Strife comes in threes for limping Tiges
“We understand what the problem is — we’ve just got to continue to work through that part of our game” — Richmond coach DAMIEN HARDWICK
I LOVE hearing a coach talk with honesty about his team and its inability to win in the past two weeks. It seems Richmond has three problems to work through — and each of those problems feeds into the next.
CONTESTED POSSESSION
THE Tigers have never been dominant in this area, but there is a point when the dam wall bursts and the flow is difficult to hold back.
Just like the great Hawthorn teams four to six years ago, the Tigers have survived when not getting anywhere near a breakeven tally in the contested possessions count. Richmond’s ability to intercept the opposition’s errant kicks, because of the pressure it applies and its set-up down back, systematically returned the ball back to the Tigers more often than not. Plus, Alex Rance was on patrol.
In the past eight weeks the Tigers have lost every contested possession count bar one, the win against Hawthorn. But what is alarming is the losing possession tallies in the past three matches — -33, -22 and -28.
They survived against an undermanned and dysfunctional Essendon even though the Bombers were coming at the Tigers late in the game. But they found the weight of numbers against them in the North Melbourne and Geelong matches too much to bear and eventually slipped to 37-point and 67-point losses.
FORWARD PRESSURE
THE Tigers were awesome in the opening quarter against Geelong. The Cats were harassed and hurried every time they got their hands on the ball in the defensive half.
Richmond should have capitalised better on the scoreboard with that forward pressure, which gave them field dominance. But they didn’t.
When the Tigers couldn’t properly hit the scoreboard they eventually started to turn the ball over themselves and the smaller ground-level pressure players fell away.
It meant the Cats could carry the ball further and kick with better accuracy to their teammates upfield.
The Tigers’ zippy ground level pressure players need to stay “amped up” for longer. It is a simple request and also a must do. This feeds into another major problem.
DEFENSIVE CRACKS
INJURIES have forced the Tigers to play inexperienced youngsters as key backmen.
Though it is hard not admire the courage and dash 20-year-old Ryan Garthwaite and 19-year-old Noah Balta show, they are still learning the game at this level.
The experienced Dylan Grimes tries to give them both coverage and at times has had his hands very full.
Same with the brilliant interceptor Nick Vlastuin. He’s been pushed into the midfield for periods to lend a bigger body to the losing cause of contested possessions. This disrupts the unity of what was a brilliant backline that was unbelievably in synch.
But with Rance out for the long term, David Astbury on the sidelines, Nathan Broad in the VFL because of bad form and Vlastuin in the midfield, the backline has lost its first selected members and its cohesion.
This has resulted in the big problem — and most opposition key forwards have been able to cash in.
In the first 12 rounds, the list of key forwards who have kicked a bag are: Collingwood’s Jordie De Goey with five in Round 2, GWS’s Jeremy Cameron seven in Round 3, Western Bulldogs’s Aaron Naughton five in Round 7; and North Melbourne’s Ben Brown five in Round 11.
Sydney’s Lance Franklin, Collingwood’s Mason Wood and Geelong’s Tom Hawkins all scored four. Of those players, only Buddy was on the losing side.
The issue is: how much punishment can the brave Tigers take before they are out of contention.
Few would have thought that the young Tigers could knock over Nathan Fyfe’s Fremantle in Round 8, but they did.
A win against Adelaide tonight will be perhaps an even bigger achievement after witnessing the Crows seemingly turn the corner and get back into good form recently.