The one statistic that Richmond may need to address: Leppitsch (SEN)

[one-eyed]

THE ONE STATISTIC THAT RICHMOND MAY NEED TO ADDRESS: LEPPITSCH

Nic Negrepontis
SEN
6 April 2021

Former Richmond assistant coach Justin Leppitsch has outlined one statistic that would worry the Tigers after three rounds.

While Leppitsch isn’t particularly worried about the reigning premiers losing a game in Round 3, he does think they’ll want to tidy their full ground defence.

“They’re the worst Round 3 team ever to play the game, the Tigers,” Leppitsch joked on SEN Mornings.

“Last year’s loss against the Hawks was horrific and lacked energy and looked very similar and you’re thinking ‘gee that’s a real worry’, but they’ll bounce back well.

“Probably the one area they’d be concerned about is the defensive 50 transition of the opposition. The ability for the opposition to get from one end of the field to the other.

“So last year Richmond averaged basically 1.1 from the opposition scoring from their defensive 50. They’re averaging 4.4 now across three games.

“So that’s obviously four times the amount in scoring from one end of the ground to the other, so is the stand rule hurting them?

“Because they’ve got such a good defensive unit, the man on the mark was so good at becoming an extra defender and they’d re-fold their defence around that.

“But that’s a stark number. I know it’s only three weeks and it’s only a small sample size, but that’s one they’ll be looking at.”

Leppitsch added how he would go about identifying the problem and then fixing it.

“First you’d identify if it’s the stand rule that’s the problem because if that’s it then you’re going to have to do something completely different with your defence, do you play an extra behind the footy?” he said.

“If it’s just the players in the next vicinity, that 30 metre bubble around that area, are they just not on their opponents well enough, are they not hands on enough to stop those uncontested marks.

“Allowing Sydney to change lanes and do those sorts of things.

“Or are they just kicking it in and we’re getting out-marked. I don’t think it’s number three. It’s probably a combination between the stand rule and the second one. The players in the next 30 metres not being switched on enough. It’s probably a combination of those two things at this point in time.”

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/04/06/the-one-statistic-that-richmond-may-need-to-address-leppitsch/

[Lozza]

Execution of basic skills helps too, we hardly hit a target all day. Killed by the turnover, a number of their goals from turnovers and a majority of the balance from questionable 50/50 umpiring decisions.

Essentially we were flat and poor in a few key areas and they were very very good, take nothing away from the Swans.