AFL Tigers in cruise control against Suns

Gold Coast have put up little resistance to an AFL finals-bound Richmond, suffering a 83-point belting at the MCG.

In captain Trent Cotchin’s 150th match, the Tigers strolled to a 22.6 (138) to 8.7 (55) percentage-boosting victory.

A career-best match from Kane Lambert and vintage displays from Cotchin and Dustin Martin were supported by strong finishing in the Tigers forward line.

Richmond could barely miss in front of goal with Martin, Sam Lloyd and Brett Deledio finishing with three goals and Ty Vickery booting his fourth after the full-time siren.

Without injuries or disciplinary issues, this was the perfect August outing for Damien Hardwick’s side, which improved to 12-7 and returned to sixth on the ladder.

In contrast, their was little to excite the few Suns fans at the MCG save for the impressive Aaron Hall and three goals to Tom Lynch.

Gold Coast were hit by injuries to sole ruckman Tom Nicholls, key forward Charlie Dixon and young gun Jack Martin, denting their competitiveness.

Nicholls was substituted at halftime after jarring his knee while Martin was stretchered from the ground after a sickening third-term concussion.

The 20-year-old regained consciousness in the rooms, while Dixon played on after spraining his ankle.

At halftime, the Suns were in touch of the Tigers after a bizarre and almost bruise-free opening.

Richmond laid just one tackle to quarter-time, but had no trouble scoring.

In a five-minute blitz, the Tigers stretched their legs and the margin with Vickery, Lambert, Deledio and Shaun Grigg goals.

Hall nearly sparked the Suns into life with a run from the back of the centre square into the forward line, only to miss narrowly from 50m after four bounces.

The behind-of-the year contender was followed by one of the misses of the season, right when the Suns could afford it least.

Lynch shanked his shot from in front after a strong contested mark at the top of the square.

The tall forward made amends after the halftime siren to bring Richmond’s lead back to 17 points.

But with the Suns’ injury woes hitting after the main change, the Tigers roared away with six-straight goals to end the contest.

Eight last-term goals completed the job for the Tigers, who won’t have given up on a top-four finish with three rounds remaining.

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