I have now watched the GF more times that I care to admit and this might not be a terribly popular opinion, but we got the dreamiest of dream runs from the men in green. The two reversals (both of which were soft), some rather long runs from Castagna and Cotchin (yes he bounced it but how far did he run after the bounce?), Pickett's throw, the free to Riewoldt for our first goal in the second quarter. Could go on.
Whatever you might think, if decisions like that had gone against us and we had lost by less than say, five goals, folks on this board would have been burning down AFL house.
I am a big believer in that the umps, subconsciously or otherwise, have an "if in doubt, go for the better team" mentality on the basis that fewer eyebrows will be raised at their own performance if the favourites win. And while it's taken a few years of domination, I think they have finally begun to think of Richmond as they thought of the Hawthorns and Geelongs of the past decade or so.
It's also interesting to note that the commentators didn't really make much of a big deal of the above-mentioned decisions.
The wheel really has turned.