The 2020 AFL Grand Final was one to remember.
Especially for those with a yellow and black persuasion.
After an unprecedented season impacted heavily by COVID-19, the decider was finally reached in October and played outside of Victoria for the very first time in the competition’s history.
Richmond met Geelong at the Gabba and from the outset, there was plenty of drama in the form of a frenzied first quarter.
The crazy opening term saw Nick Vlastuin knocked out, Gary Ablett suffer a shoulder injury and Bachar Houli pop his calf.
Vlastuin sustained a game-ending concussion while Cats great Ablett’s shoulder required plenty of treatment and it was the walking wounded, as Tigers coach Damien Hardwick recalled.
“The Nick Vlastuin one was staggering,” he told SEN Breakfast.
“Because you think about the night that it was, it was a wet, slippery night and you thought if there was anyone who was a chance of winning the Norm Smith, it’s this guy, with the way he plays the game.
“I remember as he’s being wheeled off, I said to the doc, ‘Listen, this might sound like a stupid question - Do you think he can come back on?’
“But he was certainly out of it.
“To lose those two boys was tough. What I must say, a lot of people didn’t see this, but every time I came downstairs, Gary was getting injections in that shoulder. To see the grimace on his face…
“There’s no local in those painkilling injections, they go straight in half the time. God he was brave to play. Sums him up really.”
The Tigers trailed by 15 points at the main break after being outplayed by the Cats for much of the first half.
It could have been more if eventual Norm Smith Medallist Dustin Martin did not conjure his special goal late in the second quarter.
After that, the reigning premiers were able to claw their way back into the contest before kicking away to win by 31 points and subsequently claim a 13th premiership.
Did Hardwick have any special words for his troops at the main break to inspire the comeback?
“Listen you blokes, just give the ball to Dustin. It’s pretty easy,” he joked.
“No, it’s funny. We sort of knew what was going wrong but we couldn’t stabilise our team. The loss of Nick really did throw us around for a while. We couldn’t quite get our match-ups right.
“Geelong had a smaller type of forward line with Tommy Hawkins and some whippets around him. We went in with David Astbury and Noah Balta, one playing ruck, one playing full-back. At various stages we had David up the ground, running around trying to chase Gary (Ablett) and (Gryan) Miers and these type of players.
“We were a little bit out of balance there, so we put Kamdyn McIntosh back, rolled some forwards through the wings, and managed to get a side looking a little bit more settled.
“The fact of the matter is, what happened really is I’ve got a great captain in Trent Cotchin that knows what our troops need and you sort of just hand it over to the playing group.
“Trent and his leadership group with Jack (Riewoldt) did a wonderful job of getting the side skewed in the right direction.
“It was a really important third quarter that got us up back and going.”
Martin ran riot with four goals and 21 possessions to become the first man to be awarded best on ground three times in a Grand Final, with Hardwick full of praise.
“We felt we started to get the game back on our terms the last five minutes (of the second quarter) but couldn’t get the score on the board,” he said of the Tigers no.4.
“Then he kicked that wonderful goal that only Dusty could kick. He probably kicked three others that were just as good on the night as well.
“It certainly was important because we went in with a little bit of, ‘Oh we might be ok’, but there was still some uncertainty.
“We do some mental prep work and we certainly went to work on that at the half-time break also.”
After looking in trouble late in the second term, the Tigers managed to resurrect their flag hopes by kicking nine second-half goals to Geelong’s two to claim a third premiership in four years.