The mystery of the Tigers
Date March 13, 2015 - 1:21PM
Rohan Connolly
There's a degree of mystery about every club headed into a new AFL season. But less than three weeks before their 2015 campaign, this year there's just a little more about Richmond.
Well, more than has been usual for the Tigers, anyway. And on a couple of different fronts.
Having now made consecutive finals series for the first time in nearly 40 years, the Tiger army has been decidedly low-key this off-season, a quieter expectation having replaced the desperate and vocal yearning for September of a few years back.
While an old local rival in Carlton have launched something of a publicity blitz, another in Essendon remain in the news mostly for the wrong reasons, Hawthorn flex their muscles as the competition's undisputed heavyweights and Collingwood are just Collingwood, the Tigers have gone about their pre-season with few changes to personnel and a lot less fanfare.
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But there's a good deal of mystery, too, about just what can be expected of the club in 2015. Is the real Richmond the team that strung together nine consecutive wins to storm into last year's finals, the pedestrian outfit that was 3-10 after 13 games, or somewhere in between?
Even coach Damien Hardwick this week conceded that last year's Jekyll and Hyde effort made assessing his team's standing relative to the rest of the competition more difficult than usual.
"It's a good point. Look, it was," he said on Thursday. "You look at the [overall] win-loss and it said 12-10. If that had been spread over the course of the year, would it look different to winning nine on the way home? I think it probably would. Overall, we were disappointed with our season last year, and our finish also."
That, of course, was the ignominious 57-point elimination final belting at the hands of Port Adelaide, the same opponents Richmond face on Saturday in a NAB Challenge game in Albury.
The Tigers have picked a much stronger line-up than for their first practice outing against the Western Bulldogs two weeks ago, the likes of Dustin Martin, Brett Deledio, Jack Riewoldt, Alex Rance, Ivan Maric and Troy Chaplin back in the mix.
The Power, without a score of key players such as Travis Boak, Robbie Gray, Chad Wingard and Hamish Hartlett, will be, as Hardwick says is typical of the pre-season approach, an opposition "basically faceless".
But the game will provide a good opportunity for the Tigers to show whether the refinements that produced such a stunning mid-season turnaround last year have stuck, and if, indeed, they can be improved upon further. Richmond and Hardwick are confident they can, two continued focuses being speed of ball movement and scoring power.
"We want to play a little bit quicker, and we want to kick more goals ... who doesn't?" asks the coach.
"We're probably one of the better sides at controlling ball, but probably what we weren't great at last year was the ability to finish off inside 50, which is something we've worked on this pre-season, and this week gives us a good opportunity to gauge the success of that."
Richmond finished only 11th for scoring last year, with spearhead Riewoldt the only Tiger to kick more than 27 goals. On the other hand, there were important contributions from the smaller likes of Martin and, when he returned from injury, Deledio.
That's where he's likely to spend this season, too, says Hardwick, while defender Steve Morris has also been trialled as a defensive forward. The rapid emergence of on-baller Anthony Miles in the second half of the season allowed more flexibility with the smalls, as should the addition to the running brigade of Geelong's Taylor Hunt.
Nevertheless, Hardwick isn't discounting the possibility of going taller, with Ben Griffiths and Ty Vickery potential key-position players alongside Riewoldt.
"The good thing about those three is they're all different," he says. "Ben's more athletic and can get up the ground, Ty's probably more stay-at-home, and Jack's just an animal inside 50, so we're looking forward to seeing how that goes."
Increased flexibility has been another pre-season focus. "You've got to have interchangeable parts," says the coach.
To that end, there's been a number of players moved through a variety of roles besides Morris' more-publicised shift forward. Veteran Chris Newman could play forward more, Ben Lennon at half-back, as well as midfielders Hunt and Reece Conca.
There's plenty from whom to choose. That's because one important advance already on 2014 is the overall health of the list going into the new season, evidenced by the large influx of senior hands for this weekend's game.
"We had a truckload of surgery at the end of 2013, which always puts you behind," says Hardwick. "We only had five guys have ops this year, as compared to 15 or 16 last year, so our squad is in a good place, very fit."
And that faith in essentially the same senior core as last year is strong. Richmond have little time for critics who pondered why they weren't more aggressive in seeking out established talent last trade period, with the exception of delisted free agent Hunt.
"I've had a gutful of that sort of commentary to be honest," says football manager Dan Richardson. "The proof will be in how we go this year, but we always identified two to three years out that last year's draft was a really important draft to invest in."
Neither is the irony of that criticism lost on a club that, during its poorest period last season, was being slammed for having taken on too many players from other AFL clubs.
"I think we're still the ninth youngest list, but early last year due to injuries, we were fielding teams with ages and games played levels consistent with what we were in 2012," Richardson says.
"Age and games played isn't the only measure, but it's been pretty consistent over the last 10 years that premiership teams have had on average about 130 games, and finals teams over 100. Early last year at times we were back down to 70, and towards the end of the year we went back up into the 90s.
"Our strategy last year during the trade period and draft was the right strategy, and consistent with our plan all along."
And the products of that off-season influx are getting their share of minutes this pre-season. Hardwick was impressed with rookie draftee Kane Lambert in the opening NAB Challenge game against the Western Bulldogs a fortnight ago, likewise national draft picks Dan Butler and Reece McKenzie.
"The hard thing is we've got quality players we're bringing back in," he says. "The competition is great at our club at the moment."
If there's a battle to be had this year between the two contrasting personalities Richmond revealed in 2014, it's clear at the moment to those at Punt Rd that it's Dr Jekyll winning with Mr Hyde nowhere to be seen.
And this campaign, that's just the way the Tigers intend to keep it.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-mystery-of-the-tigers-20150313-1434f5.html
