Tiger youth to take on senior roles
Lyall Johnson | May 20, 2007 | The Age
IT WAS as close as it had come to a win all year, but by the time the final siren sounded on Friday night, Richmond had not only lost the match to Adelaide by nine points but another senior player to injury.
Yet rather than dwell on the losses, the club said the only way to look at the injury to Matthew Richardson — a hairline fracture of the eye socket after he was collected by Andrew Krakouer's boot in the last quarter — was as an opportunity for a young player to fill the breach.
Cleve Hughes, who missed selection for the Crows' game, will be given the job again at either full-forward or centre half-forward, roles he is being groomed for, once Richardson ends his career.
"(Richardson's) obviously a huge part of our team. And the experience factor is going to be a huge loss," defender Chris Newman said. "He takes the best defender every week and releases (others). But the young blokes have to step up and take the responsibility. We've just got to have the confidence to get things done with or without."
Coach Terry Wallace said he had challenged the group to stick together through the hard times and was going to encourage the youngsters to come through. But, he said, with the number of injuries to the Tiger group, there were young players being asked to do roles they were not yet up to.
"The problem that we have at the moment is that you're playing guys in the ruck who, perhaps, shouldn't be playing in the ruck at this stage in their career," Wallace said.
"And that's not having a go at Adam Pattison at all … I thought his last quarter was magnificent, trying to get us over the line for victory. But early in the game, when blokes are fresh and strong, the key ruckmen in the game are getting first hands on the ball, their players are surging forward and it's very, very difficult to stop that. You can't do anything bar just compete and give it your best effort.
"We're finding ourselves on the back foot in those games when all of a sudden, teams tire a little bit and it doesn't become as prevalent and our guys are working hard enough to get themselves into the game.
"It's a problem for us at the moment. Even Matthew, who we throw in just to go for a couple of taps, he's down and we've got to come up with about plan E now."
A number of the young players in the Richmond line-up are finding their feet. Nathan Foley was brilliant again. He is hard at the ball, has good evasive skills and is a lot faster than many of his opponents give him credit for. As a result, he is currently leading the league in centre clearances.
Jake King was also exciting on Friday night. Given leave to take opponents on, he ran the lines strongly and twice faked kicks and ran past players on the mark.
"I think they're really stepping up and getting used to the senior experience, I think they're relishing it and playing with a bit of excitement, too," said Andrew Raines, who, at 21, is hardly an old stager. "It's helping everybody out there.
"If we can get everyone stepping up … it's going to be a tough side in the end, hopefully, to get into and that's what we're looking for."
It is a telling statistic that Richmond had only one fit player over the age of 21 who didn't travel to Adelaide with them.
Newman, who turned 25 on Friday, said he was finding it bizarre he is being considered a veteran of the side.
"It sort of hit when I turned 25. I think I've played 97 games now. So I do feel like a bit of an old man in the team now with all the youngsters. I think Brett Deledio just had his first shave the other day," he said.
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