Richmond’s Jake Aarts was left to lament a late stroke in the crash defeat in North Melbourne. Image: Getty / Fox Sports
Richmond Tigers little striker Jake Aarts appeared to deactivate his Instagram account after receiving strong criticism from social media trolls following the Tigers ’narrow loss to North Melbourne on Saturday night.
Aarts found himself on the shooting line after a late stroke faded the Tigers one last shot at victory.
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With less than a minute left in the competition and Richmond losing by four points, Aarts was left without a follow-up as he made a run in the 50s.
Noah Cumberland chose Aarts, who claimed an undisputed mark 40 meters from goal.
However, instead of preparing for a game-winning attempt at the mermaid, Aarts decided to continue playing.
Bailey Scott of North Melbourne put enough pressure to force Aarts to play handball, before receiving the ball back from a Tigers teammate and throwing a hurried shot into the goal square that the Kangaroos went throw from behind.
Speaking after the contest, Richmond head coach Damien Hardwick refused to directly blame Aarts, saying the Tigers had many other opportunities they could not take advantage of during the contest.
“Until you’re in that situation, you don’t know,” Hardwick said. “Unfortunately, he probably made the decision that if he had his time again, he would come back, but the reality is he took it, so we move on.
“There were many reasons (we lost). The last defensive goal was bad … you can’t let a guy (Zurhaar) come from the other side of the pack and walk around.
“It was ridiculous, and it probably sums us up, really. It’s Richmond killing Richmond right now.”
However, despite the reasoned support of his Premiership-winning coach, Aarts still found himself the target of armchair experts looking for a scapegoat to blame for the disappointing defeat of the competition’s winery inhabitants.
The story goes on
Aarts wisely chose to silence the trolls by disabling his Instagram account, which was still offline at the time of writing.
Kangaroos hold up against rapidly ending tigers
Earlier, North Melbourne had lost a 32-point lead at half-time, with a series of questionable errors of their own that allowed the Tigers to return to competition.
Aarts ’chance to get the victory only came after the Kangaroos missed a golden opportunity seconds before.
Roos striker Curtis Taylor scored just outside the 50, but also inexplicably opted to continue, hitting his kick over the head of unmarked teammate Luke Davies-Uniacke and passing behind.
The final madness left many experts questioning the awareness of the game and the calm of the two teams under pressure.
The win put an end to a streak of 14 consecutive defeats for North Melbourne, who fired their head coach David Noble during the week.
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