Have the Tigers got the midfield to finish top four? .......... (Sportsfan)

[one-eyed]

Burning Questions for 2015: Richmond
Have the Tigers got the midfield to finish in the top four?

Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Source: SportsFan
Author: Bradley Dawson


Forget the Tigers' fairytale late-season nine consecutive wins to scrape into the eight in 2014 - in most respects last season was a step backwards for Richmond, the first in five seasons under coach Damien Hardwick. The Tigers are still far too reliant on ruckman Ivan Maric for overall hardness and psychological strength and they were poor until he returned halfway through the year. That one player should have so great an influence is an indictment on the team.

The Tigers were very quiet during the off-season trade period, despite their stated intention to shop for a ready-made top class player (why didn't they chase a ruckman?), and preferred to go down the draft route, recruiting plenty of their favoured type of player: small-to medium height, light half-forward flankers with average pace. Will a Tigers team very similar in appearance to last year's one have the improvement in it required to make the eight again and win a final in 2015?

In recent years much critical focus has been on the Tigers' defence and forward line, but their real area of concern throughout Hardwick's tenure and even prior to that has been their midfield. Richmond have class there in Trent Cotchin, Brett Deledio, Dustin Martin, Brandon Ellis and 2014 surprise packet Anthony Miles, but overall their on-ball brigade is still too light and lacks pace. And there are too many other similar-sized and paced players – think Reece Conca, Nick Vlastuin, Ricky Petterd, Matt Thomas.

Strange as it may sound, the Tigers miss Shane Tuck, and need at least one, if not two, bigger-bodied types in the stoppages to do the blocking and bullocking to allow Cotchin and co more free possession. Plus they need some more outside, line-breaking pace to help Deledio, who is their main man in this area. Deledio looked so good when he went forward late last year that it will be hard not to give him more time there – along with Martin – to spice up the Tigers' attack and less time running out of the middle or off half back. The Tigers will need to find that run from somewhere else. Meanwhile, ex-Cat Taylor Hunt looks a ready-made run-with player to replace the retired Dan Jackson.

In reality, Richmond still look a level or two below the competition's big boys in the midfield.   

And a word on their draw:

The fixture is kind to Hardwick and Richmond. They play fourteen games at the MCG, with only five games against top-four teams, and their first four are against bottom-six sides. They have only one trip to Perth (round 10) with a bye straight after. However, they would want to be sitting close to the top four after round 16, because they have a very tough run home over the final seven rounds with games against Fremantle (MCG), Hawthorn (MCG), Adelaide (AO), Gold Coast (MCG), Collingwood (MCG), Essendon (MCG), and North Melbourne (ES).


We see the Tigers finishing anywhere from 7th to 12th in 2015, depending on injury. If Maric misses more than six games, they can forget about September. 

http://www.sportsfan.com.au/burning-questions-for-2015-richmond/tabid/91/newsid/151646/default.aspx

[Phil Mrakov]

We recruited average paced players at the draft? All but Ellis are fast as a jackrabbit

[Chuck17]

?

[Diocletian]

We recruited average paced players at the draft? All but Ellis are fast as a jackrabbit

Very much doubt the author even knows who we drafted after our first pick.

[dwaino]

Stopped reading at the average pace bit. They might be average players or average anything else, but we grabbed some of the quickest blokes in the draft.

[Dougeytherichmondfan]

Martin and Deledio lacking pace....hmm???

[big tone]

Good question IMO.
The easy answer is not even close.
Cotch, Foley and Miles are our only genuine midfielders. (Maric excluded) guys that can just rack up touches all day long against good teams and bad.
Lids is better suited on a stuff, but is a very good second tier midfielder. That's not to say he is a second tier player only that he is more suited flashing in and out of games.
Dusty is similar to Lids but in time hopefully he can build more than a decent tank to be able to compete with the genuine midfield runners. There is a huge difference between the elite runners and just fit AFL players.
I really hope Corey Ellis can turn into a genuine mid, from all reports he can. In saying that he is at least 3 years away from making a real impact.
The others on our list like Ellis, Conca and Vlastuin hopefully will be very good players but none will be genuine mids IMO. That's why I think 2 out of the 3 were average pick ups for early draft picks. 
We need to find another mid ASAP, I know they don't grow on trees but Dangerfield would fit in just nicely IMO. Pay him whatever he wants, just get him to Tigerland next year and maybe we will be a GENUINE contender.

[YellowandBlackBlood]

Good question IMO.
The easy answer is not even close.
Cotch, Foley and Miles are our only genuine midfielders. (Maric excluded) guys that can just rack up touches all day long against good teams and bad.
Lids is better suited on a stuff, but is a very good second tier midfielder. That's not to say he is a second tier player only that he is more suited flashing in and out of games.
Dusty is similar to Lids but in time hopefully he can build more than a decent tank to be able to compete with the genuine midfield runners. There is a huge difference between the elite runners and just fit AFL players.
I really hope Corey Ellis can turn into a genuine mid, from all reports he can. In saying that he is at least 3 years away from making a real impact.
The others on our list like Ellis, Conca and Vlastuin hopefully will be very good players but none will be genuine mids IMO. That's why I think 2 out of the 3 were average pick ups for early draft picks. 
We need to find another mid ASAP, I know they don't grow on trees but Dangerfield would fit in just nicely IMO. Pay him whatever he wants, just get him to Tigerland next year and maybe we will be a GENUINE contender.

Agree with you 100%.