We missed Maric: Tigers start with full complementJennifer Phelan
afl.com.au
November 25, 2014 2:15 PMAFTER pre-season surgery cost him the first half of this year, a fit Ivan Maric is looking towards a full summer program and starting 2015 on time.
The 28-year-old Richmond ruckman battled through last pre-season after groin surgery forced him onto a modified program early on.
Then he needed an operation to remove bone spurs in his right ankle in February.
He didn't play until round 11, after missing all of the Tigers' pre-season games, and was sorely missed with his team winning just three of their first nine matches.
However he has started the 2015 pre-season early – pitching in with some sessions with the Tigers' younger players last week – and is injury free ahead of his fourth season at the club.
"I've had no operations in the pre-season and I'm fully training and feeling pretty strong and fit," Maric told the club's website this week.
It's no secret the Tigers battled without their No.1 big man, as well as forward Brett Deledio and backman Alex Rance, who were also struggling with injuries when Maric was out.
The upside was it allowed Ben Griffiths to emerge as a genuine back-up ruck contender and Shaun Hampson to get some early games in his first season at the club.
But Maric’s importance to the club was underlined when he returned and the Tigers went on a nine-game winning streak soon after.
"We certainly missed him," football manager Dan Richardson told AFL.com.au.
"Hopefully he'll come back and pick up where he left off this year, which was with really solid form."
Maric has previously been vocal about why the Tigers suffered such a dismal start to season 2014.
In August, he said the players had abandoned their "attention to detail" when it came to training standards, and labelled that application as poor when compared to the previous year.
He said the focus for this pre-season – and next year – was to ensure that didn't happen again.
"It's just about maintaining the standards that we set last year," he said.
"We really improved everything around the club and we just need to have the stamina to maintain it.
"Everyone's doing it but it just comes down to who can maintain the standards for the longest."
The full list is now back training after the return of the first-to-fourth year players two weeks ago.
Another Tiger who is looking for an injury-free summer is Reece Conca. The serious hamstring tendon tear he suffered in the elimination final loss to Carlton in 2013 delayed his return to a full program, which affected him throughout this year.
Richmond is now optimistic Conca can get a full summer under his belt with no surgery required this year, and the Tigers are looking for the sort of improvement shown by another youngster, Brandon Ellis, in 2014.
"Brandon has been great, he's hardly missed a game, he's a really hard runner and became a really important player for us," Richardson said.
"That's what we need, the likes of Reece to jump up to that level of output for us and then we'll become a better side.
"Reece showed glimpses of what he's capable of - the Geelong game [in round seven] is an example of that - he just needs to get fit."
Conca missed games late in the season not due to injury, but because of his injudicious two-game suspension for striking Greater Western Sydney's Devon Smith.
"We've got high hopes for Reece to continue to develop and have a real impact at AFL level," Richardson said.
"By his own admission, he probably doesn't feel as if he's been able to do that yet but we certainly think he can.
"He's got the ability to; he's just got to come back and work hard."
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-11-25/we-missed-maric-tigers
