The Barometer - Round 12Herald-Sun
6 June 2016RICHMOND
ON THE BLOCK: As expected, Steven Morris needs another reconstruction - to the same knee that buckled in the SANFL in 2009. He’s lion-hearted, Morris, but he was still visibly shattered on the flight out of Hobart on Saturday and faces a fight to resurrect his career. Ben Griffiths (ankle) will most certainly miss weeks, while there must be significant concerns for Dylan Grimes, who was dramatically withdrawn two minutes before the first bounce on Friday night after experiencing “awareness” in the warm-up. Nick Vlastuin suffered game-ending concussion and will be in some doubt for this week. A week after making no changes, Damien Hardwick will be forced to make sweeping one’s.
ON THE CUSP: Damien Hardwick went along to Sunday’s VFL match praying some of the “emerging young talent” he’s been talking up would announce themselves. Instead he watched the Tigers’ “twos” remain goalless until the last quarter against Coburg. But Reece Conca’s third VFL game will definitely be his last after he dominated with 30-odd touches, a couple of goals and 10-plus tackles. It’s early days, but Nathan Drummond is showing positive signs after returning from his knee reconstruction. Mabior Chol, Connor Menadue and Ivan Maric are also running around in the reserves.
SAM EDMUND’S FORECAST: What appeared to be another mid-season resurrection is now a road to nowhere. This wasn’t a nightmare against the Kangaroos, it was a two-hour night terror. Richmond gave up a staggering 72 inside 50s, lost the disposal count, lost the tackle count by 36 and the game by 70. It was surely a finals killer and, with a three-match winning streak stopped dead in its tracks, possibly a morale killer as well. Next is Gold Coast at the MCG, a side they’ve had their issues with in the past but smashed by 83 points at the same ground last year. Fair to say Dimma would take a similar result.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/footy-form/barometer-afl-injury-list-selection-analysis-ahead-of-round-12/news-story/34e3fb5318a641ece9e19751dfe54094
