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Has there ever been a game that put everyone in such a no-win situation?

If the Tigers won, Melbourne would sink further into crisis and no-one wants to see one of the VFL’s founding clubs fold. If the Tigers lost, they’d face their own crisis after capitulating to a basket case that a week earlier lost to Gold Coast by ten goals at home (at least we only did it in Cairns).

As a Richmond fan, I saw beating Melbourne as like taking candy from a baby with no arms. Any pleasure in scoring the loot is lost tenfold knowing you’ve taken it from an opponent bereft of any defence. Where’s the satisfaction in that?

Others saw it differently. My husband Brian has no sympathy whatsoever for what he sees as a bunch of privileged blue bloods who couldn’t organise a root in a brothel even if daddy bought them one.

“Don’t ever have sympathy for Melbourne; the blueblood bullshit that they go on with,” he ranted before the game. “They’re all MCC wankers and they don’t give any money to their own club. I want us to smash them. They’ve made they’re bed so they have to lie in it.”

He did have a point.

How does a club supposedly supported by the top end of town never have any money? And why do clubs like Collingwood, with working class roots, fare much better financially?

The loony left in me likes to generalise that those on lower incomes are often more generous with their time and money and that there is good reason why some people are loaded – they are basically tight arses.

Sure some rich people are incredibly generous and give millions to charity. But where have all the Melbourne Football Club benefactors been over the past 50 years? How many well-heeled Demons have given their time, money or expertise to reinstate this once proud club as an AFL power?

Judging by their perilous state at the moment, clearly too few.

Joe Gutnik made a big contribution and many fans stood up for Jim Stynes’ debt demolition that cleared the club;’s $5 million debt. But Melbourne has struggled on and off the field since the mid-1960s and despite the efforts of Gutnick, Stynes and a few others is still far from flush with cash.

Grass roots fans are also at fault. Melbourne constantly hovers near the bottom of the membership table, an indictment on supporters of all socio-economic levels. Sadly, this might be what kills the club. It was literally the death of Fitzroy. The Lions were everyone’s sentimental favourite but too few bought memberships, took out sponsorships, helped out, protested or turned up to games when it counted.

When administrations implode at footy clubs, fans usually mobilise. They protest. Raise Money. Petition the AFL. Stand for the Board. Anything to save their club. But this year too many Melbourne fans of all types have been conspicuous in their silence. To borrow a phrase from John Kennedy Senior, they need to DO SOMETHING.

I really hope I’m wrong and that an army of volunteer Demons is beavering away behind the scenes to raise money and work on solutions to help their club. I’d love to stand corrected on this. But from what we’ve heard it does not appear to be happening.

With Melbourne in more trouble than the early settlers, many had pencilled this game in as a Richmond win. But it was never a gimme. Memories of two losses to Gold Coast still lingered for Tiger fans and began to re-surface throughout the first three quarters.

Richmond was insipid early and the Demons lifted, playing much tighter footy and refusing to allow the Tigers to kick away. Both teams tried hard but there were more turnovers than a Sara Lee factory.

Aaron Davey and Nathan Jones annoyed the crap out of Richmond fans, getting plenty of it and in Davey’s case kicking three goals in the first half. Chris Dawes kicked two in the first quarter. At half time there was just seven points in it, despite Richmond having seven more scoring shots.

The Tigers started the third quarter with four straight points. Wasteful kicking and an inability to put the opposition away saw the Dees still in it at three quarter time. The difference was 22 points and 16 scoring shots.

In the end Richmond did its best to throw the game away and Melbourne tried hard but wasn’t good enough. As expected, the highlights were few and far between: Brandon Ellis’s 39 disposals, Tyrone Vickery’s bursts of speed, Davey’s flashes of brilliance and Jeremy Howe’s huge specky.

The Tigers got their regulation win, but 34 points was not enough to break even in a game that should have been beyond doubt at quarter time. Demons fans, all of whom deserve medals for turning up after last week’s shellacking, left relieved that their team didn’t capitulate.

If it had coach Mark Neeld would have been on the chopping block, yet another scapegoat for a club that needs help from top to bottom.

But they should not have been satisfied either. Until more Melbourne fans with something to offer actually help their club, whether it be via membership, sponsorship, management expertise or cold hard cash, it will remain in dire straits.

RICHMOND 2.4 7.9 12.14 15.16 (106)

MELBOURNE 3.0 7.2 10.4 11.6 (72)

GOALS

Richmond: Riewoldt 3, Martin 3, King 2, Deledio, Nahas, Ellis, Vlastuin, Morris, White, Chaplin

Melbourne: Davey 3, Dawes 2, Dunn 2, Nicholson, Bail, Howe, Evans

BEST

Richmond: Ellis, Vlastuin, Deledio, Grigg, Houli, Cotchin

Melbourne: N. Jones, Davey, Magner, Terlich, M. Jones.

Umpires: McBurney, Hosking, Foot CROWD: 39,148 at the MCG

OUR VOTES Ellis (Richmond) 3, Jones (Melbourne) 2, Vlastuin (R), 1.