tensed his hamstrings at the start of the match, which he described at half-time as “minor” and “a little annoying, more than anything”.
But Hardwick was more cautious. “There are no real minor hamstrings these days. He’s had a bit of history. He could have dodged a bullet, but he’ll still miss weeks.”
Beyond the injuries, Hardwick knew his side had broken him. Jake Aarts and Maurice Rioli jnr missed seven single shots in the last quarter, while Castagna had a shot drowned in the last line when he ended up putting the ball on the scoreboard.
“You have opportunities to finish,” Hardwick said. “It’s not as if they were hard shots on goal. You just have to run them.
“Just kick the goal. I thought we left a lot of goals on the table, a lot. The fact is that if you leave the door open, you get hurt.
“All credit to Gold Coast, his second half of the game was very dominant. We didn’t respond well enough and didn’t execute the basics of the game well enough long enough. I think we just lost our cool.”
With eight wins and eight losses, the Suns are now just one win and one percentage out of eight, with Richmond clinging to eighth.
Stuart Dew, whose contract was extended for two years during the week, looked like he had just been released from prison. The first half of the Suns was perhaps the worst his team had played all season.
“We started really badly,” he said. “We lost shape, we lost critical contests, we made unusual mistakes.”
In the middle part, he said, “there are two options. You can blow up your battery and try to get an answer. In the end I probably said ‘I’m not angry, I’m disappointed’ … I just had to see a bigger effort “.
Anderson, who is not known as the most reliable kick, was the hero of the Suns, kicking the goal after the siren to see the Suns at home. But there were many other moments that added up the victory.
“It’s a game of inches, isn’t it?” Dew said. “[Charlie] Ballard’s suffocation [on Castagna]. It can go two ways. Noah Anderson did a great job on his goal. He was confident, because he has done the job.
“These are special games. When you win like that, you just let go of everything. Now we can breathe. “
Gold Coast: 3.3 4.4 8.7 14.10 (94) Richmond: 5.3 9.8 12.11 13.14 (92)
Goals
Gold Coast: Chol 3, Ainsworth 2, Anderson 2, Day, Fiorini, Holman, Miller, Oea, Rowell, Swallow. Richmond: Bolton 3, Riewoldt 3, Cumberland 2, Aarts, Edwards, Graham, Pickett, Short.
The best
Gold Coast: Miller, Anderson, Ainsworth, Ellis, Ballard, Witts.Richmond: Bolton, D. Rioli, Grimes, Prestia, Pickett, Broad.
Injuries
Gold Coast: Rosas (hamstring) replaced by Atkins. Richmond: Lynch (hamstring) replaced by Cumberland.
VOTES
Shai Bolton (Richmond) 8Touk Miller (Gold Coast) 8Ben Ainsworth (Gold Coast) 8Noah Anderson (Gold Coast) 8Daniel Rioli (Richmond) 7
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