One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on April 17, 2013, 04:15:01 AM
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Test for Hawkish Tigers
Michael Gleeson
The Age
April 17, 2013
More than 80,000 people will be at the MCG on Saturday. It will have about it the feel of a final, indeed in playing style it could have about it the feel of last year's grand final.
And that is a fact that should worry an already undermanned Collingwood.
The Tigers have for some time had shades of brown and yellow about their yellow and black. They have a game that lends to Hawthorn's style of hungry defence and precise ball movement.
In its three wins this season, Richmond tops the league for time in possession of the ball, is fifth for short kicks and third for uncontested marks. So it is controlling the ball.
As important, it is fourth in the amount of time the ball is in its attacking half. These are the building blocks of wins.
''Collingwood is a team that can apply pressure and shut down outlet kicks, so it will be a test for Richmond,'' a club assistant coach said.
''It's like Hawthorn-Sydney in the grand final. Hawthorn was precise last year but the Swans brought massive heat on them and the quality of Hawthorn's ball use dropped and particularly the quality of the ball use going inside 50 was poor.''
Countering that and comforting Richmond perhaps is the fact that while its record against Collingwood is poor, Hawthorn's is not.
Three rounds might be premature to make definitive pronouncements, but it is sufficient to reflect on to look for an explanation of why the Tigers have been effective.
They are structurally slightly different. Their back line has added Troy Chaplin, of course, but the move of Chris Newman to a wing means he has been replaced
with another more shut-down, defence-minded player, which has meant they only have Bachar Houli behind the ball as a player who uses the ball well but is not as diligent defensively.
More significant is the fact the player who has returned to the mix is Dylan Grimes who, despite playing only 20 games, has already shown that if he is not already he will soon be the club's best defender.
Consequently, this year they have pushed a half-forward - normally Dustin Martin or Brett Deledio - up to the midfield and swung them behind the ball as a seventh defender so they have the ''plus one'' or numerical advantage behind or at the contest.
''That's how they get off the chain,'' a club assistant coach said. ''And because those blokes are precise with their kicking, they find a loose man all the way down.''
This creates the dilemma for the opposition of how to respond, because both Deledio and Martin present contrasting problems for defenders.
If the opposition defender has stayed at home and not followed the half-forward to the contest, it creates the conundrum of how to defend them when their opponents come back at them down the field.
Martin is an architect of play and is such a clean kick he finds damaging targets. Deledio's speed and overlapping run make him dangerous.
So with Martin, defenders have to protect in front of the forwards who will lead up to him, but against Deledio they have to protect the space goal-side because of his line-breaking run and kicking penetration.
The Tigers have been winning clearances this year, which means the ball spends more time in their forward half and allows them to squeeze space and keep the ball within the 80-metre bubble coaches talk of playing in.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley must decide: does his defender follow Deledio or Martin up and behind the contest and potentially crowd his own forward line? Or does his defender stay home loose behind the ball?
''It's a bit of Russian roulette,'' an assistant coach said.
When the ball went deep into its defensive-50 last year, Richmond was poor at stopping other teams scoring. This year it has been better. Richmond's opponents have only goaled 24 per cent of the time (3rd in the AFL) they have gone inside 50, an improvement on last year's 27.5 per cent (which ranked them 14th).
The Tigers' defence is ground wide. They have had the third-lowest incidence of teams playing on from a mark or free this year, so they have been able to slow down the opposition's ball movement.
''Their defensive stuff has gone to a new level. They were ferocious in the way they shut the Bulldogs down. In the first couple of weeks they did it for periods but against the Dogs they sustained it,'' a coach said.
''Their attack has always allowed them to beat really good sides, but not consistently. Their defence means they are a chance of doing that more often because they will keep them in every game for longer.
''Against the Dogs, they kept going at them all day. The criticism has been that they only run one way, but they went a long way to changing that impression against the Dogs.''
It is round four. It is not a final, but will feel like it.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/test-for-hawkish-tigers-20130416-2hxl7.html#ixzz2QeRsflxS
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Insightful article, couldn't help but get a little excited reading it.
Real, tangible rationale for this team to finish in the Top 8, comes down to execution....
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''Collingwood is a team that can apply pressure and shut down outlet kicks, so it will be a test for Richmond,'' a club assistant coach said.
''It's like Hawthorn-Sydney in the grand final. Hawthorn was precise last year but the Swans brought massive heat on them and the quality of Hawthorn's ball use dropped and particularly the quality of the ball use going inside 50 was poor.''
I hope Al is reading this.
Now this is why I was concerned by our tackling counts as I've already posted in the tackling thread.
If we aren't ferocious at the footy and pressure them more than they pressure us I think we will get smashed.
It's important to have a "kill or be killed" mantra on the day.
I really hope the boys come to play and we smash 'em.
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yeah, im reading it.
when you have
In its three wins this season, Richmond tops the league for time in possession of the ball
it is natural you will have a lowish tack count.
if you bothered not to be selective you would see that i did say that the tackle count in the low 40s is low.
I also read this in the article,
''Their defensive stuff has gone to a new level. They were ferocious in the way they shut the Bulldogs down. In the first couple of weeks they did it for periods but against the Dogs they sustained it,'' a coach said.
''Their attack has always allowed them to beat really good sides, but not consistently. Their defence means they are a chance of doing that more often because they will keep them in every game for longer.
Many of us commented on how the pressure and tackling against the bulldogs was much better, and played a big part in the large win. Crap, even the harshest critic Richmond has agreed and it seems that so does a collinwood coach.
which is why i questioned if you actually watched the game on sunday, as you seem to be only one that doesn't recognize this.
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So with Martin, defenders have to protect in front of the forwards who will lead up to him, but against Deledio they have to protect the space goal-side because of his line-breaking run and kicking penetration.
No, they have to do that with both
You protect just the space in front of the forwards and Martin will kick it 30 rows back over your head for a goal
You just worry about goal side with Lids and he'll be slapping t its on the lead with the leather all night long
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So with Martin, defenders have to protect in front of the forwards who will lead up to him, but against Deledio they have to protect the space goal-side because of his line-breaking run and kicking penetration.
No, they have to do that with both
You protect just the space in front of the forwards and Martin will kick it 30 rows back over your head for a goal
You just worry about goal side with Lids and he'll be slapping t its on the lead with the leather all night long
:clapping :clapping
And at this point no one has covered our Almighty God The Chimpanzee. :shh
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So with Martin, defenders have to protect in front of the forwards who will lead up to him, but against Deledio they have to protect the space goal-side because of his line-breaking run and kicking penetration.
No, they have to do that with both
You protect just the space in front of the forwards and Martin will kick it 30 rows back over your head for a goal
You just worry about goal side with Lids and he'll be slapping t its on the lead with the leather all night long
Spot on Gerks :thumbsup
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Girks :bow
Chimp :bow
Errrbodddyyyy :bow
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yeah, im reading it.
when you have
In its three wins this season, Richmond tops the league for time in possession of the ball
it is natural you will have a lowish tack count.
if you bothered not to be selective you would see that i did say that the tackle count in the low 40s is low.
I also read this in the article,
''Their defensive stuff has gone to a new level. They were ferocious in the way they shut the Bulldogs down. In the first couple of weeks they did it for periods but against the Dogs they sustained it,'' a coach said.
''Their attack has always allowed them to beat really good sides, but not consistently. Their defence means they are a chance of doing that more often because they will keep them in every game for longer.
Many of us commented on how the pressure and tackling against the bulldogs was much better, and played a big part in the large win. Crap, even the harshest critic Richmond has agreed and it seems that so does a collinwood coach.
which is why i questioned if you actually watched the game on sunday, as you seem to be only one that doesn't recognize this.
First thing I said after winning on Sunday was that I thought we'd improved a lot in that game.
You obviously never read that.
But what I'm saying is that its easy to pressure teams like the dogs when there is next to no pressure coming back at you. We didn't fair so well against the saints which was commented on by some at the club.
I'd just love to see us really ramp this side of our game up because I'm concerned if we play finals we will be found out.
The next three weeks will be a better guide I guess.
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Collingwood win their games through contested football and pressure acts in particular. Maric will play a huge part in this game. If we can will first use and shut down their smalls, we have a huge show in this game. I was most impressed by Dimmas video this week demonstrating how we made sure we manned the mark to stop them playing on and forcing their kicks high. We need to do this again with the Pies.
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It's all bout intensity. Our intensity was excellent against the dogs. We never gave them an inch. We were patchy in the other games.
If we are diligent and uncompromising for 4 quarters against the pies, I think we'l get up.
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yeah, im reading it.
when you have
In its three wins this season, Richmond tops the league for time in possession of the ball
it is natural you will have a lowish tack count.
if you bothered not to be selective you would see that i did say that the tackle count in the low 40s is low.
I also read this in the article,
''Their defensive stuff has gone to a new level. They were ferocious in the way they shut the Bulldogs down. In the first couple of weeks they did it for periods but against the Dogs they sustained it,'' a coach said.
''Their attack has always allowed them to beat really good sides, but not consistently. Their defence means they are a chance of doing that more often because they will keep them in every game for longer.
Many of us commented on how the pressure and tackling against the bulldogs was much better, and played a big part in the large win. Crap, even the harshest critic Richmond has agreed and it seems that so does a collinwood coach.
which is why i questioned if you actually watched the game on sunday, as you seem to be only one that doesn't recognize this.
First thing I said after winning on Sunday was that I thought we'd improved a lot in that game.
You obviously never read that.
But what I'm saying is that its easy to pressure teams like the dogs when there is next to no pressure coming back at you. We didn't fair so well against the saints which was commented on by some at the club.
I'd just love to see us really ramp this side of our game up because I'm concerned if we play finals we will be found out.
The next three weeks will be a better guide I guess.
apologies, i did miss your post saying that our pressure and tackling improved a lot in the doggies game.
why, after saying that would you then say
but if we don't start putting some real pressure on the opposition it will be our undoing.
:huh