Author Topic: Media articles and Stats: Tigers fall short of Saints  (Read 1926 times)

Offline one-eyed

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Media articles and Stats: Tigers fall short of Saints
« on: August 21, 2010, 05:28:49 PM »
Cousins injured as Tigers fall short
richmondfc.com.au
By Adam McNicol
4:47 PM Sat 21 August, 2010



A DETERMINED Richmond has fallen to a 21-point loss after pushing St Kilda for most of Saturday's clash at Etihad Stadium.

The 17.13 (115) to 14.10 (94) result was the Saints' 13th victory in succession over the Tigers - a streak that dates back to round four, 2003.

However, the game might have also been the farewell appearance for retiring veteran Ben Cousins, who strained his left hamstring during the third quarter.

While Cousins' injury soured the afternoon somewhat, the battle of the Riewoldts provided plenty of highlights at either end of the ground.

Jack Riewoldt bagged seven goals for Richmond, while his cousin Nick booted three for St Kilda.

Justin Koschitzke (five goals), Nick Dal Santo (36 possessions) and Brendon Goddard (29) were other dominant players on the winning side, as was Leigh Montagna, who picked up 42 touches.

Goddard enjoyed both highs and lows. He took one of the finest marks of the season during the second quarter, then cost his team a goal when he was responsible for an interchange infringement in the third.

Back after a four-week suspension, midfielder Trent Cotchin was an impressive contributor for the Tigers, while Jack Riewoldt took his season tally to 75 goals, and kept him in front of Bulldogs forward Barry Hall in the race for the Coleman Medal.

Jake King was another surprise packet in attack with three goals.

Richmond began well and led by 17 points with less than three minutes to go in the opening quarter.

But two late majors had the Saints within five points at the first change, and they hit the front early in the second term through Koschitzke.

However, the Tigers kept battling, and thanks to a brilliant goal from Cotchin they trailed their top-four opponents by only five points at the long break.

The Saints' class shone through during the second half, though it took until the early stages of the last quarter for them to finally break clear.

St Kilda       5.2   10.6   13.9   17.13 (115)
Richmond     6.1   10.1   12.3   14.10 (94)

GOALS
St Kilda: Koschitzke 5, Riewoldt 3, Dal Santo 2, Goddard 2, Armitage, Gram, Milne, Montagna Pattison
Richmond: Riewoldt 7, King 3, Cotchin 2, Moore, Taylor

BEST
St Kilda: Montagna, Goddard, Koschitzke, Dal Santo, Riewoldt, Gilbert
Richmond: Riewoldt, Cotchin, King, Deledio, Connors, Edwards

INJURIES
St Kilda: Nil
Richmond: Cousins (hamstring), Thursfield (corked thigh)

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Wenn, Jennings, McInerney

Official crowd: 33,790 at Etihad Stadium

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/6301/newsid/100861/default.aspx

Offline one-eyed

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Tigers give Saints scare Rohan Connolly (Age)
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2010, 02:17:07 AM »
Tigers give Saints scare Rohan Connolly
August 22, 2010

ONE side with a top four spot assured and with two games to play before the important stuff starts, its opponent in 15th spot with nothing at stake but pride. It should be the recipe for a cruisy afternoon, but how often have we seen the same scenario produce the unexpected? And for at least three quarters at Etihad Stadium yesterday, that seemed a distinct possibility.

Richmond might have had little to play for, but its intent had been clear from the opening seconds, when Trent Cotchin took the ball and ploughed into the Saints' Adam Schneider. And it was even clearer by the 15-minute mark, by which time the Tigers had booted four goals to St Kilda's one.

If the Saints weren't going to attack this game with their usual relentless pressure, Richmond was determined to make them pay, and for a while they did.

Those four goals came in just six minutes, Troy Taylor kicking the first after a Sam Fisher fumble, then Jake King, playing as a defensive forward, somehow finding himself in 50-odd metres of space and capitalising accordingly.

The third was a moment that would have given Tiger fans plenty of heart for the years ahead, a seamless chain of possession, Brett Deledio finding Cotchin, who found King, who hit the leading Jack Riewoldt. And the younger Riewoldt soon enough had another after a mark and 50-metre penalty.

St Kilda's defence was temporarily in disarray, Riewoldt and King finding far too much space far too often, Deledio an architect off half-back.

It took something special to halt Richmond's momentum, and it was Riewoldt of the Nick variety who delivered with a superb left-foot ''bouncer'' from near the boundary. Not to be outdone, fellow key forward Justin Koschitzke clunked a beauty of a contested mark between Tigers David Gourdis and Alex Rance and converted.

The Saints, sure enough, started to work their way on top, booting four of the last six goals of the quarter. ''Roo'' and ''Kosi'' looked dangerous, and on a wing, Leigh Montagna had practically brought his own football, finishing the first half with an incredible 25 disposals, 10 of them contested, and seven inside 50s.

All the Saints' drivers started to lift, most notably Brendon Goddard and Nick Dal Santo, each of whom picked up 11 touches in the second term. Koschitzke began to restore his ailing confidence levels by the minute, three goals coming in the second quarter alone, the third of them giving St Kilda a 17-point lead. The Saints were able to hold Richmond at arm's length from then on, but never by far enough to really pace themselves through the rest of the match.

If St Kilda got anything out of this game, it was the form of Koschitzke. He hit the contests hard. His marking was sure. His kicking more confident than we'd been seeing. There was real presence about Kosi yesterday, one which made Riewoldt in turn a more dangerous target as well. Saints' coach Ross Lyon had said when his team was in trouble a few weeks back that it simply needed to score more. And it has, with two 17-goal hauls in successive weeks, and 23 the week before that.

Whether Lyon would be as happy with the organisation at times of his defence is more debatable, but at least St Kilda is no longer looking like a team that needs to negatively squeeze its opponent into submission in order to manufacture a win. As we came to discover in time last year, the Saints can score with the best of them, too.

And so, in time, might Richmond. The Tigers go into next week's final round a good chance to win a seventh game of the season, well beyond most people's pre-season expectations. Their Riewoldt also looks the likely Coleman medallist after a lion-hearted, seven-goal haul that involved his usual repertoire of unorthodoxy and strong marking.

You can see far more clearly the light on the horizon for Richmond these days, and it doesn't merely focus around one or two bright prospects - Dustin Martin, for one, was relatively subdued yesterday.

Deledio, however, is what Martin can aspire to be, wonderfully steady and level-headed, Cotchin is all class with a fair degree of hardness to boot, Daniel Connors has obviously precocious talent, Shane Edwards keeps getting better, and even a bloke who not all that long ago was a bit of a figure of fun in King is these days a more than handy part of the Tiger machinery.

Richmond supporters are known for getting their hopes up just a little too much over the off-season.

This summer at least, there's plenty of legitimate cause for their optimism.

For St Kilda, meanwhile, the future is nearly here. It's that pesky waiting around for another week or so that will be the tedious bit.

The Saints' main task against Adelaide will be to avoid injury. But another big effort from Kosi and another 100-plus touches between three midfielders probably wouldn't go astray, either.

It's fine-tuning time, and while the Saints are getting there, there's a couple of other teams still, for now at least, playing at a more perfect pitch.

PLAYER WATCH
St Kilda: The Saints have been waiting an eternity for Justin Koschitzke to come good. Yesterday afternoon he did, with an authoritative performance in the key forward post which netted him five goals, seven marks and a heap of confidence for a looming finals series. Nick Riewoldt, certainly, would have been pretty grateful to finally get a bit of a chop-out from a fellow marking target.

Richmond: Jake King is often a somewhat pilloried figure in the football world, but the little tough guy was great value for his team and spectators alike yesterday. Playing as a defensive forward, King revelled in his opportunity to snag a goal or two, indeed finishing the game with three, and early on particularly, causing the Saints' defence all sorts of headaches. One of his best games for the Tigers.

WHERE THE MATCH WAS WON
St Kilda looked a little lethargic early, but asserted its authority the longer the game went, making better use of its opportunities thanks to its superior skill and efficiency. The Saints had the game's three most dominant midfielders, and two imposing targets up forward in Riewoldt and Koschitzke, who ended up with eight goals between them.

WHERE THE MATCH WAS LOST
Richmond would have to be happy with its effort yesterday, the Tigers several times managing to clamber back into the contest after St Kilda had threatened to blow the game open. Where the Tigers do need to get better, unsurprisingly, is in their decision-making and disposal, even the likes of normally sure skipper Chris Newman guilty of the odd turnover yesterday.

 
BEST
St Kilda: Montagna, Dal Santo, Goddard, Riewoldt, Koschitzke, Gilbert.
Richmond: Riewoldt, Deledio, Cotchin, King, Connors, Edwards.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tigers-give-saints-scare-20100821-139y0.html

Offline one-eyed

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Fans feast on clash of two Riewoldts (Age)
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2010, 02:18:11 AM »
Fans feast on clash of two Riewoldts
Martin Blake
August 22, 2010

 
THE broader Riewoldt family had a proud day yesterday.

Jack Riewoldt, the younger cousin of a famous Tasmanian football family, kicked seven goals, won the Ian Stewart Medal, and kept alive his dream of winning the coveted Coleman Medal for the league's leading goalkicker. Nick Riewoldt, the more heralded of the pair, kicked three, played superbly, too, and retains his dream of a premiership.

Not surprisingly since they are aesthetically-pleasing players, Riewoldt versus Riewoldt was worth watching, right from the start. They had five goals between them in the first quarter, three of those to the Richmond version, who was causing all sorts of problems for opponent Sam Fisher.

Nick began by overpowering his opponent, Will Thursfield, in a marking contest for his first major. Then Jack accepted a pass from Jake King, and revealing more of a maverick streak than his cousin, stepped off his line and slotted around his body.

Jack added another after marking on the lead, then Nick jumped in with a brilliant left-footed goal from the boundary at the 17-minute mark. Jack's third for the quarter came from a free kick conceded by Fisher, for hands in the back on the lead.

St Kilda kept turning the ball over and with no numbers back to protect Fisher, he was in trouble against the size and athleticism of Jack Riewoldt. The Richmond man had his team up and running.

But St Kilda ground its way to the ascendancy and Fisher would not yield. Jack Riewoldt's appearances petered out in the middle of the game, until the crowd chanted ''Riewoldt-Riewoldt'' when he threaded his seventh, deep in the final quarter, a brilliant effort in a losing team.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon called it ''a win'' for Fisher in the sense that he fought back, but the Richmond man had the numbers on the board.

He has 75 goals for the season and almost certainly will extract a first All-Australian guernsey, an honour he would share with his cousin.

As a boy, Jack Riewoldt preferred soccer until he was inspired by his elder cousin and he switched codes to play for Clarence. Australian football is the richer for it.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/fans-feast-on-clash-of-two-riewoldts-20100821-139y2.html

Offline one-eyed

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Nick and Jack Riewoldt put on a show (Herald-Sun)
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2010, 02:19:48 AM »
Nick and Jack Riewoldt put on a show
Glenn McFarlane
Sunday Herald Sun
August 22, 2010


JACK Riewoldt secured one medal and put a significant down-payment on another as he won the battle of the goalkicking cousins at Etihad Stadium.

Tiger Jack outscored Saint Nick seven goals to three to become the first Richmond player to win the Ian Stewart Medal awarded to the best afield in matches between the two teams.

It took his season tally to 75 goals, putting him on the cusp of winning the Coleman Medal. He was eight ahead of Bulldog Barry Hall before Hall's game against the Swans last night.

But all Riewoldt cared about was the fact Richmond had lost to St Kilda by 21 points, not the fact he could be the first Tiger in 29 years to win the Coleman.

"Individual medals don't mean much ... I couldn't care less about it," he said yesterday of the Coleman Medal race.

Asked if he planned to watch Hall last night, he said: "No, I am going to the movies with my girlfriend's family. But one of the boys will probably text me."

Riewoldt said it was pleasing to regain some form after kicking only 10 goals in his previous five matches.

He admitted he had become a little too goal conscious before a heart-to-heart talkwith coach Damien Hardwick that reshaped his focus again.

"The last five weeks have been pretty disappointing," he said. "It was all just about getting back to the process. I was starting to get a bit goal-focused. It's hard not to, but I have learnt massively from what I have been through in the last six weeks.

"I got a couple of goal assists on the board early, and it proves if you do the small things, you might get on the scoreboard. It is all about the team mentality that I pride myself on."

He said the pleasing thing about yesterday's game was that the Tigers pushed the Saints for most of the match.

Yesterday was the fourth time Riewoldt has played in an AFL match against his older cousin Nick, who incidentally - for all his achievements - is yet to win a Coleman Medal, with his best season tally being 78, kicked last year.

Nick had 18 touches to Jack's 17 yesterday, but Jack's 7.1 and one scoring assist outweighed his 3.3 and two scoring assists.

There was more than a little banter between the two Riewoldts on the field, even though for the most part they were at opposite ends of Etihad Stadium.

"Nick was in the back pocket at one stage, and I said to him, 'Are you lost or something, mate?'," Jack said.

"He was super again today. We always speak about some of the great players in the game, and we did a lot of work (planning) for him this week.

"I thought Will Thursfield was really good on him. But I had a word to Will and he said it's unbelievable how far Nick runs."

While a Coleman Medal might be coming Jack's way in seven days, he is convinced Nick can still claim the medal everyone craves in five weeks.

"He is going to be vital for them in going after the premiership," Jack said. "I hope he does really well and achieves all his goals in September."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/ben-cousins-put-on-a-show/story-e6frf9jf-1225908238276

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Justin Koschitzke the main act for St Kilda (Herald-Sun)
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2010, 02:21:13 AM »
Justin Koschitzke the main act for St Kilda
Rod Nicholson
Herald Sun
August 21, 2010 9:16PM


THE Riewoldt cousins put on a sideshow, but the serious business of finals preparation focused on Justin Koschitzke as St Kilda accounted for Richmond at Etihad Stadium yesterday.

Tiger Jack booted seven goals to elevate his season tally to 75 and Coleman Medal favouritism, while Saint Nick continued his supreme form, following up his seven goals last week with another three.

The Saints didn't need confirmation of their captain's abilities or form. Vital to their chances of going one better this season and winning the premiership, however, is the impact "Kosi" could make to complement his teammate's presence.

Koschitzke always has shown talent, but his potential has rarely been realised.

Today he delivered, bursting open packs with strong marks - seven for the match - and he booted five goals, a career high, three of them with thumping long kicks.

With Kosi dominant around the goal square, and Riewoldt marking strongly further afield and running opponents ragged, the Saints present considerable headaches for finals rivals.

Nick Riewoldt finished with 18 disposals, nine marks and three goals but it was Kosi who put the icing on the cake.

Now a veteran of 160 games, Kosi has the capacity to break open packs, creating opportunities for the small brigade if he doesn't mark. And his long goals are morale boosters and demoralising for opponents.

This was not all about the Saint Nick and Kosi show. Many of the Saints played themselves into peak form against a spirited opposition.

Leigh Montagna had a first-half feast, collecting 25 disposals with seven clearances and a goal. He finished with 42 disposals, 14 contested. However, he did complete 11 clearances and was the dominant player in the opening half.

Of considerable importance for the Saints, Brendon Goddard played superbly. The highlight was a spectacular high pack mark 11 minutes into the second quarter, a contender for mark of the year.

He, like Kosi, was strong and forceful. He finished with 29 disposals and 10 marks around the ground, while also booting two goals.

A few concerns for the Saints in attack were the indifferent efforts of Adam Schneider (11 disposals and no goals) and Stephen Milne (14 disposals and one goal).

They did not get into the thick of the action, but perhaps the strong marking of Riewoldt and Koschitzke deprived them of usual opportunities.

In defence, the Saints had trouble containing a high-flying forward (Jack Riewoldt) while keeping tabs on a loose player (Jake King).

Against superior opposition the lack of discipline and concentration, generally a stronghold of the team, could prove costly. The defence seemed vulnerable to attacks through the centre of the ground.

The Saints used Sam Gilbert loose in defence in the opening term but it was at the other end, courtesy of Brett Deledio, that the damage was done.

He was a springboard into attack and the Tigers had the Saints on the run for much of the opening half, leading by five points at the first interval and trailing by the same margin at halftime.

The Tigers proved worthy opponents, far more spirited than was offered last week by Carlton. The obvious hero was Jack Riewoldt, who may have enough goals to collect the Coleman Medal.

Yet it was the diminutive King who rattled the St Kilda defence. While the Saints tried to double-team Riewoldt early, King booted three first-half goals and assisted with two others.

Ben Cousins, who during the week announced retirement after an illustrious career, made a sad farewell after damaging a hamstring.

He was a key player yet again with his experience, gathering 20 disposals (most by a Tiger) before exiting the arena, the season and his career at three-quarter time.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/saints-v-tigers/story-e6frf9jf-1225908152242