Rookie proves his worth
6:10 PM Wed 11 July, 2007
By Greg Lange
richmondfc.com.au
Heading into this year’s pre-season Cam Howat was facing another year of hard work on the Tigers’ rookie list in order to prove his worth as “possible” senior player . After an impressive 2007 pre-season, his efforts were rewarded with promotion to the senior list.
However, only a few weeks into the season he found himself fighting a new battle – to stay in the side he had worked so hard to get into.
“I don’t think my training or preparation dropped off. I just had a bit of a flat period,” he admitted.
“Terry [Wallace] thought I had been up all pre-season and playing well, and I was due to plateau a bit.”
In order to rejuvenate, Howat was sent back for a spell in the VFL.
“It was a bit of a kick in the pants really,” Howard explained. “I had played a couple of poor games in a row. They just said to me, ‘If you play good footy you will get another opportunity’.
“There is no real secret formula to my game, I am a running type player and I just have to use the skills I have to the best of my ability.”
Demonstrating his fighting nature, Howat quickly rectified the “plateau” and was back in the seniors three weeks later to resume his new crusade.
“Over the past couple of weeks I think I have had some good games mixed with some poor games, but hopefully I can have a more consistent end to the season,” the 22-year-old said.
From the start of the season Howat has revelled in the challenges set for him by Wallace and the rest of the Richmond coaching staff.
“I like the way we go about it. Although we are not winning, we play an exciting brand of football and are encouraged to run and bounce.
“I am not the quickest guy going around but I have probably got the endurance where I might be able to have longer sustained efforts than others,” Howat said.
This week he and the emerging Tigers outfit take on top-eight contender Hawthorn, with both teams looking to reverse last week’s poor performances.
“We were very disappointed with the way we played on the weekend. We thought the previous months we had taken some steps forward, and we played some pretty positive football without getting the results we wanted,” said the onetime Hawks supporter.
“But last weekend we just got cut out, and the run went out of our game. All the things we had been trying to build on, and had talked about and practised on the training track, just went out of our game.”
“So we have set ourselves to get back to what we know and how we want to play, and hopefully that will hold us in good stead.”
Full article at:
http://richmondfc.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsId=47089
