Ruck and roll, Tigers need to be braveJAI BEDNALL
Herald-Sun
September 15, 2015WHILE the Tigers players were drowning in pots of beers at a local pub on Monday, Richmond’s three most important football people were already looking to next year.
Coach Damien Hardwick, football boss Dan Richardson and list manager Blair Hartley, by virtue of Sunday’s loss to North Melbourne, now have a sense of urgency in identifying the problem areas and, more importantly, filling those problem areas.
A ruckman to help valiant soldier Ivan Maric is likely to top Richmond’s off-season shopping list.
Maric, who will be 30 in January, failed to combat rampant North Melbourne big man Todd Goldstein in Sunday’s elimination final loss.
He is lion-hearted Maric, but has struggled recently against taller and better ruckmen.
Hardwick’s gamble on underdone Ben Griffiths as an aid to Maric failed to come off, laying bare the Tigers brittle big man stocks.
Shaun Hampson has managed just 15 games in two underwhelming seasons at Richmond, including only four this year and was overlooked for Sunday’s game.
Those two are not the answer to the ruck issue.
The Tigers must entertain Matty Kreuzer as a ruck consideration.
Collingwood was hot and now cold and who knows what they feel now for Kreuzer, but there’s no question he is gettable.
If not Kreuzer, then Zac Smith. If not Smith or Kreuzer, then all-in on Brisbane’s Stef Martin.
That would be a coup. Martin shared the B & F at the Lions at the weekend and said he was still not yet 100 per cent committed to staying.
Hardwick, Richardson and Hartley should be at Tullamarine today and on a flight to Brisbane, for Martin would be ripper recruit.
And the Tigers should not stop with a ruckman.
Although Adam Treloar nominated Collingwood as his preferred destination, it’s understood it was a close call with the Tigers.
If the Tigers want Treloar, who is both an inside and outside midfielder, then they come up with a better trade offer than Collingwood. To do so, they have to be brave.
They need Steve Johnson or Harley Bennell, both mid-sized goalkickers, to bolster the forward line.
They are in for Bennell, the jury’s out on Johnson, who will get offers from several clubs.
They need the class of Chris Yarran to play half-back, wing, or half-forward.
The Tigers won’t and can’t land all of these players, but they must get two of them. Yarran and a ruckman would be nice. Yarran, a ruckman and the miracle play to get Treloar away from Collingwood would a red-letter trading period for the Tigers.
Make no mistake, the Giants will deal with the Tigers if the Pies don’t come to the party with a suitable trade. And a first-rounder and Witts won’t be a suitable trade.
While Hardwick and Co think ahead, Jack Riewoldt was still living in the past on Monday.
He said a summer of regret would fuel the players and he had no doubt Hardwick was the coach to lead them.
“The players are hurting as much as anybody at the moment,” Riewoldt said.
“We’re really disappointed in ourselves and we know that we’ve let ourselves down, we’ve let the club down and we’ve let the members down but I can promise that the players will come back fitter than ever and ready to go again.
“We’ve got a super inner belief in this group ... I really believe that this football club is going in the right direction.
“Success comes to those who keep trying.”
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/damien-hardwick-had-a-right-to-be-angry-after-richmonds-loss-to-north-melbourne-says-jack-riewoldt/story-fnp04d70-1227526863587
