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Find your Sport Nation frequencyThe "exceptional" game-saving moment highlighting growth of young Tiger
Jaiden Sciberras • May 12th, 2025 4:14 pm
Richmond’s third win of the season came about in extraordinary fashion, holding on in the dying moments to claim victory by two points over the West Coast Eagles.
With under a minute to play, young Eagle Tom Gross was fed a handball running towards goal, taking a bounce and steading before being run down by a charging Tom Brown.
The tackle, awarded holding the ball with under 30 seconds left, was enough to seal the deal in the bottom-end clash.
The game-saving tackle earned the praise of former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, labelling the tackle the best moment of what was a thrilling round of football.
“It was awesome,” Buckley told SEN’s Whateley.
“He has been a young player that’s been coming along for quite a while.
“Maybe to supporters of other clubs, if you’re in the bottom reaches of the ladder the young talent there can be missed at times unless they’re number one picks.
“He’s quietly gone about his business, he’s in a back six that’s relatively experienced. (Nick) Vlastuin and (Nathan) Broad are floating around, (Noah) Balta… there’s a lot of experience in that back six, so you’ve got Brown and (Luke) Trainor that are coming up through there.
“That effort in itself was exceptional. Had to run down the guy that starts as the sub and had the freshest legs on the field.
“He came out hard to try and hit that spoil to try and cut that kick off. I think that’s the right decision, that’s the right play until you don’t make the play. Then you’re thinking ‘now they’re an extra number in front or behind me and I’ve got to make up for this’, and he did.
“He dug in, he put his head down and was able to stick the tackle. That game itself was on a knife edge the whole time.
“There was merit in both teams, and it was going to come down to moments.”
The perfectly executed tackle was also commended by coach Adem Yze during his post-match press conference, noting Brown’s ability to recover from a missed spoil just moments prior.
"He gets to play alongside Nick Vlastuin every week and I see a young Nick Vlastuin growing,” he said.
“He's got the same temperament, same ability, and he’s got that footy chip, he understands the game and knows what’s required in certain moments.
“To miss that spoil and then to flick the switch to chase, it's why he's such a good player."
Now up to 16th on the table following the gritty win, the Tigers look set to take on North Melbourne at the MCG next Sunday.
