Fit Foley means Tigers' dilemma
By Mic Cullen
12:18 PM Wed 02 June, 2010
RICHMOND has a selection dilemma ahead of Friday night's match with St Kilda.
But unlike some of the problems that have beset the Tigers in recent times, this predicament is a pleasant one: how to fit all the fit and in-form players into the 22.
Vice-captain Nathan Foley looks to be over his leg problems and ready for selection for Friday night's clash with St Kilda, and the decision now is who to leave out.
With no obvious injuries out of the match against Port Adelaide on Saturday, a player from the side that won the Tigers' first game of the year will have to be dropped to make way for Foley.
White has an obvious solution to the dilemma.
"Axel (Foley) can go back to Coburg for a couple of weeks, I think," he said with a laugh. "It's good though - it's a good thing that it's hard to find spots for blokes.
"It's probably been two or three years since the match committee had any issue with putting someone in above someone else - it was all pretty laid out who was going to play, where they would play and when they would play over the last few years."
White said the fact that a player will miss despite showing good form will create hunger for spots in the club; something the most successful teams have as part of their culture.
"Look at Geelong - they've got guys underneath pushing hard, and they're all playing well, so hopefully we can get a bit of a culture like that going on, and get that winning feeling every week."
White is now utilising his blistering pace off the half-forward line, and he said the invigorated coaching staff had accelerated his ability to learn the new role.
"I've had a lot of help from Danny Daly (from North Melbourne), Wayne Campbell and Timmy Clarke (Hawthorn) in learning the new position.
"I've been watching a lot of tapes of players who play a very similar role for Hawthorn to mine, like Chance Bateman, Michael Osborne and Cyril Rioli.
"I was figuring out how to play the role properly, and I think I've got a pretty good understanding of it now.
The Tigers got their first points since round 18 last year with the win over Port Adelaide at a saturated AAMI Stadium, winning by 47 points, 10.17 (77) to 3.12 (30).
White said he revelled in the conditions.
The Tigers had almost as many people inside the circle singing the song - players and staff who haven't sung it before go in the middle for the first rendition - as in the outer ring, and White said having so many kids at the club had been good for the whole team.
Betting agencies opened a book early in the season on the side going winless through 22 rounds, and one agency paid out punters - after just four rounds - who had backed the side to win the wooden spoon.
The 23-year-old said getting their first win of the year had its seeds in the three-point loss to 2008 premiers Hawthorn in round eight.
"Hawthorn is a good team, and after the game, Dimma (coach Damien Hardwick) did bring us in and said that was the standard we had to play to every week from then on.
"So we basically started our season again and we were looking up from there.
"And it was absolutely amazing - I think somebody said it was 290-odd days since our last win, and it was just good to get the monkey off the back and get it over and done with."
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