Richmond ‘can’t win the flag’ if Jack Riewoldt can’t escape horror form slump, says Nick Dal SantoBen Waterworth
July 25, 2020 12:10am
Triple All-Australian Nick Dal Santo believes Richmond can’t win this year’s premiership if star forward Jack Riewoldt can’t escape an unprecedented form slump.
Riewoldt booted one goal from eight disposals in the Tigers’ 12-point loss to the Giants on Friday night.
In a decorated 14-year career where he’s averaged 2.4 goals per outing, Riewoldt has finished with just one major from his past five straight games. He’s also averaging eight disposals per match this year – his lowest tally since his debut season in 2007.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, Dal Santo said he doubted whether the Tigers could claim back-to-back premierships if Riewoldt remained rusty.
“I think we’ve seen enough football this year for me to say that if Jack Riewoldt doesn’t get out of this form slump that he’s going through, they can’t win the flag,” Dal Santo told First Crack.
“He’s not playing good football, but they need him to play better football, in my opinion, for them to get to where we think they can get to.”
Riewoldt isn’t the only agile key forward that’s struggling to hit the scoreboard this season, with North Melbourne counterpart Ben Brown under the microscope after kicking just one goal from his past three outings.
Triple premiership forward Cameron Mooney said it wasn’t a coincidence the likes of Riewoldt and Brown were performing well below their usually high standards.
“The game is so crowded in forward lines at the moment … that the athletic running forwards haven’t got the space to run or move into,” Mooney told First Crack. “They’re finding it really hard to get their hands on the ball.
“Ben Brown’s finding it really hard to get on the lead – that’s how he wins his ball. Jack Riewoldt’s the same.
“The big hulking forwards, it’s almost a comeback for those boys. Charlie Dixon, Tommy Hawkins – the guys who can handle the big amounts of players around them, push away their player and take the mark – they’re the big forwards that we’re looking at at the moment.”
While Riewoldt managed one goal against the Giants, fellow Richmond key forward Tom Lynch was held goalless for just the second time this season.
But Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said he was more concerned by his side’s messy forward 50 entries, as well as its inability to win groundballs.
“That’s been our method of operation for a while that we’ll kick it to those players (Lynch and Riewoldt),” Hardwick told reporters post-game.
“At various stages we could have lowered our eyes, there’s no doubt about that. But that polish was probably just missing. That’s something we’ve worked on and will continue to work on.
“We didn’t execute as well as we’d like. That last kick inside 50 is the hardest kick in footy. We didn’t pull it off tonight.”
Hardwick lamented the array of missed scoring opportunities for the Tigers, who had more scoring shots and inside 50s than the Giants yet lost by two goals.
But Hardwick also claimed his side’s “system held up”, highlighting the Tigers’ strong forward half numbers.
“The game itself looked like a Richmond game. We just didn’t execute to the level we normally would,” he said.
“A lot of that can be put down to inexperience, but the vast majority can be put down to execution. We’ve got to get better.
“You always want to walk away with the four points, didn’t get me wrong, but there was a lot of things we did do right that didn’t quite get the result.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2020-jack-riewoldt-stats-richmond-form-cant-win-flag-says-nick-dal-santo/news-story/0969f29df769611d7837fef27e82e015
