Richmond gun Lynch admits he’s misfiring
RICHMOND forward Tom Lynch concedes he’s “out of touch” but dismissed any suggestion recent surgery to repair a broken hand was playing a part in his lack of goalscoring.
Lynch didn’t kick a goal in last week’s loss to GWS and has just 11 in eight games this season.
He broke his hand in Round 5, requiring surgery, but played the next week and hasn’t missed a game.
Lynch booted 63 goals for Richmond last year and said the Tigers needed to work on their forward “connection”. But he conceded he also needed to be better against the Western Bulldogs this week.
“The hand is fine,” he said on Monday. “It’s feeling a lot better than it was a couple of weeks ago. It’s not an issue.
“I’m just not marking that well at the moment.
“Personally, I just think I am out of touch at the moment. It’s a bit of a funny year at the moment; there’s not many key forwards playing that well.”
A bag of seven goals from West Coast spearhead Josh Kennedy on Sunday was easily the best return of any key forward this season.
Sydney small forward Tom Papley is leading the Coleman Medal with 19, and four small forwards are in the top six.
AFL great Wayne Carey said last week the current crop of key forwards was “just no good”.
Lynch said the shorter quarters might be affecting their output. “The game hasn’t been opening up as much,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s flooding (defensive) tactics but when it’s a slow play, there have always been numbers inside forward 50.
“I don’t think it’s a massive change this year, I just think key forwards aren’t playing that well.”
Wednesday’s clash is the first of four in 20 days for the Tigers, and Lynch said he hoped to play all of them.
“We’d rather be playing than training all the time,” he said. “We did a lot of training over the isolation period so we are rapt to be playing games. I’d be hoping to play every game. I’m keen to play.”
Flooding at the Tigers’ Queensland hotel across the weekend meant they had to spend Sunday moving fitness equipment from the waterlogged basement.
“We have got treadmills and a bit of a gym set up down there,” Lynch said. “We had to get everything out of there. There was a bit of chaos there but it was all fine.”