Tigers grab comeback win over Swans

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says the Tiger revival is tracking ahead of schedule
after his side pulled off a stunning AFL comeback to thrust aside years of Sydney
dominance.
The Tigers had lost their past eight games against the Swans, most by big margins,
and trailed by 33 points entering time-on in the third term at the MCG on Sunday.
But they showed great heart to kick eight of the last 10 goals and win 14.5 (89) to
12.13 (85).
After a winless first nine rounds under Hardwick, Richmond have won four of their
past five games, lifting them off the bottom for the first time since round one.
Hardwick labelled it the best win of his short career.
"It's not often you come from five goals down against a quality outfit such as
Sydney, a top eight side, a side that when you're normally down by that, finish the
game at that margin," Hardwick said.
"For our leaders especially, to stand up in the last quarter was terrific ... for
our guys to actually show some fight and come out on top is a terrific win and
obviously our best win to date."
The fightback began with Richmond kicking the last three goals of the third term,
star forward Jack Riewoldt taking a superb goalsquare mark with the flight of the
ball in the final seconds of the quarter to send the Tigers to the break on a high.
Captain Chris Newman continued the run early in the final term, with a long running
goal, one of two gems he kicked for the term, but it was youngster Andrew Collins
who stole the show.
Knocked out seconds before Newman kicked his second at the 15-minute mark, the
lightweight 19th-gamer was helped from the field, but returned to twice mark and
goal late in the game to snatch the match-winning lead.
Hardwick said both Collins and reigning best and fairest Brett Deledio showed great
courage, Deledio playing a huge hand in the result despite having his elbow
hyperextended when Sydney's Ben McGlynn fell on him in the second term.
The Tigers coach acknowledged that he had not expected his young side's development
would have been rapid enough to produce such heroic wins at this stage.
"The development of certain players has outweighed how we thought we'd perform as a
team," he said.
"Jack Riewoldt, you wouldn't have thought he would have kicked (53) goals now, Shane
Edwards has been terrific, David Astbury if he doesn't get a Rising Star nomination
this week I don't know what the hell's going on."
But despite the growing belief amongst the players, Hardwick said the Tigers were
"under no illusions" they still needed vast improvement to become an AFL
heavyweight.
Sydney coach Paul Roos said the Swans' made the mistake of allowing Richmond some
cheap goals late in the third quarter, when they were in control, which sparked the
landslide.
"Momentum is a huge thing in footy and it's really hard to turn around ... credit to
them they took it and ran with it and ended up obviously winning."



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