Dustin Martin played a starring role as Richmond hammered an undermanned Port Adelaide by 66 points in Saturday’s NAB Challenge clash in Albury.
Martin, in his first game of the pre-season, gathered 27 possessions playing predominantly on the ball in the 1.14.10 (103) to 0.5.7 (37) win.
The result was unsurprising given the lopsided level of experience between the teams.
Port fielded a youthful side without a host of stars including Travis Boak, Hamish Hartlett and Robbie Gray, while the Tigers named close to their strongest team, minus Trent Cotchin and Nathan Foley.
Richmond took full advantage of that disparity, but their quick, clean ball movement and lightning transition from defence to attack was impressive enough to suggest it would have troubled stronger opposition.
Jack Riewoldt kicked a goal and Ivan Maric had 27 hitouts in their first runs of the pre-season series before they were subbed out at three-quarter time.
Brett Deledio was another veteran brought into the side that lost to the Western Bulldogs at their last start and he was important with 20 touches.
Port’s first score off the boot was an Aaron Young goal that came in the 17th minute of the second quarter and by that stage the Tigers had piled on seven goals and a nine-pointer, courtesy of Ben Lennon.
Sam Lloyd, who finished with four goals, became Richmond’s 10th different goal scorer early in the third quarter as the lead blew out to 61 points, but the scoreboard was largely irrelevant by then.
Stand-in Port coach Matthew Nicks would have wanted to see greater intensity from his charges than they showed early and he got it as the Power youngsters managed to stem the flow of goals in the second half.
There were other positives for the Power with injury-plagued ruckman Jarrad Redden kicking a goal in his first game since round 10, 2013, and FoxFooty’s ‘The Recruit’ winner Johann Wagner playing his first game.
It was a tough assignment for Wagner, who played deep forward with All-Australian defender Alex Rance on him for most of the day.
Kane Mitchell (26 possessions) and Jared Polec (26) worked hard all day and were important as Port at least managed to win the last quarter.
