AFL Finals 2017: Herald Sun experts rate the contendersHerald Sun
30 July 2017THE race to September is on.
With the AFL finals just around the corner, the Sunday Herald Sun football team, including premiership coach Mick Malthouse, rates every contender and their chances of wreaking havoc in September as we head towards the business end of the season.
RICHMOND
Finals forecast: Based on the post-Round 18 ladder, Richmond held a 4-3 record against top-eight sides. Of those three losses, two have come by single-figure margins — Sydney (nine points) and Greater Western Sydney (three points). That shows Damien Hardwick’s men can match it with the best in the competition. Richmond also has star factor and one of the best spines in the competition with Alex Rance down back, Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin in the midfield and Jack Riewoldt spearheading the attack.
Their kryptonite:The question mark remains around the Tigers’ lack of a second tall up forward to support Riewoldt. Ben Griffiths remains sidelined through injury and Todd Elton and Ivan Soldo have been tried with little success. A small and mobile forward line could work but Richmond may need to bed down a better structure for that before finals than what it has been displaying.
Fairytale factor:It’s been a long time since Richmond supporters had much to celebrate. The last premiership came 37 years ago in 1980 while the club won its last final under Danny Frawley in 2001. Since then, there have been six bottom-four finishes and three lost elimination finals. Just imagine if the Tigers train could go all the way this September. What a day it would be.
Mick Malthouse says:Richmond currently is the surprise packet. Falsely I have rated them on the performances of Alex Rance, Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt.
Trent Cotchin has stood up not only as a player, but he appears also to be over the burden of captaincy.
The Tigers’ game structure is sound.
In the league’s top three for scores against, defensively they have reduced their opposition to scratching out a score, which in itself is great, however in these weeks leading up to finals they also need to demonstrate they can kick 100 plus points in a game, as they are also the lowest scoring side in the top eight on average.
Tight defence is an excellent trait to have going into finals but if a team gets away from you, you have to be able to counter score.
Richmond’s biggest concern going forward is having every player playing his role consistently, without having to rely just on the few I have mentioned.
Run home: v Hawthorn (MCG),
v Geelong (SS),
v Fremantle (DS),
v St Kilda (MCG)
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