Deledio defends his patchy form Matt Murnane
The Age
May 5, 2013 - 7:09PM Richmond star Brett Deledio has defended himself against mounting criticism of his performance, as his club began sorting through what it could salvage from the injury damage out of Saturday night's loss to Geelong.
Just days after Tigers coach Damien Hardwick went into bat for Deledio after criticism of his effort in last week's match against Fremantle, the two-time best and fairest winner did his own deflecting of judgment against his performance against the Cats.
Former Richmond star Nathan Brown, a friend of Deledio's, gave the Tigers midfielder ''worst on ground'' against Geelong while commentating the match at the MCG for Triple M.
For the second week in a row, Deledio was tagged heavily – this time by Cats onballer Taylor Hunt – and as a result his influence did not reach the level it did in the club's three opening-round wins. But the 26-year-old did battle hard enough to win 20 disposals (at 60per cent efficiency) and produce four score involvements and 11 pressure acts against the Cats, as well as five clangers.
''To be honest, I was a bit upset at the time,'' Deledio said of hearing Brown's appraisal of his game. ''It's not great losing, but to find out that he had given me worst on ground, I was a bit flat with that. It wasn't my best game, but I didn't think I was worst on ground.''
Since his scintillating performance against the Western Bulldogs in round three, Deledio has attracted more attention from the opposition and negative attention from commentators. It began to gain traction after Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley curbed his impact in round five, even though Deledio still managed 20 disposals.
In response to criticism Hardwick labelled as ''staggering'', the coach pointed out last week that Deledio had actually ''done a job'' while being tagged against Fremantle – playing his own run-with role with Dockers playmaker DavidMundy and limiting him to 14 disposals. That said, Deledio admitted he and his teammates must lift for Saturday's test against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, a match former Tigers champion Matthew Richardson said would be ''huge'' in the context of the club's season.
Ken Hinkley is expected to return to coach Port after missing Saturday's loss to North Melbourne due to health concerns, but Richmond has its own worries with several players – including key ruck pair Ivan Maric and Tyrone Vickery – under injury clouds. There was no update on the condition of Maric or Vickery on Sunday, with the club's fitness staff saying only that both would be closely monitored and assessed throughout the week.
Maric hurt his ankle in the third quarter and, even though he came back on to play out the game, he was noticeably affected. Vickery, meanwhile, suffered a head clash at a centre bounce in the third quarter and was quickly subbed out.
Ricky Petterd also came off late with a calf injury, while fellow defender Dylan Grimes finished the game with a sore foot and Alex Rance had calf trouble. Forward Jake King suffered what is suspected to be a fracture of the thumb, but should be available.
Hardwick said Maric, Vickery and Petterd would all be unlikely to play against the Power.
However, Deledio pointed out on Sunday that Maric had proved last season he had a remarkable ability to play with pain, while captain Trent Cotchin said he was also hopeful Vickery would get up.
If one or both of the ruckmen don't play, former Geelong ruck Orren Stephenson is likely to come into contention for his first game with his new club.
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