Focus beyond Vines
Tigers wary of depth
SHANNON Young knows all too well the effect Eamonn Vines can have on his team’s hopes of scoring a third straight win on Saturday, but the Richmond coach says Geelong’s batting depth goes well beyond the left-handed star.
Vines scored 76 for the Cats in last week’s win over St Kilda — his fifth consecutive Premier Cricket score above 50 — but Young said the Tigers were aware there was a long list of names they needed to stop.
“The batting is probably the thing you focus most on with Geelong,” Young said.
“Obviously Vinesy at the top is, if not the best player in the competition then definitely in the top echelon, so there is always some thinking that goes into him.
“But then you have Butters (Hayden Butterworth) and Joshy Mac (Josh McDonald) who look like they are hitting them OK as well.
“They can do a fair bit of damage to you but we have to focus on ourselves and if we can stay true to our plans and how we set up we hope to build some pressure.
“It is a really good place to play cricket though and we love going down there … it is one of those cricket wickets
that gives everybody a chance, but if you don’t come to play you can get hurt, so it is a good challenge.”
Richmond’s wins in the past two weeks have come against Northcote and Greenvale, fuelling a belief it could be a late contender for a finals spot with more victories in the next four weeks.
Young said the Tigers had shown more consistency.
“We dropped a couple of games we were probably in before that lockdown period but we have played some OK cricket in the past couple of weeks,” he said.
“Hopefully we can keep it going on the way to staying in touch with finals. It is just about being more consistent and probably everyone knowing their roles and performing accordingly.”