RICHMOND 4.4 6.9 9.12 11.15 (81)
ESSENDON 6.0 8.1 10.3 10.6 (66)
GOALS: Richmond: Caddy 2, Riewoldt 2, Edwards 2, Ellis, Martin, Lloyd, Elton, Nankervis. Essendon: Daniher 3, Goddard 2, Heppell, Zaharakis, Green, Stewart, Fantasia.
BEST:  Richmond: Martin, Cotchin, Rance, Ellis, Edwards, Houli. Essendon: Zaharakis, Goddard, Heppell, McGrath, Parish, Dea.Â
UMPIRES: Matt Stevic, Jeff Dalgleish, Curtis Deboy.
CROWD: 85,656 at MCG.
You can only take so much as a supporter, and no fan deserves to be put through what Richmond fans spent the last quarter on Saturday night grappling with.
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Tigers finally clinch tight one
Richmond have put four consecutive losses behind them with a 81-66 defeat of Essendon in front of a record regular season Saturday night crowd at the MCG.
And that was the prospect of, after three losses by less than a goal, potentially a fourth, this one after having dominated the Dreamtime game against Essendon everywhere but the scoreboard for the best part of three quarters.
Richmond had more of the better players on the ground. It certainly had the better of time in the forward half, the final inside 50 count a very lopsided 71-42.
What it didn't have, until big man Toby Nankervis slotted only the second goal of the last quarter with just one minute and 50 seconds left on the clock, was a winning break. No wonder the roar which greeted his long bomb smacked as much of relief as jubilation. It had been some struggle.
In front of a massive crowd of 85,656, the biggest for one of these annual blockbusters, this was a game which started in fourth gear, no "getting to know you's" necessary, though early on it was Essendon doing all the talking.
The Bombers had the Tigers on the back foot immediately with three goals in under six minutes, Orazio Fantasia snapping the first then putting a pass on Joe Daniher's chest for the second.
After Dyson Heppell nailed Kane Lambert in a tackle and Brendon Goddard pounced on the spoils, it was 18 points the difference and Richmond had only touched the ball 10 times.
But that pattern was as good as reversed for the next 10 as the Tigers suddenly found their line. Sam Lloyd converted from outside 50. Shane Edwards, wearing the No.67 in this Dreamtime game, put through the next. And when Josh Caddy dobbed one from 55 metres, with the ball seemingly locked in Essendon's defensive 50, Richmond were in front.
Cue the next momentum shift, with the Bombers kicking three of the last four goals of the quarter, all in "red time". That little period, however, seemed more of a mirage the longer the second quarter ticked over.
It was Richmond now dominating play at least, the Tigers with 18 forward entries for the second quarter to Essendon's nine. The problem, as in last week's now infamous loss to GWS, however, was not converting that dominance.
For all their superiority in field play, the Tigers still went into half-time trailing after 2.5 for the quarter, a couple of the misses, one of Josh Caddy's and particularly one of Jack Riewoldt's, gettable to say the least.
Richmond had regained the lead after 10 minutes of sustained forward pressure, the Bombers continually forced into hurried disposal and turnovers, Edwards pouncing on one of them for his second goal.
The one-point margin at that stage should have been a bit more, and nervous Tiger fans became angry ones in the last minute before the long break, when they were again on the wrong end of controversy and drama, Jayden Short penalised for a deliberate rushed behind after he'd won a foot race to a ball bouncing in the defensive goalsquare.
His pursuer, Josh Green, had wisely kept his distance, and the five-metre gap between the pair was enough in the umpire's mind to constitute a penalty when Short rushed the ball through his defensive goal.
But if the Bombers were perhaps lucky to be in front come half-time, they were even luckier to only be three points in arrears come the last change. By then, Richmond's edge had in territory had become pronounced enough to warrant a lead more in the order of five or six goals than less than a kick.
Essendon somehow found themselves nine points up midway through the quarter due almost entirely to efficiency.
After David Zaharakis slotted a goal on the run, the Dons had 10.2 on the board from just 27 forward entries. That was a strike rate of around 38 per cent, the normal level somewhere in the low 20s.
Richmond, meanwhile, had gone inside 43 times for seven goals. You didn't need to do the math on that to know the Tigers once again were threatening to blow a golden opportunity.
The inside 50s for the quarter ended up 22-9 Richmond's way. Fortunately, by then, Dustin Martin, later awarded the Yiooken Medal as best on ground, and Brandon Ellis had at least offered some reward for effort and there hovered a sense of inevitability over the result.
Which is sort of how it panned out. Though after what the Tiger army have been through this past month, they'd probably beg to differ.
Votes
Dustin Martin (Rich) Â 8
Trent Cotchin (Rich) 8
David Zaharakis (Ess) 7
Brendon Goddard (Ess) 7
Alex Rance (Rich) 7