Media articles and stats: Freo shocks Tigers

[one-eyed]

Freo shock Tigers
By Paul Daffey
4:35 PM Sat 09 Jun, 2012


Richmond        5.2   6.3   8.8   9.12 (66)
Fremantle        4.1   7.3   9.6   12.6 (78)           

GOALS
Richmond: Edwards 3, Riewoldt, Vickery, Martin, Nahas, Cotchin, Tuck
Fremantle: Pavlich 6, Ballantyne 2, Crichton, Griffin, Mayne, De Boer

BEST
Richmond: Cotchin, Edwards, Tuck, Grigg, Morris
Fremantle: Pavlich, De Boer, Crowley, Hill, Mayne, Ballantyne

INJURIES
Richmond: Nil
Fremantle: Sandilands (knee)

SUBSTITUTES
Richmond: Ben Griffiths replaced by Brett O'Hanlon at three quarter time
Fremantle: Aaron Sandilands (knee) replaced by Hayden Crozier in the first quarter

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Donlon, Schmitt, Mollison

Official crowd: 43,801 at the MCG

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FREMANTLE has capitalised on its lockdown game plan to nudge past Richmond, defeating the Tigers by 12 points in a low-scoring match in greasy conditions at the MCG.

Fremantle kicked 12.6 (72) to Richmond's 9.12 (66).

Richmond will lament its poor kicking and the fact that it could score only four goals after quarter-time.

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has been under fire for his defensive priorities, but his tactics proved fruitful as his team had the better of the physical clashes.

The victory was Fremantle's first since defeating Port Adelaide in round seven.

Richmond was coming off a dream month, having scored three victories, but its lacklustre performance suggested it was due for a downer.

Fremantle looked to have been struck a huge blow when ruckman Aaron Sandilands went off with an ankle injury 10 minutes into the first quarter, to be replaced by substitute Hayden Crozier.

His replacement ruckman, Jonathon Griffin, battled manfully against Richmond's in-form Ivan Maric but neither had a marked influence.

The match was entertaining despite the conditions, a tight and spirited affair.

There was no score for 15 minutes in the second quarter as both teams struggled to adapt to the conditions.

The margin never exceeded 10 points during the second and third quarters, before Fremantle captain Matthew Pavlich kicked two goals early in the last quarter to give his team a 15-point lead.

It was the largest margin in the match.

Pavlich, who played deep in attack, finished with six goals after having the better of his duel with Alex Rance.
 
His steadiness when all around him were floundering marked him as the most influential player on the ground.

Richmond kicked its only goal of the last quarter at the 22-minute mark through Shane Tuck, bringing the margin back to seven points, before Fremantle steadied through a goal from Hayden Ballantyne to seal a well-deserved victory.

You might think that slippery conditions would suit the Victorian club, but Fremantle grew into the game as the rain became heavier midway through the second quarter.

Their tight, contested game suited the conditions, while Richmond looked flummoxed as it tried to carry out its high-possession game plan without success.

At half-time, Fremantle had 15 more contested possessions while Richmond had 17 more uncontested possessions.

By three-quarter time Fremantle was ahead in both the contested and uncontested posession counts, and it maintained that control during the last quarter.

Fremantle will take great heart from a rare victory at the MCG.

Richmond will rue its failure to adhere to the words of its most famous coach, Tom Hafey, who famously warned against finessing.

www.richmondfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/6301/newsid/138197/default.aspx

[one-eyed]

Team Stats

Disposals          364 - 354
Efficiency%         66 - 62
Kicks                214 - 212   
Handballs          150 - 142   
Con. Possies     172 - 173
Uncon. Possies  182 - 171
Marks                 53 - 65    
Con. Marks           9 - 13   
Uncon. Marks      44 - 52
Tackles               84 - 118   
Clearances          44 - 45
Clangers             54 - 47
Hitouts               61 - 47 ............ ( I.Maric 44, Vickery 9, Grigg 4, Tuck 3, Riewoldt // Griffen 43, Sandilands 3, Mzungu )
Frees                 17 - 24     
Inside 50s          58 - 43    
Rebound 50s      26 - 43
Assists                5 - 9   
1%ers               78 - 74
Supercoach    1566 - 1735
Dreamteam    1506 - 1683

Individual Stats

PLAYER              D     K      H    CP   DE%    M    CM    T   CL  FF  FA  I50 R50   G   B   GA   SC

T.Cotchin          30    22      8    18    60%    6    0      3    9    1    3    4    2    1    2    0    107
S.Tuck              29    15    14    19    69%    3    0      8    9    1    0    4    3    1    0    0    155
S.Grigg             24    16      8    11    50%    2    0      3    7    3    1    6    1    0    1    0      92
B.Houli              20    11      9      9    80%    5    0      4    3    0    1    2    2    0    0    0      73
D.Jackson          20    12      8    12    55%    1    0    12    1    1    2    4    0    0    2    0      87
D.Martin            20    11      9      5    55%    1    0      2    2    0    0    5    0    1    0    0      44
S.Morris            19    11      8    10    58%    1    0      1    0    2    0    2    2    0    0    0      66
B.Ellis               18    10      8      5    61%    3    0      2    0    0    1    5    1    0    0    0      49
R.Conca            16    10      6      6    75%    1    0      4    0    3    4    4    2    0    0    0      44
M.Dea               16    10      6      7    62%    5    2      2    0    0    0    1    2    0    0    0      66
S.Edwards         16      8      8      9    69%    0    0      5    2    0    2    5    0    3    1    2      93
A.Maric              16      7      9      6    75%    2    0      1    0    0    1    0    0    0    0    0      49
C.Newman         16    13      3      4    62%    4    1      1    0    1    1    1    3    0    0    0      56
A.Rance            16      6    10    12    87%    1    0      4    2    1    1    0    5    0    0    0      85
B.Deledio          15    11      4      9    60%    1    0      9    4    1    1    1    1    0    0    0      67
R.Nahas            12      8      4      8    58%    3    0      6    0    3    0    2    0    1    1    0      71
J.Riewoldt          12      7      5      5    67%    3    0      3    2    0    1    1    0    1    2    0      53
T.Vickery           12      6      6      6    92%    2    1      2    1    0    2    2    0    1    0    2      81
I.Maric               11      7      4      3    73%    2    2      5    1    0    1    3    0    0    0    1    111
J.Batchelor        10      6      4      5    90%    3    2      2    1    0    2    1    2    0    0    0      54
B.Griffiths           8      1      7      2    75%    2    0      4    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0      37
B.O'Hanlon          8      6      2      1    37%    2    1      1    0    0    0    5    0    0    0    0      26

http://live-footy.heraldsun.com.au/StatsCentre/Index/20121120120141102
http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/16931/Default.aspx#fixtureid=7751&tab=Stats

[one-eyed]

Five talking points: Richmond v Fremantle
By Jennifer Witham
Sat 09 Jun, 2012

Breakthrough at the 'G
Fremantle landed at Tullamarine Airport this week having not won at the MCG since round four, 2007, when it beat Melbourne by 45 points. Dark skies and chilly weather wouldn't have warmed the players' hearts either but the 12-point win is a major one for the club, snapping a three-game losing streak and shaking off its MCG hoodoo.

Lyon and Tigers
Before the match, Fremantle coach Ross Lyon was the centre of a remarkable statistic. In his five-and-a-half years as a senior coach, he had never presided over a loss to the Tigers. In his St Kilda days, he coached six wins and one draw against the yellow and black, and was meeting them for the first time as coach of Fremantle. Saturday's result leaves the Tigers wondering, "Just how do we beat this man?" 

War of attrition
The first half was all about injuries, and the mounting number made it hard to see how either team would have a full 18 on the field at the final siren. Aaron Sandilands hurt his foot in the first five minutes and was subbed out, while Stephen Hill and Jack Riewoldt were treated for sore ankles. In the second term, Trent Cotchin hurt his elbow, and Steven Morris and Michael Johnson tweaked shoulders. The curse carried into the third with Zac Dawson requiring knee attention. All finished the game but there will be some sore boys on Sunday.

Rain, rain, go away - but not today, says Freo
The rain set in shortly before the game and didn't let up until after half-time. While the Tigers were expected to start better given the familiar Melbourne conditions, it was the Fremantle players who seemed to adapt better. "It's a really tough day, we rarely play in these conditions so it's good to see the boys [play with] intensity," Matthew Pavlich said on Fox Sports at half-time. 

Ballantyne banter
Hayden Ballantyne didn't have many fans at the MCG to start with but an incident in the second quarter didn't help. He planted an elbow into the stomach of Chris Newman, which saw the Richmond captain struggle for breath for several minutes. The wheel turned later in the term with Newman intercepting a pass from Ballantyne to Ryan Crowley along the boundary, and then earning a free kick for an over-enthusiastic tackle from the little Freo forward. If only Jake King had been available to provide an eye-to-eye contest. 

http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=138175

[one-eyed]

Richmond haunted by old foe Ross Lyon

    Mark Hayes
    From: Herald Sun
    June 09, 2012 8:00PM

The new Fremantle coach - renowned for his stifling, hard-at-it tactics at former club St Kilda - remains unbeaten in eight career matches against the Tigers, whose spirited style of the past month ran into a purple roadblock at a sodden MCG.

But as one hoodoo lingered, Freo skipper Matthew Pavlich laid to rest another. One of few knocks in Pavlich's stellar career has been his perceived inability to lift the Dockers on to his ample shoulders and carry them over the line at the MCG.

Scratch that off the list.

The six-time All-Australian booted six goals as his Dockers defied an early injury to star ruckman Aaron Sandilands and the form guide to defeat Richmond by 12 points and breathe life into their season.

Often playing one-on-two as Fremantle's only deep forward, Pavlich singlehandedly kept his club in the match with three first-quarter goals, then booted the two telling majors of a tense final term.

But it was far from a one-man effort after quarter-time, with the oft-maligned Dockers turning on one of their best MCG performances yet to snap a three-game losing streak.

The Dockers used a club-record 118 tackles to overpower Richmond in the clinches, breaking a 10-game losing streak at the MCG dating to Round 4, 2007.

They'd also lost five of their past six against the Tigers and won only three of their past 27 games in Victoria.

And when the free-wheeling Tigers opened in a hurry yesterday, it looked as though Fremantle would be over-run again.

Enter Pavlich, who was at his potent best in booting three first-term goals among the Dockers' 10 inside-50 entries.

Then, after Lyon gave what appeared an extended wet-weather footy seminar at quarter-time, his charges responded with a more hearty attack and the game turned into a fierce contest.

Richmond fans howled at being on the wrong end of 19-12 free-kick count, but while some decisions were debatable, the bottom line was the Dockers were harder at it in another ruck-and-maul style game.

"They got a lot of free kicks because obviously they were first in for the footy," Richmond captain Chris Newman said.

"They just outplayed us, out-hunted us.

"The only thing we can do now is brush ourselves off and address what we need to in those conditions and then move on to GWS next week.''

The Dockers evidently decided a tag would be most effective on Brett Deledio, and duly sent human velcro Ryan Crowley in his direction.

Deledio's impact was minimal in comparison with recent weeks, with only 15 disposals compared with the 32 he averaged over the past three weeks.

Then with recently relocated midfielder Matt de Boer playing his best AFL game, the Dockers man-handled their way to victory.

De Boer said Lyon had drummed home a game plan that would hamper Richmond's style, which appeared also to be hampered by some heavy rain in the second quarter when its short-kicking, precise style backfired, enabling Fremantle to work its way into the game.

"We did our due diligence during the week, did our homework on specific things," de Boer said.

It was an eye-opening loss for Richmond, which had won four of its past five matches.

Key forward Jack Riewoldt's impact was limited when he suffered an ankle injury in a marking contest midway through the first term and was helped from the ground by trainers.

He re-emerged after quarter-time, but was well held by Dockers full-back Luke McPharlin.

Trent Cotchin also came off with an arm injury before halftime. But the Tigers midfield general bravely played on and was the key reason Richmond managed to stay in touch.

FOUR POINTS with Bruce Matthews

1. Goals were like finding gold in the constant rain. And Fremantle earned two freakish ones as reward for workrate in the first half. Jesse Crichton must have been as surprised as anyone when he threw the ball onto his boot in a pack of players on a tight angle and watched it sail through. But that had nothing on ruckman Jonathon Griffin's effort when he dropped the ball onto the left boot right against the boundary line and it slithered through the goalline with centimetres to spare.

2. Richmond's cult hero Ivan Maric hasn't had too many howlers to his name so far this season. But he wished he hadn't attempted a goalline mark in the second quarter.Instead of shepherding through a long shot from Dustin Martin, the big Tiger stood his ground and eventually spilled the overhead mark. He made amends a couple of minutes later with a deft left foot flick into Shane Edwards path to release him to run into an open goal.

3. Ross Lyon spent the entire quarter-time break giving instructions to the players grouped around him.Lyon was emphasising the finer points of football in the wet, with animated demonstrations of where to stand and how to handle the slippery ball.The assistant coaches didn't even get a chance to chat to the individual groups, such was the senior coach's priorities on those critical fundamentals.

4. Even considering Fremantle's superior workrate, the lopsided free kick count was puzzling.The Dockers must have thought they were back at Subi with a massive 17-7 in their favour at half-time. It finished 24-17 the visitors way. In the areas where most frees are plucked out, Fremantle led the tackles 117-82 while contested possessions were deadlocked at 173.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/richmond-haunted-by-old-foe-ross-lyon/story-fn6bn7f4-1226389977962

[one-eyed]

Loss shows Richmond has work to do
By Jake Niall
The Age
June 10, 2012


FOR Richmond, it was a day of reminders. The Tigers were reminded that, for all their progress, they sit at five wins, six losses and well outside the eight. They were reminded that the wet ball doesn't allow running and spreading, that the game becomes brutally basic and that there's no substitute for strong bodies.

They were reminded that if you think the draw ''opens up'' after a tough run, then you will be opened up.

For those with bad memories, they were given an even more unpleasant reminder of their club's decision, more than a dozen years ago, to overlook a young South Australian forward named Matthew Pavlich and instead pick Aaron Fiora.

Pavlich sank Richmond. That's the text message description of the match. ''Pav'' booted six of Fremantle's 12 goals as Richmond recorded reversals on multiple fronts.

Brett Deledio was tagged out of the game, a sometimes failing that he'd overcome this year. Ivan Maric bumbled back to his short-haired Adelaide form, and Alex Rance suddenly looked more like the 2010 version of himself, as Pavlich rendered him a second-rung defender. For Rance, the major problem was that Pavlich, too, was his former self.

Jack Riewoldt, who hurt his ankle but stayed on, slipped back to where he'd been before his eight-goal explosion against the Saints, and Dustin Martin played like a kid, rather than a bullocking man.

The only gun who maintained his outstanding 2012 output, predictably, was Trent Cotchin, who shapes as one of the truly great players impervious to their circumstances. Wet ball, dry ball, winning or losing, tagged or not, it matters not for Cotchin. He isn't stopped.

It used to be said that on wet days, ''you pick your Tasmanians and drop the West Australians''. Well, that was another reversal yesterday. The bigger-bodied Dockers, in fact, were much better equipped to handle the slippery ball, since it reduced Richmond's greatest asset - its ability to run and create loose players once it gets hold of the ball.

The wet-ball game is more contested and brings tackling to the fore. Fremantle held an edge on both counts for most of the match, finishing with a club record 117 tackles to Richmond's 82. While the contested ball count was even at the end, this was misleading, since the Dockers led it comfortably (by 16) to three-quarter-time. The Tigers surged in the final term, locked the ball into their attacking half, but couldn't score, their 19 forward-50 entries yielding a dismal 1.4.

Fremantle's victory didn't seem likely in the middle of the first quarter, when it trailed 3.1 to 1.1 and leviathan ruckman Aaron Sandilands was subbed out with what was described as a foot injury. When Stephen Hill limped off minutes later, Richmond seemed blessed.

But this was a ferociously combative game, in which Riewoldt hurt his ankle, Cotchin his arm and Fremantle's second ruck, Jon Griffin, grasped his opportunity. Griffin kicked an improbable goal with a left-foot snap from the boundary and was certainly more effective than Maric, his former Crows teammate.

The other point is that Fremantle won the crucial contests, either at centre bounces or in each team's scoring area. Pavlich's one-out victories over Rance were paramount. The champion booted three of his six goals in the opening quarter and then unleashed the knockout in the final term, with two very classy goals that pushed the margin out to a decisive 15 points.

The first of that Pav pair was created by young Docker Lachie Neale, who cleverly created a loose man by delaying his release of the ball.

Needing a long kick, Pavlich lowered his eyes and booted the ball low, enabling it to skid through. His sixth came when he marked a high ball on his chest as he out-bodied Rance.

But Pavlich's greatest moment was a contest late in the third quarter. The Tigers led by a point - the lead had changed three times already that quarter - when Pavlich found himself outnumbered and facing his goal as the ball was kicked forward. He just needed, somehow, to square the contest, which he did, bravely running into a pair of Tigers, getting collected (not badly) by Jake Batchelor. Tendai Mzungu pounced on the spillage, found Matt De Boer, who booted the goal that ensured the Dockers led at the last break. They weren't headed again.

Deledio's subjugation by Ryan Crowley was also instrumental in the result, particularly given that Nathan Foley was absent. Flint-hard Shane Tuck supported Cotchin in the midfield trenches, Shane Edwards was clean with the ball and enterprising - his three goals compensating for Riewoldt's eclipse. Shaun Grigg maintained his recent output.

But none of this toil was enough. Fremantle had Pavlich. He reminded us that Richmond has some distance to travel, and that he isn't done yet.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/loss-shows-richmond-has-work-to-do-20120609-202ng.html#ixzz1xJcKPY4B

[Owl]

Even Mark Hayes can see it, point 4.
There is no excuse, there were a plethora of frees that went unpaid for us that had me ripping my stuffing hair out, like for like and it just changes the game, they get a sniff that they are on top, and we get down and hesitant.  This poo has to stuffing stop!  What is the agenda of using us as patsies for games, are they scripted dramas?

[dwaino]

  What is the agenda of using us as patsies for games, are they scripted dramas?

A decade ago, even half a decade ago, we didn't even know these maggots' names. Now there is acknowledgement of umpiring milestones, umpire weekends and all that sorts of crap. Sam Newman said it best. It was best when we didn't know who they are. Now they're purposely making these sorts of poo decision because it gets a rise from the crowd and a chub in their pants that they're now bigger than the footy game on the park.