RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick was "reasonably pleased" with Dustin Martin's ability to fight through a tough tag by Collingwood's Levi Greenwood that caused the Tiger superstar's temper to boil over at times.
Greenwood went to Martin from the opening bounce of Saturday's game at the MCG and barely left the reigning Brownlow medallist's side for the rest of the afternoon.
Greenwood held Martin to just 10 possessions and one clearance for the first three quarters and the close attention clearly frustrated Hardwick's star player.
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Midway through the first quarter Martin was already sufficiently frustrated that he engaged in a vigorous push and shove with the Magpie when the two found themselves alone on a deserted Richmond half-forward line.
Late in the second quarter he gave away an undisciplined 50m penalty that resulted in a Scott Pendlebury shot on goal, which fortunately for the Tigers fell short.
Hardwick told reporters after the game the 50m penalty was "tough" in a game that was "a territory battle" but said giving away 50m penalties was an area in which the entire Richmond team had to improve.
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"I think we're AFL No.1 for giving 50s away," Hardwick said.
But the Richmond coach conceded his runner had tried to move Martin forward after his 50m penalty in a bid to cool him down.
"We obviously don't want guys getting frustrated and reported," Hardwick said.
Nonetheless, Hardwick said he had not felt the need to talk to Martin during the game and had been pleased with his ability to kick crucial goals late in the second quarter and early in the third term, and then power home with nine possessions and another goal in a dominant final term.
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"Greenwood is a good tagger, he's done that since his North Melbourne days and he's had a really good season doing it at Collingwood as well," he said.
"But the great thing about Dustin is he's got multiple ways to win a game for us and he probably should have finished up with four (goals). He was pretty dominant in that last quarter when we needed the game to be won.
"In fairness, Greenwood did a great job, but Dustin has got a lot of weapons that you need to work your way around. I was still reasonably pleased with his game."
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Meanwhile, Hardwick was confident Dion Prestia would be fit for Richmond's clash against Geelong next Friday night after the midfielder recovered from a bone-jarring bump from Travis Varcoe in the second quarter to finish the game.
"It was a big hit, he was obviously sore," Hardwick said.
"Was he at his best after that? Probably not. But he played sore which is what good players do.
"He finished the game, so my understanding is he will be fine. But once again we'll get further clarity on that later on during the week."
Hardwick could only laugh when asked about a freakish goal from Jack Higgins in the third quarter, when the small forward kept the ball in front of the goal-line with a deft knock, dodged around the right-hand goal post and scissor-kicked the ball over his head.
"I'm going to steal Brendon Gale's line here, 'They don't teach that in VCE,'" he said.
"We were sitting there trying to figure it out. It was quite funny to watch the reaction of the Collingwood players. They're not sure whether [the goal reviewer] is checking whether it's a throw or a behind.
"We were probably a little bit puzzled ourselves, but I suppose that's the idiosyncrasies of the game as well.
"A spectacular goal, he's a very good player, the kid."
