Richmond have flexed their premiership muscle to heap more pain on North Melbourne with a 54-point AFL victory at Metricon Stadium.
The Tigers kicked the first six goals of Saturday night’s match as the injury-hit Kangaroos slumped to a fifth-straight defeat, 11.11 (77) to 2.11 (23).
Adding injury to insult, the Kangaroos lost Cameron Zurhaar (calf) before the match, captain Jack Ziebell (hamstring) in the first quarter and youngster Kyron Hayden (head) to injury.
Hayden was taken off on a stretcher in the third quarter after a courageous attempt at a mark against Tigers forward Tom Lynch.
Dustin Martin and Mabior Chol kicked two each for the Tigers while Jake Aarts kicked his first two AFL goals in the final term.
Shaun Higgins was the standout in a well-beaten North Melbourne team, picking up a game-high 36 disposals.
North’s struggles began before kickoff with Zurhaar a late omission.
The Roos’ fortunes didn’t get any better after the opening bounce as the premiers held them scoreless in the first quarter.
North could muster only one inside 50 to Richmond’s 18 as the Tigers kicked four-unanswered goals to be 27 points clear at the first turn.
The horror quarter for Rhyce Shaw’s men finished with Ziebell injuring his hamstring and being ruled out for the remainder of the match.
The second quarter was North’s best of the match as they kicked late goals through Trent Dumont and Josh Walker to win the term by a point.
That however was the Kangaroos’ only majors of the game as they failed to kick a goal in the second half.
Out-of-sorts forward Ben Brown’s struggles continued, with the Roos’ leading goalkicker for the past four seasons missing three set shots to finish without a major.
Brown has managed seven goals for the year and just two in the past four weeks.
The Tigers had injury concerns of their own with Josh Caddy (hamstring) limping out of the match in the second quarter, while Dylan Grimes was placed on report for high contact on Mason Wood just before halftime.
The win lifts Richmond to fourth on the ladder despite the absence of several key players including Trent Cotchin and Dion Prestia ahead of Friday’s grand-final rematch against GWS in Sydney.
North play Carlton next Saturday at the Gabba.
