Tigers pay heavy price for errors
richmondfc.com.au
By Jennifer Witham Sat 11 July, 2009
RICHMOND coach Jade Rawlings said he was proud of the way his players fought back against Carlton on Saturday, but was disappointed they trailed by as much as 38 points in the first place.
Rawlings said the Tigers made mistakes the Blues were able to capitalise on, which led to the hefty seven-goal deficit his side faced early in the final term.
However, he was pleased his players didn't give up and were able to cut the margin back to 14 points.
"We had our chances to be in the game. At three-quarter time, we shouldn't have been down by as much as we were," he said after the 20-point loss.
"It could have got too hard for our boys but it didn't, and I couldn't have been prouder of their endeavour and their courage to keep fighting through.
"I thought Bret Thornton's mark when the game was really tight was a pivotal moment. They go and score from it; our chance gone."
Rawlings outlined the midfield match ups as a positive for the Tigers, with a few of their players winning pivotal head to heads, including Jake King on Kade Simpson and Matthew White on Marc Murphy.
Butt stopping the Blues’ skipper required another move from the coach.
"There's always one that gets out. [Chris] Judd got out, so we asked Deledio, 'By the way, can you go and play on Juddy for us?'
"He took that on board. Judd was awesome around clearances but we thought Deledio's effort to play on him and stand toe to toe and try to match it and run the other way was really pleasing."
However, he agreed Brendan Fevola's nine-goal performance was the difference between the two sides.
"He was just too good. He was in one of those frames of mind where anything in his area, he was going to be able to do something special with," he said.
"This will sound weird but I thought Will Thursfield was pretty good on him. Thursfield's first half probably negated more contests than we lost.”
He also praised the way Ben Cousins responded to criticism mid-game to end with 35 touches, and said the former Eagle was influencing the Tigers’ style of play.
"He was very good. I had to have a bit of a go at him because I was disappointed with his boundary line snap in the third quarter, but from there – it’s like he goes to another level once he's challenged," he said.
"His running capacity to win it in close and then spread from those situations is up close as good as I've seen.
"Our young mids will learn a lot from having played alongside him.”
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