ROUND 21 - RICHMOND vs HAWTHORN - Telstra Dome ("Home")
PAST ENCOUNTERS:
Overall: 80-61
In the 00's: 5-4
At the Dome: 1-0
Last Time:
Round 2, 02.04.05. Away at the M.C.G.
Richmond 4.2 9.5 12.5 16.7-103
Hawthorn 2.3 7.7 10.13 12.17-89
Multiple Goalkickers: Richmond - Richardson 3, Brown 3, Pettifer 2; Hawthorn - Franklin 3, Barker 2, Everitt 2.
Attendance: 33,409
SUMMARY, KEY STATS AND MATCH-UPS:
With only two more rounds of the home and away season to go, Sunday's clash at the Dome between Richmond and Hawthorn is more a game for pride despite the Tiges still having a remote mathematical chance of sneaking into the finals if other results on the weekend and the next go our way. For the majority of Tiger fans who won't be able to travel down to Geelong for our final match of the year, Sunday's game will be a farewell to the retiring Mark Graham and club champion Wayne Campbell. For the Hawks the question of winning and losing, or losing and winning, a priority pick will be played out.
Despite 5 straight losses Richmond has been very competitive over the past month with narrow losses to finals aspirants Port Adelaide, Fremantle and the hot Bulldogs last week. The Tiges just haven't had the depth and run through the midfield to compete for the whole four quarters. This week after losing Tivendale to a groin injury during the Bulldogs match, Richmond have gone mostly for youth with their inclusions with possible debutant midfielder Dean Polo joining Schulz, Raines and Morrison joining the squad of 25.
While the Tigers have hovered for most of the year in finals contention up until last weekend, the Hawks have spent virtually the whole season wallowing in 15th spot. However two wins against fellow bottom four sides Carlton and Essendon and a competitive effort against the Lions for three quarters up at the Gabba in the past month has seen Hawthorn in probably their best form since we defeated them way back in round 2. In the absence of leading goalkicker Mark Williams (63 goals), the Hawks have switched to the dual prong attack of Ben Dixon (21 goals) and Trent Croad (12 goals). Last week against the Bombers they combined successfully to kick seven goals with young ruckman Simon Taylor chipping in with two of his own. This forward structure succeeded based on the work of regular ballwinning midfielders Luke Hodge (36 possessions) and Shane Crawford (30 possies) combined with consistent contributions over the park from the remaining 22. As a team 14 Hawks chalked up 15 possessions or more.
With Williams absent along with the likes of Sam Mitchell and Chance Bateman, the four key Hawks we have to curtail on Sunday will be Hodge and Crawford in the middle, number one ranked AFL ruckman Peter Everitt plus Trent Croad up forward who is averaging 17 possessions and last week knocked up 22 disposals and 3 goals. Gaspar seems the obvious choice for Croad as he usually takes the best opposition forward with Hall taking Dixon and Graham left to take a third tall such as Taylor.
Despite playing in the second worse side in the competition Luke Hodge leads the AFL in kicks, clearances including centre bounce clearances and is top 10 in disposals, uncontested ball gets and rebounding out of defensive 50. Shane Tuck who himself leads the AFL in winning contested footy and is also top 10 in disposals and clearances will most likely be the obvious choice to go head to head with Hodge. Cogs who is second in the comp in contested footy (the Tiges have the top two contested ballwinners in the League) will then match-up against Crawford. This will leave Johnson to Vandenberg,
With Knobel out again, most of the ruck work will fall to Troy Simmonds. His duel with Everitt will be crucial. If Everitt is allowed to cut loose especially at stoppages around the ground then this will bring the other Hawk midfielders into the game. We needs Simmonds, who despite his woes up forward has been pretty good in the ruck, to nullify the big Hawk and then rely on our other major ballwinners in Johnson, Bowden, Cambo, Hyde, Lids and Hartigan to get on top and outlast the other Hawk midfelders in Lekkas plsu youngsters Tim Clarke and Jordan Lewis. Hawthorn after the top few lack depth in terms of quality and experience so we shouldn't be out-run in the second half this week.
In terms of gameplan Hawthorn under Clarkson play mostly a possession game with handball after handball used to eventually free up a teammate forward of centre who can then spot up a leading forward. When opposition sides are accountable and put enough pressure on them, the Hawks often fall back into the hot potato handball style that we saw so regularly with the Tiges under Spud of multiple possessions that go nowhere slowing down the play as the ball is forced wide allowing the opposition to easily get numbers back in defence. Not surprisingly Hawthorn is 14th in inside 50s. The pressure we put on the Dogs last week is exactly what we need to do on Sunday.
Up forward we have named the three tall timbers in Richo, Schulz and Stafford. Possibly Wallace trying to reconstruct his "trianlge". With Danny Jacobs out injured this week there'll be significant pressure on first year players Roughead and debutant Dawson to hold down key-position posts and play accountable defensive roles. Hay usually takes Richo so the duel between Schulz and Roughead will a glimpse into the future. Swapping Stafford and Simmonds between ruck and the forward line combined with decent delivery from the midfield which was pleasingingly the case against the Dogs should enable us to stretch the Hawk defence and post a winning score.
OVERALL: Richmond and Hawthorn in recent years have typically become tight affairs that are not decided until late into the final quarter. The Hawks seem to pump themselves up when they're playing us. So although I believe we have more options over the park particularly up forward to gain the upper hand and win, I still think it will be a tight affair for the majority of the match given both sides have a number of outs.
THIS WEEK'S TEAMS:
RICHMOND
B: Graham, Gaspar, Newman
HB: Hilton, Hall, Bowden
C: Hyde, Tuck, Tambling
HF: Pettifer, Richardson, Deledio
F: Campbell, Stafford, Schulz
R: Simmonds, Johnson, Coughlan
Int (from): Foley, Polo, Jackson, Morrison, Moore, Hartigan, Raines
IN: Schulz, Polo, Raines, Morrison
OUT: Tivendale (groin)
HAWTHORN
B: Dawson, Hay, Osborne
HB: Smith, Roughead, Lonie
C: Vandenberg, Hodge, Lekkas
HF: Miller, Croad, Clarke
F: Dixon, Franklin, Taylor
R: Everitt, Lewis, Crawford
Int (from): Ries, Brennan, Thurgood, Ball, Nixon, Young, Greene
