Wily Fox too clever for Tigers

SYDNEY defender Robbie Fox is walking taller this week after keeping Richmond’s premiership big guns Tom Lynch and Jack Riewoldt goalless at the Gabba on Sunday.

Despite an eight-point loss to the Tigers, the 27-year-old Tasmanian received kudos from Swans coaches in yesterday’s game review — and took the chance to remind teammate Dane Rampe he let both Lynch and Riewoldt score goals when they swapped opponents in the second half.

“Yeah, I had a joke with him about that,” Fox said.

“When we looked at the vision today, we left him oneout a bit.

“When I was playing on Riewoldt or Tom Lynch I had a bit of support around me, but when Lynch got that goal [on Rampe] we left him one-out.”

It was Fox’s first game against Richmond.

“I did my homework on Tom Lynch, and even though I had the job on him for the first time, we’re a back seven unit so it was more a case of everyone helping each other out,” Fox said.

“I tried to get a bit of body into him or get a run and jump at the ball and just compete, and I thought I did that.”

Riewoldt was a different kettle of fish.

“He’s a slick mover with a few tricks up his sleeve,” Fox said of his fellow Tasmanian.

“I tried to use my strengths, body when I could, but also stay off him a bit and use my run and jump.

“The coaches were happy with how I performed.”

Fox hails from Ulverstone and tried his luck with Coburg in the VFL where he was spotted by the Swans and taken at No.34 in the AFL Rookie Draft in 2017.

He came home during the coronavirus shutdown.

“Over March and April I spent six weeks in Tassie, which was lovely,” he said.

“I had to self-isolate for 14 days and then all the Burnie thing happened so I wasn’t getting out much, but it was nice to spend time with family.”

It was Fox’s third game this season, coming in to replace injured Aliir Aliir.

“It knew for sure the day before the game I was going to be playing,” Fox said.

“We had a poor game against West Coast and we had some things we needed to work on. We wanted to go out and compete against Richmond. We did that for four quarters, but there were some things we didn’t get right.

“Overall we had a crack. We did a lot of things right, but there were also times when we got some things wrong going forward — skill errors, doubleswitch or whatever it might be — and we lost the game by eight points.”