Tiger tactics make mark
22 May 2006 Herald Sun
Daryl Timms
AT FIRST glance there's an amazing similarity between the number of marks Richmond took against Adelaide at Telstra Dome on Saturday and the amount taken by Collingwood against Geelong at the MCG later that night.
The Tigers, in their game of keepings off, took a record 181 against the Crows, while the Magpies had just four fewer.
But there was a big difference. Most of Richmond's were taken when they were going backwards, while the bulk of Collingwood's 177 were recorded when they were going forward.
The end result was a shock three-point victory for the Tigers and a 102-point win for the Magpies.
Adelaide coach Neil Craig admitted he had never seen a team keep possession of the ball for so long, while his Tiger counterpart Terry Wallace said the ploy was introduced after the team's 19-goal loss to Sydney at Telstra Dome the previous week.
Wallace said it was not the type of tactic the team would use every week.
And he won't be taking too much notice of the game's statistics, including Joel Bowden's 20 marks, which included only one contested.
"I don't know whether you can read too much into the numbers," Wallace said.
"If I start having a look at some of my numbers they will do your head in a bit because they are just different to what you normally see in a game of footy, and it's not really about your numbers but the result at the end of the day."
Wallace said people questioned where football was heading when, as coach of the Western Bulldogs in 2000, he used stopping tactics to end Essendon's run of 20 consecutive victories.
"It lasted about three weeks and everything went back to normal," he said. "Footy has to be surprise attack or otherwise everyone just plans for it."
Tigers defender Andrew Kellaway said they could use similar tactics again at Telstra Dome.
"I definitely think on this ground that we have to play like that if it's a slow sort of play," Kellaway said.
"If you kick it down the line it just comes back over your head. We are probably not as good as some other teams with that style of game, but what happened the previous week against Sydney, we just had to try something.
"We had to hold it up."
Crows ruckman Matthew Clarke said they had used similar tactics at times, including against Collingwood at Telstra Dome in Round 1.
"But I think Richmond nearly played a full game in that style and it worked, so well done Richmond," Clarke said. "I'm sure they'll try to play that style against us again. But I don't think we'll get into a panic over that."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,19211317%255E19742,00.html
