Richmond is more defensive and scoring less but it could make them a premiership force Mark Robinson
Herald Sun
July 23, 2015 The good news is Richmond is defending its best since 1967.
The bad news is, in doing so, they have dropped almost three goals in scoring in the past two years.
Clearly it’s a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but clearly it’s also put the Tigers in the best position to be a premiership contender.
Then next two weeks will decide if the Tigers are legitimate or not.
They play Fremantle Saturday afternoon at the MCG and follow that with Hawthorn the next Friday night at the same venue.
If it’s two wins, then heaven help the city as September looms.
If Richmond was a Flemington horse, you’d say they’re travelling well with blinkers on the for the first time.
This once flighty and inconsistent team is more of a knuckle-down mob and not for a long time has the team been accused of playing solely with emotion _ good and bad.
They play a defence-style method which holds them in good stead.
It wasn’t always the case under Damien Hardwick and it’s taken him the full five years to get his team to understand and implement his defensive mechanisms.
In 2011, which was Hardwick’s second season the freewheeling Tigers averaged 94 points for, but also a staggering 109 points against.
Three and a half seasons later, the Tigers are averaging 84 points for and 75 points against.
Not since 1967, when Tom Hafey was coach, Kevin Bartlett won the best and fairest and the Tigers won the flag, have the Tigers defended better.
But there is a cost. Of the top eight teams this year, the Tigers score the least and are ranked 12th overall.
Their 84 points average per game is not a premiership-winning score.
Fourteen of the past 15 premiership-wining teams have averaged more than 100 points and the Tigers are three goals off that mark.
The balance between offence and defence is the biggest challenge for football teams.
Melbourne, under Paul Roos, is the classic example: They can defend but can’t kick goals. And, yes, the only team to buck the trend in past 15 years was Roos’ 2005 Sydney team.
Hawthorn has nailed both components for the past four years. Fremantle had the defence down pat, but is a worry of offence. West Coast has both facets working strongly. And the Tigers are in Fremantle’s camp.
Saturday’s game between the two teams is massive.
In Round 10 at Subiaco, Richmond led Fremantle 8.0 to 1.0 at the 20th minute of the first quarter.
After that, Fremantle outscored them by 15 points and by midway through the final quarter were in deep survival mode.
That won’t happen again on Saturday.
That 20 minutes was freaky, just as Port Adelaide’s first 20 minutes against Hawthorn in Round 4 was freaky.
The Dockers aren’t at their best, but neither is Richmond.
The Tigers have won their past four matches against Sydney, Greater Western Sydney, Carlton and St Kilda and arguably, in years of less conviction, they would’ve dropped a couple of them and the rest of the football world would be throwing rocks at them.
But this is a different Tigers outfit. They’re scrappers more than flighty and they protect the ball far better than they did in 2011.
They will need to. The Dockers will expose their failings, in particular forward.
The Tigers kicked 105 points and 137 points in Rounds 1 and 3, and have kicked more than 100 points one other time since (Round 7 v Collingwood).
They have to find more score sources, while maintaining the defensive rage.
It’s easier said than done, especially without Titch Edwards.
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