Not there yetBy Peter Ryan
afl.com.au
Tue 10 Apr, 2012WHEN Richmond goes to sleep, it sleeps like a log.
Saturday night's Collingwood-Richmond game was decided in eight minutes of Tiger slumber.
Fifteen Collingwood players touched the ball in that period, compared to seven Tigers.
The Magpies had 18 kicks to Richmond's two, six inside 50s to none, two tackles to none, 13 contested possessions to four, five centre clearances to one.
In response, the Tigers had five handballs compared to Collingwood's two. Three of those handballs were made under such serious pressure they were rendered ineffective.
During those eight minutes, Collingwood kicked five goals to zero.
Damien Hardwick admitted after the game he nearly took the 'break glass in case of emergency' option as his frustration built inside the coaches box.
What happened?
It would be easy to say Collingwood just switched it on, but that would be a simple answer.
It wasn't kicking either: the Tigers only had two kicks during the period.
To be honest, arguing that Richmond can't kick is old-fashioned thinking.
What hurt Richmond were multiple defensive errors and an inability to win contests.
That's not knocking Richmond. They try their heart out under Hardwick.
It's just that such errors are often what separates the 'trying to be good' teams from the 'good' teams.
Dale Thomas, Travis Cloke and Alex Fasolo made them pay for mistakes on the scoreboard.
Examining the first goal after half-time in isolation proves the point. Darren Jolly tapped the ball into space but a Richmond player, Shaun Grigg, was first to arrive.
Then in 14 seconds a series of mistakes cost the Tigers.
Mistake one: His teammate, second-gamer Brandon Ellis, tried to line up Thomas to bump him but the Collingwood star evaded contact. Ellis had run past the contest and left both Thomas and his opponent Steele Sidebottom active in space.
Mistake two: Chris Newman overcommitted in his effort to help Grigg, following in the tackler Jarryd Blair off the line and creating space in between the centre and the 50-metre line.
Mistake three: The situation was dangerous only if Grigg released the ball out wide. That is exactly what he did. He did not protect the ball or keep it locked in. He made 'a Hail Mary handball' into space and gave his opponent Thomas a chance to get back into the action.
Mistake four: Thomas pounced on the loose ball, broke a Newman tackle and bounded through the centre to kick a long goal.
No wonder Australian hockey coach Ric Charlesworth says every goal conceded by teams he coaches comes about because the team makes five consecutive mistakes.
No wonder defence is an ethos most coaches espouse.
Good teams have senior players in the middle that hit back hard immediately in such circumstances.
Collingwood's starting four for the second bounce, however, had an average of 166 games experience compared to the Tigers' 88 games and an average age of 26 years and 213 days compared to Richmond's 25 years and 138 days.
The experienced Magpies surged before the inexperienced Tigers hit back.
A second clearance that led to goal number two came because 24-year-old Thomas (185cm and 86kg) was left untouched at the stoppage after hunting the ball hard and the just turned 22-year-old Cotchin (185cm and 83kg), preoccupied with Luke Ball, missed a tackle.
The rest of the onslaught followed a similar pattern to the first. Collingwood just won contest after contest after contest. Richmond did not have a senior player or experienced superstar to change the flow.
After eight minutes of it, the Magpies were eight goals up.
Several alarms went off but Richmond could not find the off button.
Cotchin said post-game the young team needed to get better at making decisions quicker in such circumstances: "We just needed to come up with a strategy," he said. "We made a move I think five or six minutes into it which helped us steady the flow."
Once the move was made Richmond outscored Collingwood eight points to zero in the next eight minutes.
It started winning contests - 10 contested possessions to seven, 17 kicks each, 21 handballs to 16, six inside 50s to two.
The game became an even contest again. But the game was over.
"That was the disappointing thing," said Hardwick after the game. "Our good players, the players we expect to lead from the front, just fell a little bit short in that area in that period of the game and effectively cost us the game."
In the opening round the same sleeplessness occurred as Carlton took over at the five-minute mark of the last quarter.
When the game was up for grabs between the five and 10-minute mark of that quarter, the Blues had eight contested possessions to Richmond's three.
With a goal the difference during that time, the Blues won a fierce battle for the ball at Richmond's half-forward line. Carlton rushed the ball forward and kicked a goal.
Missed tackles again cost the Tigers a minute later as the Blues' Chris Yarran found a path around the boundary line (or over the fence depending on which team you were barracking for) to kick a brilliant goal. This came after Carlton was too strong in the middle at the clearance.
The Tigers hardly made a mistake (just one ineffective kick and one ineffective handball) during the five-minute period when the game was up for grabs but they could not win the ball when it was there to be won.
As confidence grew, Carlton kicked five goals to one from the 10 minute mark until the siren and won 28 contested possessions to Richmond's 16 in the same period. Carlton had 15 players win a contested possession whereas Richmond had 11.
It's what makes coaching tough. Hardwick knows improvement is happening. He understands what he means when he talks of the difference more mature, bigger bodies can make.
But for five or 10 minutes each week we are reminded that while the Tigers are improving, they are just not there yet.
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