Round 7, 1996 - Richmond vs Footscray

A dominant third term by Richmond has set up a stunning 51-point win over Footscray at the MCG, sending the Tigers to sixth on the AFL ladder.

Footscray actually held a slender 9-point lead at halftime, but that quickly evaporated with an 8-goal to one third term, which lead to a 17.11 (113) to 9.8 (62) Tigers victory.

It was an important day for Richmond, not just wanting to get the job done on Mothers Day, but it was also a day where the club celebrated it's premiership heroes by doing a motorcade around the ground before the game.

In what was a pretty ugly day for footy weather wise, the Tigers were rejoined by Stuart Wigney, who started forward despite making his name as a dashing defender for the Tigers in 1995.

While Richmond trailed on the scoreboard in the first half, it wasn't as though they weren't getting wins across the ground, their main problem was execution inside 50 and struggling to make the most of their opportunities.

That would all change in the third term though, with the tigers booting 8.2, including a rare phenomenon of two goals from the one piece of play, due to some Bulldogs undisclipline, which saw Mark Merenda convert twice.

Speaking of Merenda, he was absolutely electric for the Tigers, probably playing his best game in the yellow and black to date. He finished with five goals, 21 disposals and of course, the three Brownlow votes. It continued his stunning start to the season as he had clearly taken some great steps forward since 1995.

Paul Broderick was another to continue his strong start to the season, and was by far the Tigers' most prolific midfielder, picking up 33 disposals and a Brownlow vote on a day that really suited the in and under mid.

Part of his success was due to Richmond's dominance in the ruck, despite coming up against some really good rucks in Scott Wynd and Luke Darcy. Ex-dog Justin Charles picked up 20 disposals around the ground while Brendon Gale also did a good job pinch hitting and if it wasn't for inaccuracy, would have added multiple goals as well.

In defence, Scott Turner looked to have gained some confidence after a delayed start to the season, doing a great job spoiling but also with some very accurate kick-ins that helped set his team up further up field.

Stats for the game courtesy of AFL Tables

A Fighting Fury player ratings - click here for explanation

Mark Merenda	9
Paul Broderick	8
Justin Charles	7
Brendon Gale	7
Scott Turner	7
Matthew Richardson	5
Michael Gale	5
Chris Bond	5
Matthew Rogers	4
Duncan Kellaway	4
Nick Daffy	4
Ashley Prescott	3
Chris Naish	3
Jamie Tape	2
Nathan Bower	2
David Bourke	2
Jason Torney	2
Ross Funcke	2
Stuart Wigney	2
Darren Gaspar	1
Wayne Campbell	0