The rise of Richmond — How Tigers have turned their 2014 season aroundSam Edmund
Herald-Sun
August 12, 2014IT’S the stuff of dreams, but Richmond’s charge to an unthinkable finals berth has nothing to do with fantasy.
The six-game winning streak — the first of its kind at Tigerland since 1995 — has been propelled by sheer hard work.
It’s the old adage of see ball, get ball, and in the past six weeks, Richmond is doing it better than any side in the competition.
The Tigers are the AFL’s best contested ball outfit over that time, averaging almost 20 more contested possessions each week than their rivals.
They are also the league’s best clearance side, going from a ranking of 12th (+0.3) in clearance differential after Round 14 to No. 1 (+7) during Rounds 15-20.
Richmond’s scores from clearance differential (+10.3 points) is also the best in the game.
After narrowly losing to Sydney in Round 14, the Tigers have dispatched St Kilda, Brisbane, Port Adelaide, West Coast, GWS and Essendon with a new-found ferocity at the ball.
The dramatic win over the Bombers was the first time since Round 12 that Richmond had lost the contested possession count.
“The pleasing thing from our point of view is that we’ve got a number of guys who can win that contested ball,” coach Damien Hardwick said.
“(Anthony) Miles coming in is a huge addition, Brett Deledio has become very good in that area, Dustin Martin, all these types of players.”
Miles, dumped by GWS and on the rookie list at Punt Rd as recently as early June, is one of the stories of the season. After making his Tiger debut in Round 12, he is averaging the fifth-most clearances in the AFL ahead of the likes of Josh Kennedy, Joel Selwood and Tom Rockliff.
He is also Richmond’s best ball winner, averaging a club-high 11.1 contested possessions per game.
Ruckman Ivan Maric (+27.9 Champion Data points per game), Ben Griffiths (+22.3), Brett Deledio (+20.8 ), Shane Edwards (+19.3) and Brandon Ellis (+17.9) have also lifted their output in Richmond’s six-week surge.
Deledio, in particular, has come to life after Hardwick swung the classy playmaker from the midfield into a more permanent half-forward role.
According to Champion Data, Deledio is now spending 68 per cent of the game forward, up significantly from 24 per cent from Rounds 1-11. In the win against the Bombers, he spent 92.1 per cent of the game close to goal opposed to tagger Heath Hocking.
With the emergence of Griffiths, Deledio’s forward presence has given Richmond players the confidence to play more directly. Not only are the Tigers dominating stoppage situations, they aren’t letting sides off the hook by going sideways and backwards.
Early in the season Richmond ranked 13th for percentage of kicks going forward. Now it kicks forward the fourth-most in the competition.
“We knew what was going on, there was just a bit of a lag to fix it, which is a little bit disappointing,” Hardwick said last Friday night.
“Is it unfortunate? Who knows? As long as you learn a lesson and move forward.”
They’ve done that — literally.
RICHMOND REVIVALClearance differential:Rounds 1-14: 12th
Rounds 15-20: 1st
Contested possession differentialRounds 1-14: 11th
Rounds 15-20:1st
Kick forward %Rounds 1-14: 13th
Rounds 15-20: 4th
Points forRounds 1-14: 13th
Rounds 15-20: 3rd
Points from stoppages differentialRounds 1-14: 11th
Rounds 15-20: 1st
Points from intercepts differential:Rounds 1-14: 12th
Rounds 15-20: 4th
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/the-rise-of-richmond-how-tigers-have-turned-their-2014-season-around/story-fndv8t7m-1227020946282
