Brandon Ellis in form as Richmond chase unlikely finals berth, once a tagger he is now being tagged by oppositionSam Edmund
Herald-Sun
August 08, 2014 RED-hot Richmond running man Brandon Ellis will be a marked man at the MCG tonight as the Tigers’ finals fairytale hangs by a thread.
Essendon has set its sights on the in-form midfielder, aware Ellis’s scintillating form has been critical to Richmond’s unlikely surge into September contention.
From Rounds 6-19 Ellis has amassed the second-most possessions in the AFL, behind only Sydney’s Josh Kennedy.
The Tigers are riding a five-game winning streak for the first time since 2000, but Ellis told the Herald Sun he and his teammates had shut-out talk of a miracle finals berth.
“Look, I know it’s going to sound cliche’, but we are honestly just taking it one week at a time. A lot of things have to go our way — teams have to win, teams have to lose, we have to win the next four. We drop one and we won’t make it,” Ellis said.
“We honestly haven’t spoken about it one bit at all. It’s all in the papers and you hear about it and all that. But once you get to the club and through the doors, we don’t talk about it.
“We know what we have to do.”
Ellis pointed to the mid-season returns of injured trio Ivan Maric, Alex Rance and Brett Deledio as the spark for reversing a campaign that was wallowing at 3-10.
“As ‘Dimma’ said, even when we were 3-10 there was no way he was just going to give guys games ... and he stuck to his guns and I think that’s really helped us,” he said.
“I think we’re just executing the small things really well. We’ve been doing it in training and it’s coming into games. The last five or six games have been awesome and how we’ve wanted to play all year. It was just unfortunate we couldn’t do it at the start.”
Ellis started the year tagging, but he will end it being tagged. After “learning a lot” from a shutdown job on Bryce Gibbs in Round 2, he started racking up the numbers. In recent weeks Brisbane (Rohan Bewick) and GWS (Rhys Palmer) have tried — and failed — to shut him down.
“I’ve just been working hard and using my tank to help me get through games,” Ellis said.
“I’m not cramping anymore, whereas last year in last quarters I’d cramp. Now that I’m finishing off games well that’s helping a lot.
“It also helps when you’ve got ‘Lids’ (Deledio) and ‘Cotchy’ (Trent Cotchin) and ‘Dusty’ (Dustin Martin) going through the midfield. It certainly makes your job a little bit easier and we’re all good mates and play for each other which helps as well.”
As for the taggers, Ellis is unfazed.
“I take it as a compliment. A lot of guys say ‘Oh, I’m in for a bad day’, but it just makes me want to work harder and really want to beat them because I hate getting beaten,” Ellis said.
“They’re probably just as fit as you, just as strong as you, but it’s all upstairs when it comes to that. You’ve got to fight that mental battle for longer than them and hopefully things go your way.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/brandon-ellis-in-form-as-richmond-chase-unlikely-finals-berth-once-a-tagger-he-is-now-being-tagged-by-opposition/story-fndv8t7m-1227017121799
