Round 13, 1996 - Collingwood vs Richmond

Richmond have picked up their third win in a row, holding off arch-rivals Collingwood by 23 points in front of almost 70,000 fans at the MCG.

A scintillating start that saw the Tigers boot six goals to one in the first term set up the 14.8 (92) to 10.9 (69) victory.

Teenager Damien Ryan booted a goal in the opening seconds.

The win solidified Richmond's position in the eight, at least for one more week, as they looked to be building some mid-season momentum under new coach Robert Walls.

It was a particularly hot start for the Tigers, who kicked three goals in the opening five minutes, including one to Damien Ryan in the first play of the game. This would be his first goal in AFL football.

In fact, Collingwood were unable to move the ball into their half of the ground for those first five minutes.

One interesting matchup was Collingwood champion Nathan Buckley starting one on one with Matthew Richardson.

Richmond brought the intensity with some ferocious tackling early, and when they kicked their fourth goal in seven minutes it looked like this would be a massacre.

Collingwood started to find their feet midway through the first term, but ultimately didn't get much impact on the scoreboard.

The Buckley/Richardson matchup continued to be an interesting one in the second term, with Buckley actually getting the better of Richo initially but surprisingly, it was Buckley's poor kicking that gifted the champion Tiger and his teammates a few shots on goal from turnovers.

Buckley wouldn't be alone in having trouble finding his teammates though, with particularly blustery conditions at the MCG causing havoc with field kicking and shots on goal throughout the night.

Weirdly enough, Pies coach Tony Shaw moved Buckley to full forward to start the second half, which makes you wonder whether he may have been carrying an injury or not.

Collingwood certainly played a better brand of football in the second half, and even pulled the margin back to two goals early in the final term, but the Tigers were able to steady with a couple of goals from Richardson to seal victory.

Continuing their hot form on the night were Paul Broderick and Wayne Campbell, who amassed 56 disposals, four goals and five Brownlow votes between them, while the aforementioned Richardson was a handful for the Pies defends, booting five goals.

Hard nuts Chris Bond and Duncan Kellaway played really well in the clinches where the contest was willing, while Darren Gaspar did a great job in keeping (an albeit underdone) Saverio Rocca to just four kicks and two goals.

Stats for the game courtesy of AFL Tables

A Fighting Fury player ratings - click here for explanation

Paul Broderick	9
Wayne Campbell	9
Matthew Richardson	8
Duncan Kellaway	7
Chris Bond	6
Darren Gaspar	6
Matthew Rogers	5
Justin Charles	4
Ashley Prescott	4
Brendon Gale	4
Greg Dear	4
Chris Naish	4
Jamie Tape	3
Michael Gale	3
Mark Merenda	3
Nathan Bower	2
Nick Daffy	2
Ben Harrison	2
Damien Ryan	2
David Bourke	1
Ben Holland	0