Lessons learned to help Tigers against BluesBy Jennifer Phelan
afl.com.au
September 2, 2013RICHMOND will enter next Sunday's elimination final against Carlton still stinging from its round 21 capitulation against Mick Malthouse's men, captain Trent Cotchin says.
The Blues trailed the Tigers by five goals at quarter-time two weeks ago before dragging themselves back into the contest – and the finals race – after the first break to win by 10 points.
Cotchin said they Tigers weren't afraid of playing the Blues again and would go into the match having worked on the areas that let them down in that game.
"We learned a lot from that game. We've carried that through our last two weeks and we've just got to make sure we get the jump on them and consistently work on the things we have over the last two weeks," Cotchin told AFL.com.au on Saturday night after their 39-point win over Essendon.
"We weren't at our best defensively, and you build your game from defence and then get your offensive game up and going.
"We started off the game really well but let ourselves down in the following three quarters."
Cotchin also said the Tigers, the majority of whom haven't played in finals before, wouldn't be intimidated by the Blues' record against them that included 10 wins from the past 11 head-to-heads.
They'll simply go in believing in themselves after overcoming Greater Western Sydney and Essendon in the past two weeks to rebuild their confidence.
"We're confident with the way we've been playing and we know if we bring our A-game, we can take it up to the best of them," he said.
"Carlton certainly have some talent and if we can shut them down early, hopefully we can get the game on our terms.
"Confidence is good. Tonight, Essendon have had a massive year with a lot of pressure on them, but we knew they'd come out fighting.
"They're a good strong side, they've got good depth as well, so it was the perfect challenge for us going into a game knowing they had their backs against the wall and something to prove without having to play finals."
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said the teams that lined up next Sunday would be vastly different from those in round 21.
The Tigers were without Shane Edwards, Jake King and Matt White, which robbed them of forward half pressure.
However, he acknowledged the tough contest that was sure to present itself in a week's time.
"We were missing a whole half forward line that game; they were missing [Matthew] Kreuzer, [Jeff] Garlett didn't play," Hardwick said.
"We'll take a little bit out of that with regards to some things they did … but different personnel brings up different headaches for both sides.
"We've got some challenges ahead of us, no doubt. Carlton are one such challenge this week; we've had some really close games with them in the three to four games we've played over the last two years have been decided by only a couple of goals.
"It's going to be a tough game and we'll worry about that one and then how far we go after that."
Cotchin said belief had remained constant within the group throughout the season and it was ready to take on a new challenge.
"All year, we've thought that if we played consistent footy, four quarters of tough, Richmond football, we gave ourselves a really good chance of playing finals this year," he said.
"Now it's fantastic we've finished the home-and-away season but we've got an even bigger challenge ahead of us now."
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-09-01/lessons-learned-to-help-tigers
