“WAY UNDERDONE”: DID RICHMOND MAKE A SELECTION MISTAKE?By Alex Zaia
SEN
2 September 2022Kane Cornes believes Richmond made a mistake selecting an “underdone” Dustin Martin in Thursday night’s Elimination Final loss to Brisbane.
The Tigers superstar was passed fit to play having not appeared since Round 16 due to a hamstring injury.
Martin finished with 15 disposals and a goal as Richmond went down by two points in a high-scoring thriller at the Gabba.
Cornes says Martin’s inclusion should be a warning to other coaches who are contemplating rolling the dice on players who aren’t 100 per cent fit.
“A mistake clearly to play Dustin Martin I thought,” Cornes told SEN Breakfast.
“Your ears pricked up before the game when Damien Hardwick says he’s only going to be 80 per cent fit.
“He was a bit of a liability last night, Dustin Martin, they didn’t want to get him on the ground in the vital moments. Just three touches (in the last quarter), all of those in the defensive half and for the last half of the last quarter they didn’t want to get him on the ground.
“So a warning to other coaches, injured players – regardless of how good they are and regardless of their reputation – doesn’t often work in finals, I don’t think.”
SEN Breakfast co-host David King disagrees: “I hold a contrary view, but that’s okay.”
“Just the fact that he’s out there, he takes a match-up and you get the domino effect, you get lesser-ranked players against other talent in that Richmond forward line, and you’d have to say the Richmond forward line functioned, they’ve finished with 16.8, so I don’t agree with that opinion.
“I understand you’re hot on the decision to play him, but why wouldn’t you play him? What he’s done in finals, we haven’t seen a player like this in finals before.
“So when he’s declared fit to play, what, you don’t play him?”
Cornes continued: “If he’s 80 per cent and they couldn’t get him on or didn’t want him on in the last 10 minutes of the game, you lose (Dion) Prestia which means (Shane) Edwards comes on, so you lose the structure and rotation a little bit there.
“I just thought he was way underdone. Hadn’t played since Round 16.
“To what level undone? He looked way underdone.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/09/01/way-underdone-did-richmond-make-a-selection-mistake/