Where and when are we playing next week/ Tiges vs Dogs trial match

[mightytiges]

WP said Limbach went off with an ankle/leg injury. He was carried off with help from the trainers. No mention of a stretcher. WP will give a full match report later tonight when he gets back from Shepparton.

Newman, Simmonds, Chaffey, Stafford, Joel, Richo, Pettifer, Sugar, Oakley-Nicholls, Casserly, Moore, Howat and Graham did not play.

[Moi]

Tigers bolt away
6:06:41 PM Sat 4 March, 2006
Jason Phelan
Exclusive to afl.com.au
A 10-goal final term has propelled Richmond to a 26.18 (174) to 15.6 (96) win against the Western Bulldogs in a sweltering NAB Challenge clash at Deakin Reserve in Shepparton on Saturday.

The Dogs fielded a very youthful side that stuck with the Tigers for the first three quarters before fading in the last to go down by 78 points.

Nathan Brown played nearly three quarters in his return to competitive football, spending most of his time in a forward pocket and occasionally pushing up to a wing, and finished with 12 disposals and two goals.

Several Tiger youngsters put in eye-catching performances with none more impressive than Brett Deledio, who was outstanding through the middle, but Andrew Raines looked poised in a defensive role, Richard Tambling provided some flashes of brilliance and Danny Meyer finished with three goals.

Ryan Griffen was a major contributor for the Dogs and he was well-supported by Mitch Hahn and Daniel Cross.

Richmond dominated early play and jumped out to a 15-point lead with goals to Adam Pattison and Shane Tuck. Matthew Robbins capitalised on a Jay Schulz turnover to post the Dogs' first midway through the term, but Tuck's second soon restored the lead.

Tom Davidson and Shane Birss clawed back two late goals, but it was still the Tigers by five points at the first break.

Richmond went further ahead with two goals early in the second, but the Bulldogs, who had overused the ball in the initial stages, went more direct later in the quarter with immediate results.

Adam Morgan goaled from a good pack mark after Darren Gaspar had drifted forward to bag one for Richmond, but the Dogs popped the question with three goals in as many minutes to drag the margin back to five.

Daniel Jackson nailed his second major of the term late to put his side up by 17 points, but a late goal to Robert Murphy left the match evenly poised with the Tigers up by 12 at half-time.

Recent draftee Cleve Hughes slotted two goals as the margin blew out to 25 points soon after the restart, with both of Brown's goals also coming during the third, but the Dogs held on grimly with two to Robbins helping to stem the flow.

Needing to erase a 25-point deficit in the last quarter, the Bulldogs could do nothing to hold back the Tiger avalanche that quickly put the result beyond doubt. Mark Coughlan started the ball rolling with his first of the match and the goals just kept coming with Schulz and Meyer each adding three.

Richmond coach Terry Wallace wasn't getting carried away with the result, but did admit there were plenty of positives to come out of the match.

"In fairness to both clubs we brought up more senior players than the opposition … so we expected to come here and win the game, but it was still pleasing," Wallace said.

"You're always looking for what your younger boys can do and I thought some of them were really good. There were some pleasing signs right across the board."

RICHMOND: 3.6, 9.9, 16.12, 26.18 (174)
WESTERN BULLDOGS: 3.1, 8.3, 13.5, 15.6 (96)
GOALS – Richmond: Meyer 3, Jackson 3, Hughes 3, Schulz 3, Brown 2, Hyde 2, Tuck 2, Gaspar, Rodan, Pattison, Hartigan, Tivendale, Limbach, Coughlin, Tambling.
Western Bulldogs: Robbins 3, Hargreave 2, Hahn 2, McMahon 2, Murphy, Davidson, Birss, Boyd, Eagleton, Morgan.
BEST – Richmond: Deledio, Hyde, Raines, Rodan, Tambling, P Bowden, Krakouer, Tivendale.
Western Bulldogs: Griffen, Hahn, Cross, Robbins, Street.
INJURIES – Richmond: Limbach (ankle) Western Bulldogs
REPORTS - Nil.
UMPIRES - Donlon, Armstrong, Chamberlain
CROWD - 4,500 (approx.) at Deakin Reserve, Shepparton

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=249309

[Moi]

Granted the Doggies didn't play a competitive list, but our best players were mostly all our kids.  I know it's just a practice match and hard to gauge real form, but that is encouraging in itself.  Good to see Tambo did well 

[mightytiges]

We had all kids in the last quarter against theirs and kicked 10. The result was meaningless in regards to the real stuff in a few weeks but it should give all our young guys a big boost of confidence. Sounds like we didn't stuff around with footy today either. It's amusing how we seem to get a good spread of goalkickers when richo isn't there.

INJURIES – Richmond: Limbach (ankle)

WP was on the money again. Thankfully it wasn't a knee and hopefully it's not too serious for Dean.

btw wasn't it great seeing Browny running around like his old self on the news  . From the clip he looked like he played much better than last week at Coburg when he was blowing out the cobwebs. Hopefully he got copped a few bumps in contests to build up his confidence mentally. 12 possies and 2 goals in 3/4 of footy is a top comeback.  

[Tiger Spirit]

They interviewed Browny on the 7 news and he said he felt he’d stepped it up a bit from last week and was looking forward to round 1.  Got a bit sore towards the end there, but nothing too much to worry about.

[Moi]

They interviewed Browny on the 7 news and he said he felt he’d stepped it up a bit from last week and was looking forward to round 1.  Got a bit sore towards the end there, but nothing too much to worry about.

I reckon we can carry him until he gets back to full fitness.  Even if he only plays a couple of quarters each week, be better than not having him there at all.

[PuntRdRoar]

A result like this will give us a membership boost as our supporters read up on Monday and Tuesday in the press.

[WilliamPowell]

What a good day it was

I've literally just walked through the door

Looking at the size of some of the kids out there it was like the tea towels versus the fac washer - some kids are all skin and bones.

It was great to get a look of all the kids on our list with the exception of JON and Travis Casserly who didn't play

But in all fairness and keeping things in perspective - as Tezza said you would expect us to win considering the Doggies played up in Darwin last week. But it was still a very good performance with a alot of encouraging signs from the our young blokes

I'll put together a summary shortly - I'm bloody starving 

[WilliamPowell]

Oh yeah - I've got a couple of pics too - my camera is working it just I'm not very good at operating it

[WilliamPowell]

It was a very solid performance by the Tigers at Shepparton today.

Interesting reading the match summary from the AFL site because it listed Deledio as the best on ground but I didn’t think he was that prominent. The thing about Lids it doesn’t matter how many touches he gets it is the quality of those touches.

The game was very free flowing and the Tigers got the early jump in the first. Unfortunately bad conversion cost us hence the score of 3.6.24. The other thing that seemed to carry over from last weeks game early in this match was some bad decision making and poor skill errors that resulted in costly turnovers.

Our backline looked a lot more settled this week with Gas back there. He started at FB, with Schulz at CHB and Andy Kellaway floating across the HB line. In the pack pocket was Roach who lined up on Matthew Robbins. Robbins didn’t have much influence on the game but Tommy got caught out a few times being in the wrong position at the fall of the ball after marking contests.

Andy Raines played a sweeping role of the HB line and was again very impressive. He was better than last week because he hit more targets. Hartigan has a similar role although he played off the wing a fair bit in the second half.

Knobel and Pattison rotated through the ruck for the first 3 quarters, with Ray Hall doing a bit of ruck work in the final quarter. Knobel’s presence in the centre was a telling factor in the centre because our mid-fielders seem to really read his tap work very well. Wallace rotated a lot of blokes through the mid-field. The most damaging combination was Tuck, Krakouer and Polo in the third. Krak and Polo got in an under, fed it out to Tucky and he’d fire it into to our forward 50. Others to rotate through the centre and impress were Tambling (best game I’ve seen him play), Deledio, Hyde, Foley, Coughlan, Rodan and some bloke called Brown 

Tivva played off the wing and was solid – I’d reckon at least 95% of his disposals hit a target

Up forward they used Jackson – who was very good. Terrific set shot for goal and perhaps he’s found a spot finally.

Hughes came on in the third and his impressed. First touch was a mark on a lead with the hands out in front with his Bulldog opponent applying pressure. He then slotted a 50 metre goal from close to the boundary.

There was a lot to like and it was good to see all blokes get game time. I’ll do a separate summary of the players but I’d like to mention 2 blokes.

Firstly Chris Hyde was BOG – he is back to pre busted skull form and on top of that seems to have picked up a yard of pace. In a word EXCELLENT

Secondly, Andy Krakouer. Now I was extremely critical of Krak last week against the Dawks. All the things that I thought were lacking last week were all present this week. His intensity and attack on the footy were great and his ability to pressure the Dogs backline and keep the ball in tight resulted in a couple of Tiger goals. Wallace also gave him plenty of time in the centre and his understanding and work with Tuck was sensational – they just seem to have a great understanding together.

[Moi]

Well done WP 

[one-eyed]

Tigers' Brown on track for AFL round one
The Age
March 4, 2006 - 6:34PM

 Richmond star forward Nathan Brown is on track to play in round one after an incident free three quarters in his team's 78-point practice match win against Western Bulldogs in Shepparton.

Brown collected 14 possessions and booted two goals in the opening three quarters before heading into the rooms for an early shower.

The former Bulldog said he had pulled up well after the match.

"I am feeling good," Brown said.

"It was another step up for me because it was senior footy today. It was just good to play with the main group."

Brown, who broke his leg in two places after a sickening collision with Matthew Whelan in round 10 last year, said he did not feel tentative or uneasy about putting his body on the line during the challenge practice match.

"I wasn't nervous about today. I was probably more anxious to see how I would go," he said.

"I suppose your instincts take over and everything worked out alright."

Coach Terry Wallace was pleased Brown got through the hit-out without incident.

"He went much better than I thought he would," he said.

"Nathan was a little hesitant last week (in a reserves practice match with Coburg), but there was some good work and signs from him today.

"He was able to win some of his own footy and pulled up okay.

"He is on track to play in round one, but we can't afford hiccups."

Wallace said he was thrilled by the performance of all his players, including the young batch in Cleve Hughes (three goals), Danny Meyer (three goals) and Daniel Jackson (three goals). Jay Schulz switched from defence to attack in the final term and finished with three goals.

The former Bulldogs coach said he was delighted by the way his team ran out the match in extreme heat.

"I thought that both sides put on a good show for the first three quarters, with some good free flowing football," he said.

"They had 12 or 13 blokes out ... a few more than us, so we came here expecting to win the match, but we had to still do it."

Richmond had 15 goalkickers for the match and Mark Coghlan was the leading possession winner with 30 touches (8 kicks and 22 handballs).

Other high possession winners included Chris Hyde (27), Shane Tuck (26), Andrew Krakouer (25), Patrick Bowden (25) and Andrew Raines (24).

The Tigers finished the stronger of the teams with 10 goals in the last term.

For the Bulldogs, Daniel Cross racked up a stack of possessions, rising star Ryan Griffen was impressive, Mitchell Hahn, Matthew Boyd and Jordan McMahon were others to keep the Bulldogs within striking distance in the opening three quarters.

Richmond travels to Carrara to take on Sydney in a challenge practice match next weekend.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Sport/Tigers-Brown-on-track-for-AFL-round-one/2006/03/04/1141191884007.html

[mightytiges]

Great report WP 

Good to hear Krakouer was much better this week and backed up the defensive side of his game with getting his hands on plenty footy in the middle. Rainesy looks like he'll be the surprise packet of 2006 and great to see Blingers in the best players. When our young guys start picking up 20+ disposals it gives you more confidence in them making it. With Sugar to come into the side Wallace will have 10 blokes to rotate onball which is getting towards the number we need. 

[letsgetiton!]

WP ur are a champ !!!

[mightytiges]

Knobel and Pattison rotated through the ruck for the first 3 quarters, with Ray Hall doing a bit of ruck work in the final quarter.

Forgot to ask how did Patto do in the ruck today WP?