Tiges vs Dons

[mightytiges]

Do you guys think there'll be many changes this week?

Knobel will come in for Staff.

Pattision is probably close to another call up although Terry might keep things as they are after a badly needed win. 

If Hille gets rubbed out that's a huge loss to them. Apparently another important bomber player will miss also.

Possibly no Zantuck antics this week due to a calf injury although Sheeds you'd reckon would want him to play him against us.

[WilliamPowell]

Possibly no Zantuck antics this week due to a calf injury although Sheeds you'd reckon would want him to play him against us.

If Zantuck is fit he will play - no doubt.

And I reckon Zantuck playing is worth at least 2 goals to us from 50 metre penalties

Come on Sheeds do us a favour

Knobel for Stafford and if Johnson doesn't come up I think they'll bring in Hyde

[mightytiges]

And I reckon Zantuck playing is worth at least 2 goals to us from 50 metre penalties

LOL

Now that's an offer we can't refuse 

We should all wear our dirty dog sunglasses, stick a couple of marbles in our mouths and bring a violin case on Saturday  .

[letsgetiton!]

i think theire will be 1 change only but their should be 2.
knobel in for staff is the def change
but either hyde, raines or foley should come in for tivendale

[Roar]

Do you guys think there'll be many changes this week?

Knobel will come in for Staff.

Pattision is probably close to another call up although Terry might keep things as they are after a badly needed win. 

If Hille gets rubbed out that's a huge loss to them. Apparently another important bomber player will miss also.

Possibly no Zantuck antics this week due to a calf injury although Sheeds you'd reckon would want

him to play him against us.

The Stafford appeal sugests that Knobel might not be ready for this week but the good news that Hille will miss is a godsend.

It wouldn't surprise if Sheeds plays Zantuck in his final chance against us, if he can't get himself up for this game then he will drift into the wilderness.

The bombers will come out to try and physically intimidate early on we must be prepared and give as good as we get, it's time Simmo stood up and gave some protection to our targetted players. if we can manage to whether the initial onslaught and play to somewhere near our gameplan the Dons will fall away.

As for changes I think we need to keep Harts & Tambo in the side to get up to pace at the top level, I don't think there will be many changes Patto still needs more time at Coburg. We need pace so Raines and meyer may get a call up, we also need another goalkicking forward so i would give serious consideration to Moore coming in as a leading forward.

Outs obviously Tiv needs to regain confidence and I can only see him getting it back at Coburg I believe we need to go small & quick, given that most players are yet to adapt to Ploughs gameplan. We have rarely seen running of the lines and still slow the game up when we get possession a smaller quicker side may be our best option. we need to match their physicallity and win the midfield battle as prooved last week if they can't get the ball they can do no damage but scoreboard pressure is vital.

Another must win game if we are to have a chance of retaining a top 8 possy and with the log jam at the top end it looks like up to 10 teams are still in the running so with only 97% we may well need to win an extra game ie; 13 not 12 as suspected. A lot of top 8 teams play each other in the remaining 8 weeks so if things fall into place and we do our job we are still definately in the running.

[tigerforever]

i think knobel will come in for staff.and maybe moore for hilton.

[mightytiges]

Moore in for Rory isn't a bad idea TF. Moore would be more versatile too.

The bombers will come out to try and physically intimidate early on we must be prepared and give as good as we get, it's time Simmo stood up and gave some protection to our targetted players. if we can manage to whether the initial onslaught and play to somewhere near our gameplan the Dons will fall away.

Agree Roar. We need to be switched on from the start like we were last week with our tackling and pressure. Also get the ball in long and direct forward. Essendon's defence had no answer to the Roos tall forwards.   

Wallace said on Monday that Knobel will play.

Going by what Flood has said in his EOTT section a fair few guys had good games for Coburg - Raines, Meyer, Jackson, Patto. Hyde was also good apart from "second-guessing his own instinct at times". Sarge had his best performance of the year. Foley had 29 possies like he hadn't miss a game. Likewise Moore with 7 goals. Good to have pressure on spots coming from underneath at Coburg.

We must be close to 35 players used this year with the 6 debutants. I might have forgotten someone obvious by I can only think of Archibald, Polo, Limbach and McGuane (inj) who haven't yet played senior footy. A great effort considering where we've coming from and how we've still cracked 8 wins out of 14 games.

According to the bomberblitz forum link Zantuck trained yesterday but Adam McPhee missed training and is in serious doubt  . McPhee cut us to pieces in the second half last year so it would be a huge loss to the Bombers if he misses on top of Hille.

[WilliamPowell]

We must be close to 35 players used this year with the 6 debutants. I might have forgotten someone obvious by I can only think of Archibald, Polo, Limbach and McGuane (inj) who haven't yet played senior footy. A great effort considering where we've coming from and how we've still cracked 8 wins out of 14 games.

The only other player on our list that hasn't played senior footy yet (apart from those you mention MT) is Alex Gilmour - who was pretty close a month or so back and then he hurt his ankle again

[mightytiges]

We must be close to 35 players used this year with the 6 debutants. I might have forgotten someone obvious by I can only think of Archibald, Polo, Limbach and McGuane (inj) who haven't yet played senior footy. A great effort considering where we've coming from and how we've still cracked 8 wins out of 14 games.

The only other player on our list that hasn't played senior footy yet (apart from those you mention MT) is Alex Gilmour - who was pretty close a month or so back and then he hurt his ankle again

Cheers WP. I knew I would forget someone  .

[mightytiges]

OER Preview ROUND 15 - Richmond vs Essendon

PAST ENCOUNTERS:

Overall: 76-94 (4 draws)

In the 00's: 2-8 

At the M.C.G.: 18-25 (1 draw) 

Last Time:

Round 15, 10.07.04. Home at the M.C.G.

Richmond  4.2  7.6     8.8   11.11-77   
 
Essendon   2.1  7.2  14.9   24.11-155

Multiple Goalkickers: Richmond - Richardson 6; Essendon - Lloyd 9, Murphy 3, J.Johnson 2, Lovett-Murray 2, Misiti 2.

SUMMARY AND MATCH-UPS:

After narrowly surviving a final quarter surge last weekend against the Swans, Richmond face off against 14th placed Essendon at the M.C.G. this Saturday to continue to stay in the top 8 and keep their finals hopes alive. The Tigers have made two changes. Ruckman Trent Knobel returns after missing last week with the flu to replace the suspended Greg Stafford while Chris Hyde comes in for Brent Hartigan. Captain Kane Johnson will have a fitness to test the knee he jarred against Sydney.

Essendon have had a disappointing season as preseason predictions of a slide down the ladder have come true. Over the past month their performances have improved with a win over the Saints and pushing league leader West Coast in Perth to the end so they're not to be underestimated. However last week they easily succumbed to the in-form Roos' pressure and roughening up tactics particularly targetted at their captain James Hird much to the displeasure of coach Kevin Sheedy.

Despite the Bombers only having 5 wins so far for the season their forward line on paper could still be potent enough and are the main danger to us with the likes of veterans Lloyd (28 goals) and Lucas (30 goals) supported at ground level by the speedy Lovett (14 goals) with Hird pushing forward. Mark Johnson also has contributed 20 goals for the year while  there's the unknown factor of the hype surrounding the good-news story of big Courtney Johns who hasn't done much at VFL level yet was highly rated as a junior. In term of match-ups a fully-fit Gas will be looking to make up for last year's "effort" where Lloyd kicked 9. Hall should get the job on Lucas (stand slightly to Lucas' left Razor as Lucas has no right foot) while Newman will have the task slowing down Lovett. I'm a bit nervous about that one. Lovett is super quick around the goals.

The problem Essendon's forward line has had is poor supply from their midfield most of which still comprises of old heads Jason Johnson (avg 21 possessions), Mark Johnson (18), Hird (18), Peverill (19), Murphy (18) and McVeigh (14). Not much pace there! The Roos last week showed the Bombers can be broken down if plenty of pressure is applied in the midfield at the ball and at the man through intense tackling. We did a similar job on the Swans for three quarters. This Saturday we need to keep it up for the whole game through the efforts of Tuck (avg 23 possessions), Cogs (22), Johnson (23) if he passes the fitness test, Bowden (22), and Cambo (18) plus good support like last week from Krakouer and Newman to give us run through the central corridor. Chaffey will most likely get the job on Hird.

The other problem the Dons have had this year is running out games. They have won 9 first and second quarters with a % of around the 100 mark yet only 5 third quarters (percentage of 72) and a dreadful 3 final quarters with a % of 66! This is usually a sign of the team going full bore from the start but not having any depth in the midfield rotations to keep the intensity up for a whole game as the starting midfielders tire. We went AWOL last week as well so that's something we need to be mindful of although unlike the Bombers it was a first. It didn't help that we went totally away from the gameplan.

A major blow for the Bombers is the suspension to Hille. We similarly lost Stafford but don't loss anything to our ruck stocks with the return of Knobel. The loss of Hille will result in Laycock needing to do most of the ruck work with very little support against Knobel and Simmonds which gives us the advantage. The Bombers have also used Hennaman as a fill-in ruckman in the past but he's missing also.

Up our forward line the main duel will be between Richo and Dustin Fletcher. Bradley's return for the Bombers will help them height wise after the Roos tall forwards overwhelmed Essendon's defence. He will obviously line-up on Simmonds. McPhee has been named but news around the traps is he'll miss. We saw last week that when we ran the ball and didn't go into our shells we dominated up forward with Krakouer and Pettifer chipping in for goals so we were too reliant on Richo. However we immediately switched to panic-mode once we stopped running allowing the Swans to almost pinch the match as  our forward 50 entries completely dried up. In the last quarter we had only a disgraceful two shots on goal and not surprisingly scored only a single point for the whole term.

Overall: We should win given the Bombers are struggling in the midfield with lack of pace provided our workrate and intensity is switched on from the start of the game. Our record against the Dons of something like only 6 wins from the last 37 meetings shows we've been the Bombers whipping boys for far too long a time plus we haven't won a round 15 match since 1999. Time to act some revenge while they're down and keep our finals dreams alive.

[one-eyed]

Johnson out of big clash against Dons
09 July 2005   
Herald Sun
Rebecca Williams

  RICHMOND was yesterday dealt an injury blow ahead of today's Dreamtime at the 'G clash with Essendon, losing captain Kane Johnson.

Johnson was named in the Tigers' side to meet the Bombers at the MCG, but has failed to recover from a knee injury in time.

The skipper jarred his knee against Sydney last week, with a final run before training yesterday morning ruling him out.

Richmond coach Terry Wallace would not reveal Johnson's replacement, but it will come from emergencies Andrew Raines, Adam Pattison and Shane Morrison.

"We selected him in the hope he might have been able to come up and do a job, but he just wasn't right," Wallace said after training yesterday.

"Structurally there's (no problem) it just hasn't settled down as well as what we would have hoped."

The Tigers also lost ruckman Greg Stafford at the AFL Tribunal this week for two matches.

"(Johnson) is an important player to the side," Wallace said. "From a leadership point of view, we're a couple down, but the competition's about everyone else stepping up."

Wallace said today's home game was crucial for the seventh-placed Tigers in their bid to retain their position in the top eight.

Richmond and Essendon have promoted the match as a celebration of indigenous football.

The game is Richmond's only clash with major drawcard Essendon this season.

Wallace lamented the Tigers' lack of showcase games, with the club also drawn to play one game against Collingwood and only one Friday night game.

But he admitted it was all the Tigers had deserved based on the form of the past three years.

"That's probably been our lot when you're down at the bottom of the ladder, you haven't got a lot of ability to say what you should draw or what you shouldn't draw," Wallace said.

"If we can do the right thing and get ourselves up the ladder a little bit. . .hopefully we can go to the AFL with our preferences for the draw and have a bit better say."

The Tigers have lost four of their past five games against the Bombers, but Wallace hoped today would break that pattern.

"We hadn't beaten a side in the top eight, and everyone kept reminding us of that, yet we managed to knock that one out of the way last week," he said.

"It's probably important to knock over a few of those things and along the way we've been able to do that."
 
 http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,15866915%255E19771,00.html

[mightytiges]

Them losing McPhee is as big a loss as us losing Sugar although in our case it hurts our midfield depth. A fair bit of pressure on the likes of Krakouer and Newman to back up their efforts of last week to help out Tuck and Cogs.

There's a rumour on bomberblitz that Murphy may miss also for the Bombers while Courtney Johns may miss because it'll be only 13 degrees and wet today.