The Northern Blues have fallen agonisingly short in a tight encounter with the Richmond Tigers on Saturday at Preston City Oval.
The Blues - who were looking to bounce back after a poor showing against the Bulldogs last week - fell away in the final quarter, going down 5. 9. (39) to 9. 9. (63) in a scrappy affair in difficult conditions.
The two teams swapped blows in the first quarter, with both teams’ defensive lines standing up well against immense forward pressure.
In the low-scoring encounter, the Blues were able to hold a narrow lead heading in to the quarter time break through goals from Blaine Johnson and Dillon Viojo-Rainbow.
As the rain and hail tumbled down, scoring became even harder to come by: the Tigers’ inaccuracy cost them dearly, having most of the momentum yet only adding three points to the scoreboard.
Kreuzer silencing the doubters
In the final seconds of the half, Matthew Watson drilled a goal from the boundary to give the Blues a nine-point buffer heading into the long break.
The third quarter followed suit with only three goals: two of which were kicked in the final few minutes by the Tigers. It brought the margin back to two points in favour of the Blues going into the final break.
However, showing they had all the momentum, Richmond piled on five goals to one in the final term to come out of the game with their second win in as many weeks.
After trailing by 15 points early in the third, the Tigers would go onto kick seven of the last eight goals to come away with a 24-point victory,
David Astbury (2 goals) proved his worth to the Tigers and Matt Thomas (27 possessions, 9 clearances and 11 tackles) was prominent and would expect to push for senior selection.
For the Blues, Wilkinson led the way with 32 possessions, while Brad Walsh (23 possessions) pushed hard all game.
The end result leaves Northern facing a 4-8 win/loss record and a tough road ahead to finish the season on a high.
On a positive note for the Blues, the game marked the successful return from injury for Ciaran Byrne.
Speaking post-match, Byrne highlighted that while it was a welcome relief to play his first game in three months, the result put a dampener on the day.
“It was a disappointing day in the end - we didn’t stick to our game plan for the second week in a row,” Byrne said.
“We didn’t really play the conditions very well, they got on top of us and kicked a few goals which is something we have to counteract next week.”
Byrne, who accumulated 21 disposals off half back in managed game time, said the Blues had a lot to work on before facing Casey next week.
“We just need to get the simple things right: we need to switch the ball and really address those basic skills which hopefully works for us,” Byrne said.
The Blues face Casey next Saturday at Ikon Park from 2pm to get their season back on track.
NORTHERN BLUES 2.4 3.6 4.6 5. 9. (39)
RICHMOND 2.0 2.3 4.4 9. 9. (63)
GOALS
NORTHERN BLUES: Johnson 2, Watson, Viojo-Rainbow, Jaksch
RICHMOND: Astbury 2, McBean 2, Knights, Scott, McDonough, McKenzie, Cachia
BEST
NORTHERN BLUES: Bransgrove, Whiley, Walsh, Dick, Wilkinson, Jaksch
RICHMOND: Thomas, Lennon, Knights, Cachia, McDonough, Barlow
