Damien Hardwick's grand plan for Richmond is on the verge of ultimate successJon Pierik
The Age
10 September 2017It's a process that's been seven years in the making, but the Tigers are now two games away from the ultimate payoff.
This is what coach Damien Hardwick said in 2011 about the need to spread the goalkicking load after Jack Riewoldt's 78 goals a year earlier had comprised 32 per cent of his team's output.
"Jack is a terrific player, but we know we can't afford for him to be kicking 78 goals a year," Hardwick said.
"If we keep that somewhere between 50 and 60 goals … or another player kicks 20 or 30, we'll be happy with that. That's the sort of spread of goals you want. If you look at [recent] premiership sides, it will tell you a spread of goalkickers is the best way to go about it. If you rely on one player, you are not going to make it through a successful finals campaign."
That it took Riewoldt until late in the final term on Friday night to boot his first – and only – goal in a 51-point mauling of Geelong highlighted how Hardwick's master plan is on the verge of its greatest payoff. It was also a point acknowledged during the call of the game by AFL great Chris Judd.
The Tigers would finish with 13 goals, but only two men would make multiple contributions – Josh Caddy and Jacob Townsend with two each.
Riewoldt is still the major focal point and also contributes in other ways. His left-foot floater to Martin for a goal and later a pass to an open Dion Prestia were examples of this.
He remained the Tigers' leading goalkicker this season, with 50 through the home-and-away campaign. But that was his second-lowest return since 2010. The spread is now more even with Dustin Martin, Jason Castagna, Daniel Rioli and Dan Butler each having more than 20 goals. Josh Caddy, with 19, has also been crucial, as was the case on Friday night.
Hardwick's comment about "premiership sides" and scoring balance is pertinent, for that was what Alastair Clarkson, his great mate and former mentor at Hawthorn, demanded after the Hawks had lost the 2012 grand final against Sydney. In Clarkson's case it was a Lance Franklin-centric forward line. Not that big a problem, some would say, but it meant that if Franklin had a bad day, the Hawks could struggle. That was the case in the '12 grand final when Franklin was held to 3.4.
Franklin finished that year with 69 goals. A year later that was cut to 60, but it was Jarryd Roughead who exploded, booting 72 goals to claim the Coleman Medal, up from 41 the year before.
What the Tigers have also added is manic pressure, particularly inside attacking 50. Where the Hawks had that during their triple-treat of flags with Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo, the Tigers have that through their small forwards. Just check the tackle count on Friday night for Castagna, Rioli, Butler and Jacob Townsend.
"We pride our game on that. We are a little bit undersized in terms of height but we have got speed to burn. It's definitely what we base our game on," Caddy told Fairfax Media.
Former Richmond assistant coach David King said Hardwick's plan was working.
"They had a lot of season highs [against Geelong], intercepts in their forward half, lock the ball in, repeated entries, season-high tackles forward half. They forced Geelong to kick the ball at 49 per cent effectiveness, that's the worst ever recorded by Geelong. All on the back of a basic understanding of how to play based on pressure," he said on SEN.
"Their [the Tigers'] investment in the stars is big. We know that financially and there is purpose-picked speed that, really, are as cheap as chips. Some of those players would be on very low financial reward for what they do, but their impact and the way they play is huge. Thirteen goals they kicked [against Geelong], 11 different goalkickers. That's when you know the system is working."
It's a system that has the Tiger Army hopeful of a premiership conquest for the first time in 37 years.
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