ROUND 16 - RICHMOND vs ST. KILDA - Telstra Dome ("HOME") 16.07.04 SUMMARY: With everyone having played everyone else now once and after a totally insipid second half display against the Bombers which just summmed up Richmond's year, the Tigers head to Telstra Dome to face St Kilda as a designated "home" game even though the match will be played at the opposition's home ground. Go figure that one out?! The wheels on the Saints' bandwagon have fallen off recently after beginning the season with 10 straight comfortable wins, with four losses from their past five matches. To add to their woes they have lost to injury key forwards Fraser Gehrig and Justin Koschitzke plus key defenders Hudghton, Schwarze, Penny and Maguire. Unfortunately, as we saw last week, a weakened defence doesn't necessarily stop the opposition from piling on 17 of the last 21 goals of a game :(. As for Richmond, youth is now the war-cry. The injuries to Hilton and Cambo, the retirement of Matty Rogers and the omission of the totally out of form Mark Chaffey sees the inclusion of another debutant this year in Carey Grammar schoolboy Daniel Jackson. Also returning are first year youngsters Tom Roach and Brent Hartigan as well as Fiora. PAST ENCOUNTERS: Overall: 102-58-2 In the 00's: 4-3 At this venue: 3-3 Last Time: Round 3, 12.04.03. Away at Telstra Dome (Docklands). Richmond 5.0 7.2 8.6 10.9-69 St. Kilda 4.3 10.6 12.12 16.18-114 Attendance: 43,400 KEY MATCH-UPS: DEFENCE: The loss of Gehrig and Koschitzke for the Saints will make our job "easier" given that when both sides met earlier in the year when St Kilda was flying, Gehrig (B.O.G.) cut up Hall at full back with his body strength in the first half. With only Riewoldt and Hamill left the Saints have brought in another young tall in Ferguson to still try and stretch our defence. Zantuck did a good job on Hamill last time to the point that Hamill was reported from his frustrations so I would keep that match-up as Ty has the body type to compete with Hamill. Bowden if fit will get Riewoldt in his new role he's been playing the last month. If he misses then I would give Razor a chance to redeem himself while AK works his way back into form after his shoulder injury. Hall can take Ferguson. At ground level Guerra and Milne will provide the main crumbing danger. Guerra didn't play last time and Milne was off-target with four points. We need to correl these guys into a forward pocket or run off them to force accountability to take them out of the game. I'd reckon Newman and AK will get Milne and Guerra respectively. IMO the match-ups are at least fairly even so we will have to rely on our midfielders providing enough pressure to give our defenders at least half a chance unlike last weekend. MIDFIELD: In the corresponding game in round 3, Bowden, Brown, Johnson and to a lesser extent Cambo were our leading stats gatherers. Unfortunately that's been the story all year as our second tier have failed to provide enough support for the Tigers to compete in the centre of the ground for a whole match. Once our top tier tire we completely fall away as we get smashed in the contests and clearances. The only difference we can rely on to change that situation is we now have a number of young kids in the side. Hopefully their enthusiasm and that unknown factor can add some desperately needed spark in the centre of the park otherwise the likes of Harvey, Hayes and Ball will have another field day as the match progresses. Similarly the ruck in the round 3 game was a porthole onto the rest of the season with Otto mostly dominating the hit-outs but the opposition taking the ball away. Fifthteen rounds in nothing seems to have been done to resolve this problem looking from the outside in. Our failure to take advantage of our ruck dominance hurts us dearly. Hopefully the new coach will bring some fresh ideas and more importantly a solution to turn this weakness into what should be a major strength of ours. FORWARDS: With virtually all of St Kilda's key position backman out injured we "should" have a clear advantage here. However as last week once again demonstrated when Richo is at full forward we become one-dimensional especially when we start going wide and then bomb it long to the big fella. The fact that this was against a second-string Bomber defence only made our entires inside forward 50 a further disgrace. I'm not having a go at Richo. Moreso the other forwards and those with the ball upfield who continually fail to use their brains and eyes to provide as well as find better and more importantly alternative options. Every Tiger supporter scratches their head thinking how with a forward line of Richo, Otto, Schulz and Brown, Richmond averages around the 10-11 goal mark most weeks. One of the great mysteries of the universe if you didn't attend games to see us be our own worst enemy. There's no question we need draft players with better skills but they must also have a footy brain! THIS WEEK'S TEAMS: RICHMOND B: A.Kellaway, Jackson, Zantuck HB: Newman, Hall, Fiora C: Roach, Bowden, Pettifer HF: Tivendale, Schulz, Hartigan F: Krakouer, Richardson, Moore FOLL: Ottens, Johnson, Brown I/C: Hyde, Tuck, Fleming, Blumfield IN: Fiora, Roach, Jackson, Hartigan OUT: Campbell (knee), Hilton (knee), Rogers (retired), Chaffey ST. KILDA B: Voss, Blake, Jones HB: Gram, S.Fisher, Black C: Dal Santo, Harvey, Goddard HF: Guerra, Hamill, Powell F: Ferguson, Riewoldt, Milne FOLL: Knobel, Hayes, Ball I/C: Thompson, Baker, Montagna, Peckett < BACK TO 2004 FIXTURE >