Richmond v GWS in Canberra Game day thread

[tiga]

Just got back from the game. Not sure about the early reports of it being slippery, the ground was is top shape. Both teams came out at a million miles an hour so the intensity was quite high in the first qtr which brought about the skill errors. We immediately looked the stronger team. Took a while before GWS got the ball past half way.

Lids was on fire. Morris does need to improve on his disposal skills but he was everywhere and competed really well. Houli Rance and Grimes worked together brilliantly.
Cotch and foley were great all day. We had problems scoring to the southern end for some reason. The wind was a little flukeu but not enought to cause the innacuracy.
Browne was better than Maric today but Brown was rucking for a while against Folau who is not a ruckman IMO.

2nd qtr was crap. lots of turnovers from both sides a few ridiculous 50m free kicks given to GWS resuting in easy goals for them.

Batch came on and immediately had an impact. He added much more drive out of the backline.
Dusty was strong and had some ripper don't argues.

Talk throughout the entire game was very good. most impressed with our in close linking. very sharp.

On the negative side, a couple of times we decided to do a switch of play out of the backline and there was nobody to deliver to on the wing.

Best word to describe GWS's game is plucky. Tried hard all day but turned the ball over to easily and too often. Basic skill errors were killing them.

Last qtr Jack was having fun by trying to aim his shots at goal at the RFC scissor lift. had a direct hit with his last shot at goal and everyone cheered.
I think I got some video of it.

Happy to take questions if anyone has any

[mightytiges]

First of all thanks for the tweets tiga. Great stuff that complemented (who was on or off/ reports on injuries/ best players) with RFCO's live chat .

You mentioned plenty of turnovers in the 2nd qtr. Where about on the ground were we turning it over and what was the main reason why we were stuffing up - GWS lifting their workrate and/or us trying new sets up and players in different positions and/or did it seem were we just plain complacent and switched off mentally after a dominant first quarter?

Where abouts did Newy play today? Last week I think he played back in his old role with Morris out.


ps. As you drove back towards (western) Sydney did you have your Tiger scarf sticking out of the car window? 

[tiga]

First of all thanks for the tweets tiga. Great stuff that complemented (who was on or off/ reports on injuries/ best players) with RFCO's live chat .

You mentioned plenty of turnovers in the 2nd qtr. Where about on the ground were we turning it over and what was the main reason why we were stuffing up - GWS lifting their workrate and/or us trying new sets up and players in different positions and/or did it seem were we just plain complacent and switched off mentally after a dominant first quarter?

Where abouts did Newy play today? Last week I think he played back in his old role with Morris out.


ps. As you drove back towards (western) Sydney did you have your Tiger scarf sticking out of the car window? 

No probs MT. Went a bit tweet crazy there and missed a bit of play whilst battling the friggin auto correct!  Believe it or not most of our turnovers in the 2nd qtr were in the forward 50 and most of GWS were in their defensive 50 and flanks so all were in the same area. It was a little bit comical at times adding our missed shots on goal to the mix We were over using the footy sometimes trying to be unselfish, sometimes trying to be too cute.  GWS was getting a lot of numbers around the ball and congesting things a bit and making ugly footy but we opened the game up in the second half. the game was played on our terms for the entire day.

Newy played two roles, his traditional one and then he played a bit of a roving commission into the middle and on the wing. He essentially fillled in where needed and directed traffic. Showed real courage backing into the pack, copped a hard knock and forced a turnover which eventually resulted in a goal.

It was too warm for a scarf lol but I had the club song blaring on the car stereo with the windows open lol

[georgies31]

How did Post play ?.

[Crumden]

Lids was excellent today and despite the (deserved) hype around cotch and Martin is still our best player. Putting him up on the wing and through the middle will allow him to show it.  Foley also very good and Newman controlled the back line, so it was the old hands in charge today. But Grigg and Nahas were also very good. A Maric will also be a good pickup so he and Nahas would be ahead of pushup at this stage I would think. Morris also adds some run and creativity to our back half and Batch also continued to show good signs.

First quarter was played almost entirely in our half and should have been 9.3 instead of 3.9 in what were pretty good conditions - ground was a bit soft in places and it was warm but no real breeze to talk of. JR missed 4 very kick able set shots in the first half before booting 6 straight in the second. Was an 8 goal game if he'd brought his kicking boots from the start.

Second quarter after shooting out of the blocks with a couple of goals GWS then got ontop in the ruck and started winning a few centre breaks. We also weren't giving them any respect which didn't help and tried to get a bit ahead of ourselves. Game became quite scrappy at times in that quarter.

Second half we again took over and the young giants seemed to be fading towards the end.  GWS have some prodigious talent and can move the ball very quickly at times, but anything less than a 10 goal win would have been considered a loss with the team we had in. But 40 shots at goal is a good day out in any game and really we should have been up around the 25 goal mark with the shots we had. Miller missed a few as usual but JR, Lids and Vickery all somewhat uncharacteristically missed some sodas in the first Q.

Only real downsides today were i thought our ruck combo of Maric/Browne had their colors lowered to the lessexperienced GWS combo of Giles/Folau and Rance, while his ground play was good still needs to work on his ariel play. GWS didn't have a big forward line and while Rance, Post and Grimes we're OK, it's obvious why they are trying to turn big Griff into a defender. Still missing a good really big bloke up back, particularly for when we come up against the teams with tall forward lines.

[one-eyed]

Pics from yesterday's game

http://www.aflphotos.com.au/galleries/results/?q=collection:AFL%202012%20NAB%20Cup%20Rd%2004%20-%20GWS%20Giants%20v%20Richmond&image_id=249460

[Crumden]

Forgot to mention, from a footy purist point of view the battle between Martin and ward was probably the highlight of the day. And needless to say with those two it literally was a battle.

[Owl]

Nice info Crum

[bojangles17]

Does morris look a likely starter for R1 ...i havent got a spot for him in my line up with ellis ahead of him...what you guys who saw the game think

[Muscles]

I'll take a punt on answering the questions about Posty and Morris.

Depending on his fitness, Conca gets a game ahead of Morris.  Our best small backs are Houli, Newy and Batch after yesterdays showing  Lids played wing, going forward.  Conca gets the other wing, IMHO, but it was a constant rotation. Jacko and Titch also spent some time on the wings, although Titch played mostly high-half forward.

Posty was OK. He ran hard, spoiled well and for the most part, got in the right place at the right time. In the second quarter and early in the third, when our mids went to sleep a bit, the ball came in too fast for him to do much about it.  Our best tall backs are Rance, Posty and Grimes, based on yesterday's performance.  The three of them are too small for the monster forwards, so we either need Griff to come through in the mid-term, or we need our mids to shut down the delivery to the bigger forwards.

[Coach]

Or we see another return for McGawn

[one-eyed]

Despite what Anderson said here ....

AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson confirmed yesterday the rule change also applies for the eight practice games in the final weekend of the pre-season series, and the NAB Cup final.

"NAB Cup suspensions can be served in the NAB Cup, including the final round which determines placings and prizemoney," Anderson told The Australian.

The AFL pays prizemoney down to eighth. The winner of the NAB Cup final receives $198,000, while the runner-up collects $132,000. Third- and fourth-placed clubs receive $88,000, with fifth to eighth collecting $44,000.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/tiger-becomes-first-to-benefit-from-new-suspension-law/story-e6frg7mf-1226275200518


According to RFCO, the AFL won't include this last round of NAB Cup games in the final NAB Cup ladder.

"Ladder finished after Round 3 of NAB, because in theory the loser of the Grand Final last night could have ended up 3rd, 4th or lower."

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23598249&postcount=26

So the RFC will end up with $44k in prizemoney for finishing 7th rather than $88k (4th place)

[tiga]

I'll take a punt on answering the questions about Posty and Morris.

Depending on his fitness, Conca gets a game ahead of Morris.  Our best small backs are Houli, Newy and Batch after yesterdays showing  Lids played wing, going forward.  Conca gets the other wing, IMHO, but it was a constant rotation. Jacko and Titch also spent some time on the wings, although Titch played mostly high-half forward.

Posty was OK. He ran hard, spoiled well and for the most part, got in the right place at the right time. In the second quarter and early in the third, when our mids went to sleep a bit, the ball came in too fast for him to do much about it.  Our best tall backs are Rance, Posty and Grimes, based on yesterday's performance.  The three of them are too small for the monster forwards, so we either need Griff to come through in the mid-term, or we need our mids to shut down the delivery to the bigger forwards.

Agree with muscles re postie. He we serviceable without being brilliant and was caught for pace at times.

[RFC_Official]

According to RFCO, the AFL won't include this last round of NAB Cup games in the final NAB Cup ladder.

"Ladder finished after Round 3 of NAB, because in theory the loser of the Grand Final last night could have ended up 3rd, 4th or lower."

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23598249&postcount=26

So the RFC will end up with $44k in prizemoney for finishing 7th rather than $88k (4th place)

I'll go with the Deputy Chief, but we had been told otherwise a few weeks ago.

[Stripes]

I'm a little concerned about Big Maric. Why was he beaten on Saturday? Was he jumped over? Was his intensity off?