Maric backs Stephenson to remain at Tigerland in 2014 (afl site)

[one-eyed]

Maric backs Stephenson to remain at Tigerland in 2014

By Jennifer Phelan
afl.com.au
Thursday, September 12, 2013

RICHMOND ruckman Ivan Maric expects experienced big man Orren Stephenson to remain a Tiger in 2014.

Stephenson, a 31-year-old three-time North Ballarat premiership player, was on a one-year rookie contract with the Tigers this year after spending a season with Geelong.

While he only played six senior games, he provided solid back-up support to Maric, who had to manage a sore groin at times throughout the season.

While the trade and free agency period are still to come, Maric expects the mobile ruckman to remain at Punt Road for another season.

"I expect him to be around next year. It would be great for our club," Maric told AFL.com.au.

"I think he's been fantastic for our club's culture. He's such a good person, a good family man, and we're lucky to have him.

"He's a great competitor as well."

As far as list management is concerned, Maric believes the Tigers don't need to make drastic moves in the upcoming player movement windows.

However, he said a young ruckman to grow under himself and Stephenson – should he be given another contract - would be a handy addition.

"I think a younger ruckman would definitely be important, just someone to develop for the future because you never know what's going to happen," he said.

"I think we've got a really talented list and a lot of talented players. I think it's about building a team's resolve and ruthlessness and being harder for longer.

"I think it's a pretty important part of the game to have.

"I'm not sure if we need to add too much in the trade period. It's not my decision but I think the team's got good players."

The Tigers held a horse-racing themed Mad Monday in Richmond after Sunday's loss to Carlton but were straight back into business on Tuesday, with two days of individual reviews starting.

The process signalled the start of the recovery for the club, which lost its first final in 12 years at the hands of arch rivals Carlton the day before. 

"It's disappointing that it's over, this season, and trying to accept that has been the hardest part," Maric said.

"Our record suggested we probably should have done a bit better in the finals series but we came up against a team that had a lot of experience in finals and they knew how to sustain that level of intensity and hardness for longer, and we couldn't.

"I think that's pretty much what it comes down to."

Maric was one of four players who went into the game with finals experience, having played in three of them for Adelaide during his seven years there.

He said he was still haunted by the Crows' 2009 semi-final loss to Collingwood, which ended with then-Magpie Jack Anthony kicking a final-minute goal to seal victory.

"That sticks with me to today, that feeling," he said.

"But that's good because if you can use that to motivate yourself, you can strive to become better as a team and individuals, and it can be worth something.

"I have 100 per cent belief we can do that and improve again on what we achieved this year."

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-09-12/two-tiger-talls-needed-maric

[the claw]

so orren is a good person, good family man and competes or tries hard.  but ivan can he play. how far back does it set us as a team if you do your knee in rnd 1.
ivan for 30 yrs we have had battling good guys and look where it has got us.

good guy or not orren is not good enough.
oh and ivan one way or another for us as a club to go forward we do need to find someone who can challenge you for your spot.

[Loui Tufga]

so orren is a good person, good family man and competes or tries hard.  but ivan can he play. how far back does it set us as a team if you do your knee in rnd 1.
ivan for 30 yrs we have had battling good guys and look where it has got us.

good guy or not orren is not good enough.
oh and ivan one way or another for us as a club to go forward we do need to find someone who can challenge you for your spot.

Hey Claw,

How are the ruck stocks in this years draft? I'm hearing its very thin. Last year you were onto Hanath early do you have any names we should be looking at this year or should we be perusing an established ruck from another club?
This isn't a dig, I'm generally interested in our thoughts.
Cheers

[Penelope]

I'd be interested in one name who could step in straight away to cover maric ( or even better play along side him) and what he would be prepared to give up, taking into account that Stephenson is currently only taking a rookie spot.

[Hellenic Tiger]

Orren must stay. We need to pay two ruckmen in the side. When one rucks one can rest forward or back. Vickery needs to play permanent forward.

[the claw]

so orren is a good person, good family man and competes or tries hard.  but ivan can he play. how far back does it set us as a team if you do your knee in rnd 1.
ivan for 30 yrs we have had battling good guys and look where it has got us.

good guy or not orren is not good enough.
oh and ivan one way or another for us as a club to go forward we do need to find someone who can challenge you for your spot.

Hey Claw,

How are the ruck stocks in this years draft? I'm hearing its very thin. Last year you were onto Hanath early do you have any names we should be looking at this year or should we be perusing an established ruck from another club?
This isn't a dig, I'm generally interested in our thoughts.
Cheers

theres two i like but the one i like most is darcy cameron wa . to get him we would probably have to use pick 28. seen him only a few times. though.

like most recent yrs i havent seen much of any of the kids.  i see more of wa players and tend to stick with em.

what we do will be determined by which route we take. we either trade out of the draft for blokes like adams, and  longer or we trade into it and endevour to get another pick or two in the 20 -3o range.

personally id go after jolly for one yr weather we kept stephenson or not. either way we go we need to target a young ruckman weather that be billy longer or a kid like cameron.

lets say we go the draft route and find a way to get into say pick 20, giving us 11, 20, 28, and 46, 64.  a dream draft for me would be and i emphasise it is a best case scenario.

11/ matt scharenberg  wont happen though. he will go top 5 possibly top 3. like jake stringer last yr he was the one i most wanted.

20/ torn between 4 players here and the need to take talls v mids.would be over the moon if one  of cameron mccarthy wa  kpf, darcy gairdener kpd, dom sheed wa  mid and blake acres mid was available at this pick its more likely imo that we would have to use pick 11 to get one of them. but there is some chance one may get this far.

28/ unless we get another pick in the 30s  its here imo  we would have to take darcy cameron wa   he could get to 46 but i doubt it.  a player i like the look of is trent dumont would probably have to take him here as well.

46/ dayle garlett  wa reckpon dayle will go in the 30s but heres hoping.  like ben sokal here as well another wa boy just love his size and aggression.

64/ tom vandeleur akpd  and if we havnt taken a ruckman perhaps peter steffe who looks a good tap ruckman with plenty of size.

while im at it i may as well look at experienced rucks that  could become available to us if we trade or take uncontracted

jolly -  most underrated ruckman in the comp imo. his form has been down but he sure can play when up and about. worth taking for one yr regardless of the outcome.

longer - would enter yr 3 with us is already physically capable of playing in the ruck and one more preseason should see him capable of holding his own at afl level. imo we should go hard for this kid. brisbane will want pick 11 at least for him.

lycett - is another i have a lot of time for wanted us to draft him in 2010 i wanted us to activate our tambling pick that draft. he wont come cheap perhaps if conca goes.

bellchambers - if the talk/rumours are true he wants out  then he would be ideal for us. just about to enter his prime  at 24 and he sure can play.

simpson/west - geelong have no way of fitting all of em in. have liked simpson for awhile now hes been a slow developer but i reckon hes ready to become a reral good player. west would give us a competitor

daniel gorringe gcs - has had a lot of injuries and is behind a couple at gold coast, still only 21 and he has talent.

spencer  melb - reckon hes slowly improving and he could give reasonable service.  still have issues with his kicking though and hes not the most mobile of players.in fairness he has had a knee reco and his fair share of injuries.

sinclair wce - hes shown more than enough imo. struggling to get  a game in front of nicnat and cox, reckon most would struggle to get a game in front of those two. hes only 24 and can play a bit would give service to any club. imo id like to see another 5kg on him he would really come into his own then.

theres a few others symmonds at e/f  a lad at sydney for the life of me cant think of his name.

[Yeahright]

Claw sure loves his WA players

[tigs2011]

Sokol is a good one Claw.  And agree with Darcy Cameron. Must get if we don't trade for Longer. I also like the other Darcy. The KPF form SA, Hourigan. Big bodied KPF.

[the claw]

Claw sure loves his WA players

its not a matter of loving them. it more about who you see. logical to make comment only on those you have watched even if it was only the odd game here and there.

most of the kids ive watched were pretty much in the spot light already. a few lesser lights have  caught my eye.

to be perfectly honest ive lost the passion to go watch much footy mainly because of the way the game itself has gone.

Sokol is a good one Claw.  And agree with Darcy Cameron. Must get if we don't trade for Longer. I also like the other Darcy. The KPF form SA, Hourigan. Big bodied KPF.

yeah hourigan looks okay.
ya know we have a lot of 195cm plus tall forwards. the tall forward and i call him tall because im not sure he would be a kpf who would suit our needs the most is jonathon marsh.

super quick tall player who goes on long leads and is great at getting back. with his pace it would make it real hard to match up on him. he could play midfield as well.

how do we prioritise our needs.

imo we need a third tall gunston type that would be jonathon marsh.
 
we sure could do with a genuine  power forward as well imo cameron mccarthy is the best kpf after boyd.

we could do with a genuine negating kpd  to develop. darcy gaidiner

we have to add mids,  sheed  would fit the bill nicely,  so would scharnburg who could play anywhere. blake acres would be the ideal outside link up player we need hes more than just outside though.
we sure could do with a ruckman darcy cameron.

we need decent sml/med  forward mids  garlett.sokol they both can be part of rotations.

the thing is,  what   needs do we prioritise with our better picks.  do we target our greatest need a  ruckman and then continue to add the mids. or do we try and cover the whole spectrum of needs. i suppose a lot depends on who is available at each pick thing is we may need to pay overs to get a good young ruckman.

if we are to go solely  the draft route i would hope like hell we can trade into a couple of earlier picks one arond pick 20 one early 30s, we would then give ourselves a chance at targeting most needs.

[the claw]

another ruckman we may have a peek at.

bart mcculloch has had a fine yr back in tassie.
he really struggled with injury at brisbane. goes home gets fit stays healthy  plays regular footy and performs.
we were pretty keen on him at one stage i think brisbane took him one pick  in front of us.

for some reason i keep on going back to geelongs list when it comes to ruckmen and talls. they also have a few good sized mids who just havent been able to get a game but seem to be doing well in the vfl.

[tony_montana]

I was about to ask if that was the guy we were going to pickup before Brisbane nabbed him 1 pick before us but you answered it. Might be worth a look at. Fair few ruckmen start coming good 23-25 age bracket after being ass for the first 2-3 years. The GWS ruckman whose name slips my mind, had injury and some other issues at port, gets delisted, gets his body and mind right and is now a very decent ruckman.

[Coach]

Bart hasn't exactly been playing against gun ruckman. Usually plays forward these days anyway. Pass. His mate Thorp will get picked up, not by us I hope

[Yeahright]

I was about to ask if that was the guy we were going to pickup before Brisbane nabbed him 1 pick before us but you answered it. Might be worth a look at. Fair few ruckmen start coming good 23-25 age bracket after being ass for the first 2-3 years. The GWS ruckman whose name slips my mind, had injury and some other issues at port, gets delisted, gets his body and mind right and is now a very decent ruckman.

Giles

[Loui Tufga]

Bart hasn't exactly been playing against gun ruckman. Usually plays forward these days anyway. Pass. His mate Thorp will get picked up, not by us I hope

Big Bart made the Tasmanian Team of with year at CHF with ol mate Jason Laycock in the ruck His good mates Thorp and Weberly were FF and Wing

[gerkin greg]

Just get Mumford

Out of contract