Hardwick's media conference 13-4-23 / Full steam ahead for Tigers

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Dimma's presser today:

WATCH: https://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/1306399/-it-should-be-an-intriguing-battle-hardwick

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'Full steam ahead' for Tigers, star out for three months

The Tigers aren't lessening their expectations despite an injury crisis

By AAP
13 April 2023

RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says there's no chance he'll write off the season as a development year despite a shocking spate of injuries.

The Tigers have 13 players unavailable due to injury for Friday night's clash against Sydney at Adelaide Oval.

The list includes key players such as Tom Lynch, who will miss three months with a foot problem, co-captain Toby Nankervis, Jayden Short, Jack Graham, Robbie Tarrant and Ivan Soldo.

But Hardwick dismissed suggestions the injury woes will lower expectations for his club, which has just one win from four games this season.

"No, Richmond don't shift their expectations," he told reporters on Thursday.

"We just keep going full steam ahead.

"The reality is the season is still young, we're four games in.

"Are we where we'd like to be? No, we would have preferred to win a couple more games.

"But we have been very close – we have lost by 14 points and five points to two sides that made the finals last year.

"We can play better, we know that.

"But what we are doing is defending well and our contest work is good. We have just got to make sure our offense is up and going."

Hardwick said while his selection options were somewhat limited, Swans coach John Longmire, with two wins and two losses this season, is facing a similar scenario ahead of their Gather Round fixture.

Sydney's Paddy McCartin and his brother Tom will miss the Adelaide fixture because of concussion, while Lance Franklin is sidelined by a knee complaint.

"John is probably the same as us, isn't he, trying to figure out how it works," Hardwick said.

"But they have got some really good diligent mid-sized defenders ... they have got enough players that will be able to cover that and we're probably a little bit the same.

"How does it affect them and what can we exploit? That is one of the challenges and it's going to be a great game to see what both sides will bring."

Hardwick said ex-captain Trent Cotchin and spearhead Jack Riewoldt were certain inclusions into his starting 22. Cotchin was a substitute last week while Riewoldt was rested.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/902877/-full-steam-ahead-for-tigers-star-out-for-three-months

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Damien Hardwick defends slow start to 2023 season

The Tigers are off to a slow start to 2023, with injuries galore and a poor run of form. However, coach Damien Hardwick says the club won’t change its lofty expectations for 2023.

Sam Landsberger
HeraldSun
April 14, 2023

Coach Damien Hardwick says a depleted Richmond won’t recalibrate its 2023 expectations as 195cm defender Ben Miller prepares to carry the ruck load along with Samson Ryan.

The Tigers face Sydney at Adelaide Oval on Friday night – the only Gather Round match yet to sell out – knowing a loss would condemn them to their worst start to a season since 2016, which was before their golden premiership run.

Miller, 23, was forced to ruck solo for most of last week’s VFL match against Footscray after Bigoa Nyuon suffered an ankle injury and he recorded 33 hit-outs, five clearances and kicked a goal against Bulldog Jordon Sweet.

The wounded Tigers have lost triple-premiership ruckman Toby Nankervis (ankle), spearhead Tom Lynch (foot), midfielder Jack Graham (hamstring) from last week and are still without Jayden Short (calf), Josh Gibcus (hamstring), Ivan Soldo (foot) and Robbie Tarrant (hip).

The Tigers however, do regain veteran Jack Riewoldt to fill the void up forward.

“There wasn’t too many magnets to throw around, to be honest,” Hardwick said on Thursday.

“We’ve just had a rotten run of luck, really, with some of the significantly long-term injuries as well with breaks and those sort of things.

“We need to play better, we know that. But what we are doing is defending well and our contest work is good.

“We’ve just got to make sure we get our offensive game up and going.

“We saw snippets of that last week.”

Hardwick hoped a forward line of Jack Riewoldt, Dustin Martin, Shai Bolton and Noah Cumberland could shake off the scoring woes, with Noah Balta set to remain in defence.

The Tigers have tumbled from the AFL’s best attack last year (averaged 98.4 points) to No.15 (74. this year.

They are scoring almost four fewer goals from turnovers this season.

But Hardwick was defiant that the Tigers could salvage their season.

“Richmond don’t shift their expectation, we just keep going full steam ahead,” he said.

“The reality is the season’s still young. We’re four games in. Are we where we’d like to be? No.

“But we’ve been very close. We’ve lost by 14 points (to Collingwood) and five points (to Western Bulldogs) against two sides that played finals last year, and the Pies obviously made the prelim.”

Hardwick staunchly defended Lynch post-match last week after he knocked out Alex Keath and while Lynch was referred directly to the tribunal he was ultimately cleared.

“Players have to make split-second decisions. He doesn’t go into that contest thinking I’m going to iron out Alex Keath,” Hardwick said.

“He goes into mark, misjudges the ball and then he’s got to protect himself.

“Reasonable person test – 99 people out of 100 are probably doing exactly what Tom Lynch did.”

Hardwick – who said he once had an eScooter stolen from his home – also pleaded for Shai Bolton’s premiership medallions thief to return them.

He doubted whether the AFL striking replicas to replace them would carry the same significance.

“We hope someone wakes up and says, ‘You know what, I’ve done the wrong thing. I’ll give them back’,” Hardwick said.

“You’d probably have to ask Shai, but from my point of view you get those on grand final day so they’re pretty special.”

https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/afl-news-how-do-richmond-turn-their-season-around/news-story/0db253622d46ec37c97edf28fdc18b8d