By Peter Ryan8:31am AEST Tuesday, June 11, 2013
ONLY FIVE times this season has the winning team not had at least one player manage more than 25 disposals.
Fremantle has done so twice, Carlton once, the Eagles once and Richmond joined that club last Monday night, against the Eagles.
Twenty-five is a low number of disposals for the top possession winner on the winning team.
The lowest disposal count from an individual on a winning team since 2008 happened in round 15, 2008 when the Hawks' Buddy Franklin topped the table with 21 disposals.
Franklin had 19 kicks and two handballs to top Sam Mitchell, Brad Sewell and Luke Hodge as the Hawks beat the Sydney Swans by 31 points.
What the statistic from Richmond's win against the Eagles shows is that the load is being spread as the Punt Road ship finally starts to right itself.
The necessary support the Tigers have been building around its terrific three middle men - Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Brett Deledio - is starting to pay dividends.
Against the Eagles, Martin, Deledio and Bachar Houli hit the 25-disposal mark and got support from Shaun Grigg (24 disposals), Trent Cotchin (23), Daniel Jackson and Nathan Foley (22 apiece).
Youngsters Brandon Ellis, Nick Vlastuin and Reece Conca – first round draft picks in recent years – have shown their capacity to join that list occasionally this season and you'd expect more than occasionally in the future.
Vlastuin was close to best on ground against West Coast while the absent Ellis and Conca will be picked when back from injury.
Since round five, the Tigers have had at least seven players gather more than 20 disposals each week.
Richmond's midfield bats deeper and it makes the team harder to coach against.
How long has it taken to reach that point?
In Hardwick's first game as coach, only three Tigers managed 20-plus disposals: Daniel Connors (24), Jackson and Deledio (21)
Hardwick now has retained just 13 players on the list who were there in 2009.
From the 2009 list he traded one player – Mitch Morton – who played in a premiership, while four others in Jay Schulz, Andrew Raines, Richard Tambling and Angus Graham found homes at other clubs.
By the end of his second season, Nathan Brown, Joel Bowden, Matthew Richardson, Ben Cousins, Troy Simmonds and Kane Johnson had all retired.
In came Tom Hislop and Mitch Farmer from other clubs and Martin through the draft in his first off-season. In his second, Brad Miller, Grigg and Houli arrived along with Conca through the draft.
The mix of old and new has continued while the club crossed the rickety bridge from hopeless to good.
Each year that has passed has made it easier for the recycled players to flourish and the early draft picks to find their feet. No-one notices much what Ricky Petterd, Aaron Edwards and Sam Lonergan have achieved this season after coming from other clubs, as they are expected to provide little more than depth at this stage.
The parallels with what Melbourne began in the off-season with its list restructure are obvious, although no-one seems to want to look past the gnashing of teeth surrounding that club.
Richmond has not wasted a first round draft pick since and last week's team had six recruits or cast-offs from other teams in the line-up.
It took the time to review the performance of the coach before awarding him a new contract.
This week's game against Adelaide, however, represents a critical juncture in the renovation project Richmond began back in 2010.
It feels like a similar challenge as that which faced the club when it met Fremantle in round 11 last season after two good wins.
On that occasion the Tigers failed.
If this Richmond is different it must beat Adelaide to set itself on the course to finals.
After last week's win, Hardwick did not want to discuss anything further away than this week's match.
His focus is shifting from the long to the short term. Other clubs should take heart.
A series of correct decisions and the courage to make them make a bigger difference than short-term saviours.
So far so good for Richmond but now it needs to put the foot down and stake its claim for a finals spot.
This week it can put paid to the Crows.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-06-11/richmonds-renovation-project-gathers-pace
