Jack Riewoldt on RSN927 - 14/9/17

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RSN Breakfast Club - Jack Riewoldt, Richmond - Inner Sanctum 14th September

AUDIO: https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode/?id=135543

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Richmond takes opposite route to the Adelaide Crows in preparation for preliminary final

Jesper Fjeldstad,
The Advertiser
14 September 2017

ADELAIDE’S potential grand final opponent Richmond has taken the opposite approach to the Crows for its week off and believes it will hold the Tigers in good stead.

Star key forward Jack Riewoldt says that while the Crows have been looking outside of the square and gone to Queensland to freshen up for the preliminary final, the Tigers believe they have the method of dealing with weeks off down to a fine art.

Their approach, in a nutshell, is to keep things the same rather than find new ways of preparing.

It is a stark opposite to how Adelaide has treated the week off.

“My skin tone doesn’t allow the Gold Coast,” Riewoldt said with a laugh. “So I’m staying right away from there.

“But look, we had a few days off.

“Obviously the weekend off after the Friday night game fit into the schedule well and then we try to keep it pretty similar.

“We have the main training today (Thursday) as we would two days out from the game, then have our captain’s run tomorrow and then probably have a training session (on the weekend) that will replicate the game intensity without the bash and crash as much as a normal game, but still (have) the running and getting the time into the legs.

“We’ve felt like through the two byes that we’ve had this year that we’ve performed well off the bye from having that sort of schedule.

“We feel like it works well for us.”

Riewoldt also shot down the notion that having two weeks off in four weeks — the bye that has been introduced ahead of the finals combined with the week off earnt by top teams winning through to the preliminary finals — could be a disadvantage.

He said it was part of the game and overstated as an issue.

“I’m not buying into the fact that it’s two games in four weeks,” Riewoldt told Melbourne radio station RSN. “That’s what it is but who cares?

“It’s footy. You play it in front of 95,000 people. It think what we’re doing in terms of training loads will hold us in good stead.

“We get to freshen up. It comes down to the way that we feel like we can prepare and coming off the two byes we feel like we’ve performed well so we’ll run that same schedule and hopefully we can come out and perform well again.”

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/richmond-takes-opposite-route-to-the-adelaide-crows-in-preparation-for-preliminary-final/news-story/9d21d8cf4180d9d678609bbf3a240a80

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Jack Riewoldt says Richmond players are embracing fans' finals excitement

Ronny Lerner
The Age
14 September 2017

Richmond superstar Jack Riewoldt has described running out onto the ground in front of more than 90,000 fans as an "addictive feeling" and that he feels like he is living "an absolute fantasy".

The Tigers' qualifying final against Geelong last week was played in front of 95,028 spectators – the biggest ever crowd for a qualifying final and the largest crowd to attend a Richmond game since the 1982 grand final (107,536).

Riewoldt can expect more of the same next week when his team hosts either GWS or West Coast in a preliminary final at the MCG and the two-time Coleman Medal winner said that wherever his career takes him, the deafening noise that such massive crowds produce is something he will never forget.

"On the weekend it was a bit more of a cauldron," Riewoldt told RSN radio.

"We had about 75 or 80 per cent of the fans there, so they were everywhere.

"I'm looking forward to the preliminary final because I think once again we'll have the majority of the crowd there so it's going to be loud.

"It truly is an addictive feeling running out of the race for that first time, slapping the captain on the hand and going through the banner and as soon as you go through the banner, just that absolute roar you hear is really addictive.

"It is an absolute fantasy to play in those big games. All the commentary I've heard from people at the game said it was one of the most amazing experiences of their life anywhere, including the MCG, so we're obviously really blessed to play our home games at the MCG."

Riewoldt said he had "a very fulfilling job" at the moment and that he and his teammates weren't going to shy away from the excitement Richmond fans were feeling with the club so close to their first grand final in 35 years.

"There are people who come up to you on the street and say good luck and they really speak about how proud they are of the group and I think what 'Dimma' (coach Damien Hardwick) is alluding to there is in these situations sometimes where clubs haven't had a lot of success, they don't know how to deal with it and they push back against their fans and fans are always going to crystal ball to the next week and to the next week and look at that final goal," Riewoldt said.

"But for us it's about taking the little steps and continue to focus on the process but who are we to shoot their dreams down? So we're embracing that and really opening our arms to our fans because they've been there on the journey with us.

"I've been there for 11 years and haven't achieved what I would like to achieve in those years as every player wants to do, every player wants to play in the ultimate success and they want to play in a successful side as much as the fans want to be involved in a successful football club.

"So we're in a great position at the moment where we've got a home final which we will have a lot of fans go to and rather than pushing back on our fans and trying to dull it down, which we will do inside the football club, when we're out and about, why not enjoy with it them? Because they've been through the tough times as we've been through them as well."

Much has been made of the controversial pre-finals bye with the winning qualifying finalists having only played one game in four weeks by the time their preliminary finals roll around.

For the first time ever, both winning qualifying finalists lost their respective preliminary finals last year when the bye was introduced, but Riewoldt scoffed at suggestions having another break would be detrimental to the Tigers' grand final quest.

"I'm not buying into it. That's what it is, but who cares? It's footy, you're playing in front of 95,000 people," he said.

"I think what we're doing in terms of training loads will hold us in good stead. We get a freshen-up.

"I had two weeks off with the eye (injury) obviously and then played three games and then had a week off and then played a game and then had a week off and played a game.

"I'm feeling really good but it comes down to the way that we feel we can prepare and coming off the two byes this year, we felt that we've performed well so we'll run that same schedule and hopefully we can come out and perform well again."

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/jack-riewoldt-says-richmond-players-are-embracing-fans-finals-excitement-20170914-gyh3wd.html