Richo to carry Tigers on hurt knee
By Michael Gleeson
The Age
June 4, 2005
The good news for Richmond yesterday was that as training wound up Matthew Richardson floated high, hit the crash mat on David King's back, lingered and took a neat, clean grab the likes of which he will need to take regularly today to beat the top-of-the-ladder Eagles.
The bad news was he hit the ground in pain and hobbled gingerly from the field.
The club says he is fine and will play. And there is little doubt that he will, but whether he can carry a troublesome knee and carry the forward line against the top side in the competition is another matter.
Richardson has been troubled for six weeks by minor damage to his knee.
Yesterday it reminded him it was not 100 per cent, but did not do anything more serious.
"No problems at all. I spoke to him just before he went off and he just jumped into the bag and jarred his knee," Richmond coach Terry Wallace said.
"Anyone that comes along and watches our training sessions will see Richo hobbling around a bit. He has had a sore knee for six weeks, so no problems at all."
A fit and in-form Richardson will be crucial to the Tigers' chances of beating West Coast, particularly given the loss of Nathan Brown who, while he was released from hospital a few days early yesterday, will be missing for nearly 12 months with his broken leg.
West Coast assistant coach Peter Sumich was expecting Richardson to respond to Brown's absence by picking up the slack.
"Richo will probably just up the ante marginally now. He knows he probably has to, not saying he wasn't before, but I think he'll go a bit harder. So he will be the key focus," Sumich said.
In Richmond's favour is the weak record of West Coast at the MCG, where the Eagles have lost 13 of their past 17 games.
Most notably they had their only loss of the season there in their first and last outing this season at the ground, when the then unbeaten side was humbled by the then bottom team Collingwood.
Before that match, Magpies coach Mick Malthouse declared it pointless for his team to try to shut down the Eagles, so he would attempt to out-gun them. Amazingly it worked.
For Wallace, endeavouring to do similarly would not require a departure from the Tigers' regular approach.
"When you have a look at the two sides, they have got the No. 1 midfield side for stoppages in the competition and I think we are No. 2, so from that aspect why wouldn't we back our boys to take them on?" Wallace said.
Today's clash will mark the return of Rory Hilton after almost 12 months out with a knee reconstruction.
The flighty flanker will be playing for his career at Richmond in the next three months.
"We have made no bones with Rory. From the day I walked into the club I sort of said that realistically the first half of his season was like a pre-season . . . and the second half we would be making decisions on his future and he is pretty much right on track," Wallace said.
"He knows exactly where he stands and it is no different to any senior player on an AFL list who is out of contract at the end of the season."
For Sumich the Eagles' miserable MCG record was a fact to be overcome. "That is where the grand final is played so you've got to (win there) if you want to win one, we understand that," Sumich said.
He added that while the Eagles did lose to Collingwood, the team actually played well that day and he expected that eventually the side's game plan would triumph.
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