Rating the finals contenders: Richmond (Herald-Sun & The Age)

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AFL Finals 2017: Herald Sun experts rate the contenders

Herald Sun
30 July 2017

THE race to September is on.

With the AFL finals just around the corner, the Sunday Herald Sun football team, including premiership coach Mick Malthouse, rates every contender and their chances of wreaking havoc in September as we head towards the business end of the season.

RICHMOND

Finals forecast:
Based on the post-Round 18 ladder, Richmond held a 4-3 record against top-eight sides. Of those three losses, two have come by single-figure margins — Sydney (nine points) and Greater Western Sydney (three points). That shows Damien Hardwick’s men can match it with the best in the competition. Richmond also has star factor and one of the best spines in the competition with Alex Rance down back, Trent Cotchin and Dustin Martin in the midfield and Jack Riewoldt spearheading the attack.

Their kryptonite:
The question mark remains around the Tigers’ lack of a second tall up forward to support Riewoldt. Ben Griffiths remains sidelined through injury and Todd Elton and Ivan Soldo have been tried with little success. A small and mobile forward line could work but Richmond may need to bed down a better structure for that before finals than what it has been displaying.

Fairytale factor:
It’s been a long time since Richmond supporters had much to celebrate. The last premiership came 37 years ago in 1980 while the club won its last final under Danny Frawley in 2001. Since then, there have been six bottom-four finishes and three lost elimination finals. Just imagine if the Tigers train could go all the way this September. What a day it would be.

Mick Malthouse says:

Richmond currently is the surprise packet. Falsely I have rated them on the performances of Alex Rance, Dustin Martin and Jack Riewoldt.

Trent Cotchin has stood up not only as a player, but he appears also to be over the burden of captaincy.

The Tigers’ game structure is sound.

In the league’s top three for scores against, defensively they have reduced their opposition to scratching out a score, which in itself is great, however in these weeks leading up to finals they also need to demonstrate they can kick 100 plus points in a game, as they are also the lowest scoring side in the top eight on average.

Tight defence is an excellent trait to have going into finals but if a team gets away from you, you have to be able to counter score.

Richmond’s biggest concern going forward is having every player playing his role consistently, without having to rely just on the few I have mentioned.

Run home:
v Hawthorn (MCG),
v Geelong (SS),
v Fremantle (DS),
v St Kilda (MCG)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/sunday-herald-sun-football-team-rates-every-potential-afl-finalist-and-where-they-need-to-lift/news-story/1fe7712b383cea86e88b7898dfa1e93d

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'Tis the season to be jolly well confused

Daniel Cherny, Ronny Lerner and Scott Spits
The Age
30 July 2017[/i]

In a season of wild fluctuations, how do you sort the flag contenders from the pretenders?

RICHMOND

THE HIGHS: Perhaps their best win of the year came last weekend when they took care of GWS by 19 points in the driving rain at the MCG. Their 13-point, come-from-behind win over Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval was also a highlight. Wins over fellow top-eight sides Essendon and Melbourne were impressive as well. Their more direct game style with the use of damaging small forwards has worked very well. The recruitment of Toby Nankervis has been a masterstroke and the form of Dustin Martin has been sensational. Martin could easily win the Brownlow Medal this year. Alex Rance, Trent Cotchin and Jack Riewoldt have also been pivotal.

THE LOWS: To their credit, they've only been smashed twice this year by Adelaide (76 points) and St Kilda (67). But how easily they could be on top of the ladder if they hadn't suffered last-gasp losses to Fremantle and GWS and narrow defeats to the Bulldogs and Sydney. The Tigers could probably do with an extra key forward to help out Riewoldt and the ongoing unavailability of Ben Griffiths (concussion/shoulder) could prove costly in the long run.

EXPECTATIONS:
Sitting in the top four with a relatively easy run home, they would be backing themselves to make it as far as a preliminary final at least.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/2017-afl-premiership-leading-contenders-the-maybes-and-the-longshots-20170725-gxi890.html