IT IS starting to become the chant from Richmond's nightmares.

"U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" the MCG crowd bellowed once again as Collingwood's Mason Cox put through the game's first goal against Richmond on Thursday night.

First test, first question mark for a reshaped and stretched Tigers backline.

In reality, Damien Hardwick perhaps couldn't have imagined a worse possible encounter for his first match without injured five-time All Australian defender Alex Rance.

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Not only did the giant 211cm American torch the Tigers in last year's preliminary final, but the Pies' potent forward line now had a new dimension with the addition of Jamie Elliott.

This would challenge a Richmond team without arguably its best and most influential player.

With youngster Ryan Garthwaite also hobbled due to an Achilles injury, the assumption had been that last week's debutant Noah Balta would be pushed into a role in the backline, but that theory was quickly dropped on Wednesday evening when Balta was omitted.
In his place, no like-for-like replacement for either Balta nor Rance was called upon.

Instead, Richmond looked for a fresh approach for its first match in 65 games without Rance, and only its eighth game without the gun backman in its last 164 matches.

But the match-ups, at least from an individual perspective, were relatively similar.

David Astbury retained his job on Cox from last year's September showdown, while Dylan Grimes moved to Rance's direct opponent in Jordan De Goey.

Nick Vlastuin went to Grimes' man, Brody Mihocek, while Nathan Broad was handed the task on Elliott, who spent most of his time as the deepest Collingwood forward last week.

Cox added to his fast start to finish with two goals from seven marks, but the Tigers found it just as difficult to contain the likes of De Goey and Mihocek.

De Goey, in particular, looked every bit a $1 million man.

Perhaps Rance could have locked down on the Magpies' main man more effectively, with the clever forward able to get off the chain to finish with five goals from six marks. Perhaps it wouldn't have made a difference, as De Goey edged closer to superstar status.

Maybe what the Tigers missed more was their best defender’s leadership.

The beauty of Rance is that not only can he quell the opposition's best forward, but he can also rely upon stable deputies in Astbury and Grimes to do that while he organises, intercepts and rebounds if left to his own devices.

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Without him, the opponent of Collingwood's lead-up forward attempted to replicate Rance's best traits. At times it was Astbury, at others it was Grimes, or Broad, or Vlastuin.

The only difference was that there was no Rance. And that was telling.

When things went wrong, Collingwood kicked goals in a flurry. Defenders were caught in between coming and going and their opponents, more often than not, made them pay.

That wasn't helped by the lack of pressure coming from higher up the field as Richmond registered its lowest tackle count (finishing with just 33) since round 20, 2015.

"I don't think the back end of our team was the issue tonight," Hardwick said afterwards.

"It was more the front and mid. That's the thing we've got to get better at, and we've got the personnel there that we need. We just need to make sure our system is better.

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"In fairness, they were probably quite good until the last 15 minutes of the game. They had 25 scoring shots, but had a lot of those scoring shots late. They overpowered us.

"I thought the guys hung pretty tough. Defensively up the ground, we weren't very good, so we didn't give them a lot of help."

The rush of Collingwood goals in the last quarter – five goals to Richmond's one to be exact – was reflective of a Richmond defence and system in disarray.

It was a suitable end to a worrying Tiger performance.