Hardwick bouyed by improvementBy Chris Pike
8:58 PM Sun 07 Aug, 2011RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick is urging all Tiger fans to turn up to the MCG in the next two weeks, believing a parochial and vocal home crowd helped West Coast easily win the stuff count on Sunday.
West Coast was on the receiving end of the majority of the free kicks and, while Hardwick wouldn’t be drawn on some of the contentious decisions, he had no doubt the home crowd had a big impact.
"It was 30 to 14 [the free kicks] and I think they had nine shots on goal from free kicks," Hardwick said after the game.
"There's no doubt that some of them are there and we just have to get better in some of those situations. [But] you have to give credit to the West Coast crowd.
"They make a big noise at certain stages of the game and there's no doubt of the influence that they have over the people out there. I suppose it's significant."
Richmond plays the Sydney Swans and Melbourne at the MCG in the next two weeks and Hardwick said he hoped the fans turned up.
"We just have to make sure that we get our Tiger home crowd to do the same thing next week versus Sydney," he said.
Despite the 57-point margin, Richmond put in a largely competitive effort that was a marked improvement on recent losses to Melbourne, Carlton, Essendon, Gold Coast and Geelong.
Hardwick said he was pleased to see his players show some fight throughout the game.
Brett Deledio led the way across half-back and Will Thursfield kept the dangerous Mark LeCras quiet. Shaun Grigg was also mentioned by the coach for shutting down Matt Priddis in the final three quarters.
"I thought that we competed pretty well to get ourselves back in the game at three quarter-time, but it was just unfortunate that we couldn’t sustain it in the last quarter. That's why West Coast are a top-four or five side and we are where we are," he said.
"We might have broken even in stoppages or just gone down (West Coast had 44 to Richmond's 36), but their effectiveness from stoppages was probably the telling stat especially in the first and third quarters.
"We just have to get better at those areas. Shaun Grigg went onto Priddis after quarter-time and kept him to nine possessions for the rest of the game so that was a reasonable result for us as well."
Riewoldt was well beaten by West Coast captain Darren Glass in the first half, but bounced back with four goals in the second half and Hardwick was pleased to see him show that fight.
"Darren Glass is an outstanding player and Jack finished with four and should have finished with five or six. I was happy for him. His game versus Geelong was a big step forward and this week was another step forward," Hardwick said.
"You've got to remember that guy is an All Australian stuff and could quite easily be in contention for that award this year. To kick four on him is a reasonable achievement."
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