Round 3, 1995 - Hawthorn vs Richmond

It may not have been a day for clean footy, but Richmond caused an early season upset by beating the Hawks by six points at Waverley Park to start their season 3-0.

Water came spurting out of the surface as players slid, tackled and soccered their way around the ground, and although inaccuracy almost cost them, it was the Tigers who managed to overcome the Hawks in the final term to win 4.16 (40) to 5.4 (34).

Greg Dear competes for the footy in a scrum of a players

It was the first time Richmond had beaten Hawthorn since 1985, and as strong a sign yet that they were a team that couldn't be taken lightly in 1995.

Richmond's hardnuts seemed to relish the appalling conditions, with players like Michael Gale and Jamie Tape not only putting their bodies on the line to win the footy, but also looking clean while they did it.

And although it wasn't a day for the talls, Greg Dear was particularly dominant in the ruck. Commentators for the game mentioning multiple times that the Hawks seemed happy to just concede that he was going to win and control most ruck contests.

Richmond's four goals all came from the tall duo of Brendan Gale and Matthew Richardson who booted two each, with the former kicking the match-winner after a good piece of play by Matthew Rogers to put the ball back into the hotspot wgere Gale marked and cooly goaled. Gale's goals put him over 100 for his career.

Midfielders Matthew Knights and Wayne Campbell both starred for the Tigers in the final quarter, getting on top of the star studded Hawks midfield in Platten and Crawford, while Stuart Wigney also stopped numerous Hawks forward entries late to help deny them a victory.

Ruckman/key position player Justin Charles came on for a cameo appearance (and won some plaudits from the commentary team about his 'sensational new haircut'), but the way he played actually reminded me quite a bit of Noah Balta. Long and athletic, he wasn't afraid to play on immediately after marking and bounding down the ground before kicking the ball a good 55m on occasion. It was also his first game for his new club.

One other interesting tidbit is that of Duncan Kellaway. For the long-time Tiger fans out there, they will know that Kellaway took an awful long time to register his first goal in league footy (I believe it took him almost 100 games). Well, Kellaway had an easy chance to kick his first in this one (his 35th AFL game) about 10 metres out after a 50m penalty, but missed!

Stats for the game courtesy of AFL Tables

A Fighting Fury player ratings - click here for explanation

Jamie Tape	10
Brendan Gale	9
Greg Dear	7
Michael Gale	7
Stuart Wigney	7
Paul Broderick	6
Matthew Knights	6
Wayne Campbell	5
Matthew Richardson	5
Tony Free	5
Chris Bond	4
Duncan Kellaway	4
Nick Daffy	3
Justin Charles	3
Scott Turner	2
Chris Naish	2
David Bourke	2
Stuart Edwards	1
Matthew Rogers	1
Mark Merenda	1
Stuart Maxfield	1