Richmond won’t play a hard tag on Nat Fyfe says Damien HardwickBruce Matthews
Herald-Sun
June 04, 2015 1:06PMRICHMOND is preparing to tackle Fremantle midfield ace Nat Fyfe head-on at Subiaco on Friday night.
Coach Damien Hardwick said the Tigers are likely to adopt Adelaide’s technique of backing a player in a run-with role rather than as a hard tag.
“We’re just going to assume he’s going to get 30 touches and we’ve got to make sure our guy gets 35,’’ Hardwick said before the team flew to Perth today.
“We’ll probably go head-to-head at this stage and see how it goes. If he gets out of hand, we’ll look at coming up with something else.’’
The Tigers coach said Shaun Grigg, who has performed well on key playmakers Joel Selwood, Jobe Watson and Scott Pendlebury this season, was a candidate for the Fyfe job.
“He has had an incredible season. His ability to win contested ball and kick goals has been crucial for us,’’ Hardwick said.
“He’s a player that not only have we got the capacity to put to someone, but the opposition has to start worrying about him. We’ve been pleased with his progression, he’s having his best season.
“He (Fyfe) has had an incredible season, you’ve only got to look at his stats to back that up. But there’s a number of things we’ll go through with our players, whether we apply a team tag, whether we tag at all or whether we just go head-to-head.
“The great thing about the Freo midfield from their point of view is you’ve got Nat Fyfe, then you’ve got David Mundy and Lachie Neale. All three guys are in incredible form. You can try to stop one and the other two will get out at some stage.
“We’ll back our midfield in, similar to what Adelaide did last week. The fact is even if you do tag him, he’s capable of getting 20-25 touches.’’
Mindful of a six-day break, Richmond took 25 players, including forward Ty Vickery, to Perth and will decide the line-up after the main training session for the week at Subiaco on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s easy to look at the last three weeks, but if you look at the last 20 games, we’ve won 14.
“We’ve got great confidence in our playing group, we know where we’re going. We’ve been able to sprinkle in some young blokes who have been playing some incredible footy and stood up and made us a team that’s on the rise,’’ Hardwick said.
“The crucial thing with Fremantle is that they’re starting incredibly well and the gap they put on a side at the end of the first quarter is generally good, so it’s important to get off to a good start.
“A side that’s undefeated, especially at Subiaco, there’s no bigger challenge. The great thing for us, we play pretty well over there and we’re a side that travels well. We relish the opportunity.”
Hardwick said a settled back six this season has been critical to the Tigers’ recent solid form.
“Bachar Houli has had a great season, Alex Rance is in all-Australian form, Nick Vlaustin has had a great year also. Troy Chaplin is a leader of ceremonies down there, so to speak. But you’re only as good as your pressure up the field and that has also improved. Our midfield tackles are AFL (ranked) three or four and our forward line pressure also.’’
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