Dimma's post-match media conference ...
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http://www.richmondfc.com.au/video/2014-04-27/round-6-hardwick-press-conference-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick blames basic errors and absence of key players in heavy loss to HawthornHerald-Sun
April 28, 2014 RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick was last night left to lament another week of “schoolboy errors” after his side was ripped apart by Hawthorn.
Hardwick sat his players down after yesterday’s 66-point thrashing to address the ongoing mistakes that have dragged them to a precarious 2-4 ahead of Sunday’s season-defining clash with Geelong.
He also said the absence of Brett Deledio, Alex Rance and Ivan Maric was a big reason the Tigers were struggling.
“At various stages tonight you would have seen that we actually use the ball really well, but then at other stages we just made some really poor blues and it’s been characteristic of our season thus far,” Hardwick said.
“When we get ourselves into the game we just manage to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
Hardwick admitted the rebounding dash and dare so evident in Richmond’s rise last year had vanished, but said injuries to Rance, Deledio and Maric had been a key factor.
“Oh, listen, you take three of our best six players out, we’re going to struggle,” he said. “With Deledio, Rance and Maric, you get those guys back in it makes us better, but the fact is I think they’ve played two games between them all year so it’s going to take some time.
“At the moment we hold on to the ball a bit longer than what we’d like, we just don’t move it as well as what we’d like and we’re working to address those things.
“We’re not playing anywhere near as fluent as what we did last year; there’s no doubt about that, we know that and we’re trying to rectify that.”
Hardwick said Rance and Deledio would almost certainly return against the Cats.
“They were both very close this week, it just would have been pushing the envelope a bit to play them,” he said.
“Obviously they’re both very important — our best defender and our best run and carry player so they’ll make a difference, but we’ve also got to realise they haven’t played for five weeks.”
Hardwick said Richmond was “jumped” at the start and simply couldn’t score when they improved.
“I thought we battled in quarter two to get back on even par, (but we) just couldn’t quite get the inside 50m reward,” he said. “Then unfortunately in the third quarter we just gave the ball back with some errors that were poor. They’re a good side, premiership obviously last year and they look well on the way again this year.
“It hurt us, the guys like (Isaac) Smith and (Bradley) Hill just ran incredibly hard from one side of the ground to the other, which we thought we’d prepared for but not well enough.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-coach-damien-hardwick-blames-basic-errors-and-absence-of-key-players-in-heavy-loss-to-hawthorn/story-fndv8t7m-1226897625876
