Tigers below the top echelon
9:40:12 PM Sun 24 April, 2005
Jennifer Witham
Exclusive to richmondfc.com.au
Richmond coach Terry Wallace says the Tigers' 68-point loss to the Saints really sums up where the club is at the moment - in comparison to the stronger teams.
So far this season, Richmond has triumphed over Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs, and Fremantle at home - the match against St Kilda being its first real test since its round one thumping at the hands of another powerful team in Geelong.
"I think that it's fair to say that where we're at, at the moment, we're not up with the big boys of the competition," he said.
"We've shown twice that we've been in that position, and not been able to compete with two sides that you would expect to be up in the top echelon of the competition.
"We've just got to keep working until we can do that, we said we were coming into the main event today, well, we were knocked out, that's purely and simply the way that the game was played."
He put the 68-point thumping down to the Saints getting on top early, and not relenting enough to allow the Tigers to claw their way back into the game.
"When it was there and needed to be done, early in the game, we just weren't able to compete with them and I think they kicked six unanswered goals in ten minutes of footy and that was really the ball game," Wallace said.
"We were just never really back in the hunt after they broke it open early."
The new-look Richmond forward set-up - comprising Greg Stafford, Troy Simmonds and Matthew Richardson - did not offer any potency, but Wallace criticised the delivery to the forward area as the major cause for lacklustre attacking.
So disappointing was the display, Wallace likened aspects of that area to the Richmond side of 2004 - the one which dropped 14 consecutive games.
"We kicked it to Stafford a couple of times early and he was able to take a couple of contested marks, and then all of a sudden our blokes thought this is simple," he said.
"All they wanted to do was just bomb it up in the air to him, and eventually all they do is just round off their opponents.
"Almost went back 12 months to what I was watching with Richmond last year, and it was Richardson that time, this time it was Stafford fighting three and four blokes, they just round off, peel off, and we never see the ball again."
But Wallace did emphasise that the loss was not the end of the world for the recently-improved Tigers outfit, and outlined the way Richmond will attack the loss to use it to their advantage.
"We sit down and we analyse what went wrong, where we need to improve, and just go through those sorts of actions, that's all we can be doing," he said.
He also spoke of his belief that the approach to next week's match against Port Adelaide as almost being paramount to reflecting on the loss, considering the main downfall for clubs is stringing together consecutive losses.
"If you don't lose multiple games, you just about make the finals," he said.
"As bad as what one game is, you've got to deal with it, analyse it, assess it, and then really strongly start looking at the next one to make sure it doesn't happen two weeks in a row.
"If you can achieve that, you're still making ground and you're still going somewhere in this competition."
While many will use the Anzac Day public holiday for fun and frivolity, the Tigers will use it to dissect their loss to ensure they approach their upcoming clash with Port with an optimistic mindset.
"Public holiday for most tomorrow, but not for us, we'll do all our analytical stuff, I'll do my stuff tonight, and we'll analyse the game as a group again tomorrow."
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