Tiger cubs shine in Shepparton
3:33:27 PM Wed 8 March, 2006
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au
The most pleasing aspect of Richmond's 78-point win against the Western Bulldogs in Shepparton last Saturday was the form displayed by several of the Club's promising crop of young players.
Danny Meyer (three goals), Daniel Jackson (three goals), Cleve Hughes (three goals) and Jay Schulz (three goals) kicked nearly half of the Tigers' impressive 26-goal tally for the match, while Andrew Raines was extremely impressive in a running role across the backline.
Richmond coach Terry Wallace was understandably upbeat about the efforts of his talented Tiger cubs in the clash with the Bulldogs, although he acknowledged the Dogs had most of their best side missing and the result would have "absolutely no bearing" on the outcome of their season-opener on March 31.
"It's what we've been keen to deliver since day one. We said we wanted to develop our own champions of the future and that Richmond supporters should get excited about seeing them playing their first game and then following their development from that point on," Wallace said.
"At the end of last Saturday's game, I grabbed hold of Travis Casserly and Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, who both didn't play and said, 'you saw some young boys do some pretty special things out there today and you ought to be excited because you guys are all going to be around here playing a lot of footy together for a long period of time'.
"I was pretty excited about it myself, and certainly those guys were . . .
"We took five young players up there without any promise of game time and told them we'd try to get them on in the second half if the situation suited. They had to meet down in the change-rooms at the 15-minute mark of the second quarter, and then they'd be advised whether they were going to play or not at that stage.
"Of those five players, three of them (Meyer, Hughes and Dean Limbach) kicked seven second-half goals. That's a great return from those young guys. And, the other two boys did okay as well . . . Dean Polo went into the middle of the ground and competed well, while Luke McGuane came on and did some good work down back."
Wallace is delighted with the advancement being made by Tigerland's 'department of youth' as the countdown to bouncedown '06 prepares to enter its final phase.
"The process (focusing on young talent at the Club) was started before I got here, when about six young blokes were introduced in Danny's (Frawley's) last year," he said.
"We're starting to see some progress from 'Rainesy', 'Roachy' is getting closer to the mark, 'Jacko' has stepped up a bit and so has Brent Hartigan.
"Then, there's Jay Schulz, who began 12 months earlier than that, who's starting to get into the line-up.
"They're all starting to infiltrate their way in, which is really important for our future. And, then you've got the boys from the last couple of drafts, so there's certainly a bit of spark around the place."
According to Wallace, the stand-outs in last Saturday's practice match from the younger brigade were Andrew Raines (24 possessions), Richard Tambling (19 possessions), Jay Schulz (18 possessions), Adam Pattison (18 possessions) and Nathan Foley (16 possessions).
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