Hard work will reap rewards: Simmonds
By Catherine Murphy
richmondfc.com.au
April 17, 2007
TIGERS ruckman Troy Simmonds is confident that the hard work being done by the leadership group behind the scenes at Punt Rd. will reap rewards in future rounds.
“It’s a new group and we’ve done a hell of a lot of work together,” Simmonds says.
“It’s difficult because there has been a few of us who haven’t been on the track to give ‘Johnno’ (Kane Johnson) support (because of injury) but behind the scenes we are giving him the full support.
“We’ve seen an improvement in the club and the coaches have. Obviously the results haven’t worked out so far but we know where we’re going.”
Simmonds, who returned from injury for last weekend’s match with the Magpies, says the Tigers won’t need any extra motivation to put in a good performance at the ‘G on Friday night.
“It wouldn’t matter what side we’re playing at the weekend. Playing with zero wins out of three is enough to get me and the boys up and motivated for the game,” Simmonds said.
Forward Kayne Pettifer says that the players are only too aware that they were also winless at this stage of the season last year.
“We were in the same spot last year,” he says.
“We’ve looked back to that and all the senior players know that some haven’t been in form so we have to turn that around. The young guys are playing well, so we’re just eager to get on a roll.”
The 25-year-old says the playing group needs to up its performance if the Tigers are to record a victory at the weekend.
“We know ourselves we haven’t been performing up to scratch the same as last year, so we just have to get out there and get back to playing some good football,” Pettifer says.
The Tigers will be without Nathan Brown again this week. Coach Terry Wallace is still unsure as to when the star player will return.
“Nathan won’t play, he’s still probably at least a week away. Obviously we’re not going to take any risks with him,” Wallace said.
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