Richmond's inner belief sky high after win against St Kilda Bruce Matthews
From: Herald Sun
June 02, 2012 COLLECTIVE belief as much as the four premiership points was Richmond's rich booty from the jinx-snapping win against St Kilda last night.
Tigers coach Damien Hardwick said his team should now start winning the closed contests, like the eight-point triumph over the Saints in a seesawing struggle at Etihad Stadium.
"The major thing now is the guys' belief. I think in the first 10 rounds we've played all of last year's finalists. We've acquitted ourselves quite well in all those games, but the good thing is that I think our guys now know the required level to win these football games and the challenge for us as a group is to get the results from hereon in,'' Hardwick said.
"We're a footy club that has battled hard, battled manfully, but now we've got to start to put some cream on the top and start winning the games we should certainly win.''
Spearhead Jack Riewoldt booted eight goals to cap a memorable 100th game to help set up Richmond's first win over St Kilda since 2003 and the first in the past 11 clashes at Etihad Stadium.
"We certainly needed Jack to stand up, there's no doubt about that. He has been playing below expectations at certain stages throughout the year. So to see him finally get the reward and his defence elements of the game were outstanding once again. There's no doubt it helps to get the easy rewards from goals,'' Hardwick said.
"His marking was back to where we know it can be, he has been getting his hands on them but not quite taking them. So it was pleasing to see that.''
Riewoldt described his game as "reasonable'', although he thought the five-goal first half was "my best half of footy for the year.''
"The biggest thing for me is just trying to get back to jumping at the footy and applying forward pressure. Internally, I've been happy with the way I've been putting pressure on with inside 50 tackles and all that.
"But ultimately the worm turns in AFL footy and if you continue to do stuff like that then you're going to get on the end of a couple. I was lucky to get on the end of some good midfield turnovers in the last quarter.
"There's so many people who came to the game tonight who bleed yellow and black. And to win a game on the big stage, Friday night footy with a lot of people watching, was important for this group and the way we're going to develop and mature. We were proud to win.
"They're the hurdles that we're going to have to start taking as a footy club. There are a lot of sides that have beaten us convincingly over the last few years.
"They're the demons that we have to come up against every week against sides that have beaten us in the past.''
Hardwick paid tribute to St Kilda's fighting spirit as the lead swapped four times in the gripping final quarter.
"We were challenged enormously. I thought the Saints were probably a little bit stiff. Whichever side lost was going to be stiff,'' the Tigers coach said.
"I though they were a very good footy side, the way they challenged us and their pressure around the ball was fantastic. Look, for our guys to overcome that, an experienced side where we could actually get back in front and solidify the result, was a really good sign that we're improving.
"We still have a fair way to go in a number of areas. We didn't play at the level that we would've liked tonight, but that was mainly due to the way St Kilda put pressure on us defensively around the ball.
"We didn't play the game on our terms, so for the guys to dig deep and change up a few things at half time that we needed to alter to get the game going our way, was really pleasing.
"The great thing about our group now is that they're starting to make onfield changes themselves, which is a sign of a side that's developing and getting a greater understanding of what's required at certain periods of the game. That's important for a side that's growing.
"Our leaders did the right thing, they played the game the game accordingly, we wanted to slow it down in that situation as much as we could, control the ball and eventually we got ball back.
"We lost the contested possession when they were tackling us heavily and we couldn't get our hands on the ball at one stage.
"The guys have now got the steely resolve, the mental resilience to get the game back on our terms to deliver the result we were after.''
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-news/richmonds-inner-belief-sky-high-after-win-against-st-kilda/story-e6frf9jf-1226381053439
