ROUND 9 - RICHMOND vs PORT ADELAIDE - AMII STADIUM (AWAY) 21.05.04 SUMMARY: The Tigers this Saturday night begin the first leg of their "Doomsday Double" when they travel to the city of churches to face Port Adelaide at AMII stadium aka Football Park. Richmond's confidence will be fairly high after three straight victories (one of them of course interstate against Sydney) although they will be stepping up a class in this game as well as trying to get their first win against Port since 1998 and their first against Port in Adelaide ever after six failed attempts previously. Conversely Port, through losing a number of their better players to injury, have struggled of late especially in the midfield which is normally their strength and will be trying to avoid losing three straight matches for the first time in a few years. Richmond will run out on the weekend with a slightly stronger line-up on paper with the return of Captain Cambo who pulled out late last week with a slight leg injury. Also returning from injury is Fleming. Out of the side goes Weller with a hamstring and Rodan sent back to Coburg to find some badly needed confidence and form. For Port, they regain an underdone Hardwick at the expense of Symes. Wanganeen who was initially named in the side has withdrawn due a recurrence of his back complaint. PAST ENCOUNTERS: Overall: 2-7 In the 00's: 0-5 At this venue: 0-6 At Night: 0-2 Last Time: Round 21, 24.8.03. Home at Docklands (Telstra Dome). Richmond 3.1 8.4 12.6 16.8-104 Port Adel. 5.5 8.7 13.15 18.16-124 Attendance: 15,920 KEY MATCH-UPS: DEFENCE: With the move of Gas to half-forward while he continues to find his feet after returning from a knee reconstruction, the Tigers backline has tightened up the past three weeks. Ray 'Razor' Hall has performed well at full-back containing Nathan Thomson, Barry Hall and Jay Rawlings respectively. He's had good support from AK as well as from our small defenders and midfielders working hard defensively to get numbers back and inside defensive 50. Joel Bowden played by far his best game for the Club in a number of years against the Dogs. Conversely, the Power's forward line has struggled of late as injury has severely reduced the effectiveness of their midfield to deliver the footy with any deal of quality and especially quantity. Prior to this, the form of Power CHF Warren Tredrea had been outstanding and he was a clear favourite for the All-Australian CHF position. However, he has been starved of supply the past two weeks and so his influence in Port's last few matches has been diminished. If we fail to repeat the efforts of the Crows and Roos in the midfield then Tredrea will pose a major threat to the Tiger defence. Danny has already publicly stated that Razor will have the task of stopping the Power forward. Port will also try to stretch our defence height-wise by throwing either Brogan or Lade forward as a alternative marking option. In past encounters between these two sides, it has mainly been Port's small nimble forwards and attacking midfielders who have caused us headaches. The loss of Pickett, Montgomery and Wanganeen to injury and Dew and Shaun Burgoyne struggling for form and consistency should ease our concerns in this department although such "cameo" (one good game in a blue moon) players can have their day-out if we do not respect them. MIDFIELD: Port's centreline has been decimated through injury. On Saturday night they'll be missing Primus, Francou and Carr (that's not forgetting Nick Stevens is now at Carlton). Also Roger James is only playing his second game after a long lay-off. This has forced the Power's second tier midfielders of Kane Cornes, Ebert and Cassisi along with the more senior Peter Burgoyne (who's been alot of the footy) to carry the bulk of the midfield load. A task that has proven to be unsustainable the past two weeks against the Crows and Roos (the latter savagely so). The Power like the Swans like to short-kick their way forward then once freed up go long to a leading tall forward with space to move in. The way to counter this is to play man-on-man footy. This denies them the easy short pass unlike a "zone" and they are forced to either go wide or long to a pack of players. Either way they are held up from moving the freely and quickly into their forward 50. The Tiges were able to do this for most of the game against the Swans and will need to repeat those efforts this week. Richmond on the other hand have been able to win enough of the footy (despite having slightly less clearances than their opponents) to feed the hungry Richo. This has been done without the reigning Jack Dyer Medallist Cogs and last week Cambo. The past three weeks has seen an obvious concerted effort by Richmond to play mostly a direct style of footy and to play on as quickly as possible to keep our forward line open and hit a leading marking target (Richo). The silly errors and turnovers still exist but there's a clear sign through strong second and third efforts that the side is now playing as a team. The hard work, the run to support teammates and provide options, and to get numbers to the fall of the ball has not surprising resulted in a complete turnaround in form and three wins against IMHO similar quality opposition. FORWARDS: With the big fella in unstoppable form at the minute (17 goals in 2 matches), Port will have come up with ways to deny Richo the ball. Our other forwards in the resting Otto/Stafford, Brown and Hilton have done very well since Richo has returned from his hamstring injury to clear out of the forward 50 and drag their opponents with them allowing Richo a clear run and only his direct man to beat. Port coach Mark Williams when interviewed said Port had been concentrating on stoppages (ball-ups, throw-ins, etc) at training as he conceded that unless they can stop our supply Richo would continue on his merry way. Obviously the message to us to make sure we are stronger and harder at the stoppages to feed Richo. THIS WEEK'S TEAMS: RICHMOND B: Hartigan Hall Fiora HB: Bowden A.Kellaway Newman C: Chaffey Campbell Fleming HF: Tivendale Ottens Gaspar F: Brown Richardson Schulz R: Johnson Krakouer Stafford I/C: Hyde, Roach, Hilton, Fletcher IN: Campbell, Fleming OUT: Weller (hamstring), Rodan PORT ADELAIDE B: Hardwick Wakelin Bishop HB: Cochrane C.Cornes Poulton C: Cassisi James K.Cornes HF: Schofield Tredrea Dew F: Brogan S.Burgoyne Mahoney R: Lade Wilson P.Burgoyne I/C: Thurstans, Salopek, Ebert, White IN: Hardwick OUT: Symes < BACK to 2004 FIXTURES >