Gold Coast praccie match - Tigers vs Sydney

[Moi]

Someone on Big Footy said the Tiges will be playing a practice match up at the Gold Coast Saturday week.

Now, i can't imagine anyone on here getting excited over this but thought I'd let ppl know who just might.

I think Jake is up that way - err, and of course Julz lol

[WilliamPowell]

Err going by the response on another thread Moi not as excited as you think

http://oneeyed-richmond.com/forum//index.php?topic=2702.msg29098#msg29098

[Moi]

Oh dear, not going to be happy lol

[one-eyed]

Appears it's confirmed according to ticketmaster:

2006 NAB CHALLENGE

SYDNEY V RICHMOND
CARRARA FOOTBALL STADIUM, QLD
Sat 11 Mar, 7:10PM

http://www.ticketmaster.com.au/search/search.asp?VENUENUM=709&searchtext=CARRARA_STADIUM

[julzqld]

 

Just my luck!  And we organised this weekend away months ago.

[mightytiges]

I heard somewhere that the Swans will be treating this game fairly seriously bringing up to Carrara close to their best side.

Should we do the same to test where we are at at this stage or should we go with mainly youngsters again and give them more AFL gametime this time against the reigining premiers even if we get pumped?

[one-eyed]

Swans & Tigers for NAB Challenge at Carrara
aflq.com.au

The Sydney Swans, fairytale AFL premiers of 2005, will head to the Gold Coast next week to meet the Richmond Tigers in the NAB Regional Challenge.

The Swans-Tigers showdown at Carrara on Saturday night, 11 March (7.10pm) was confirmed by the AFL today, giving Queensland AFL fans their first look at the Swans since they broke a 72-year premiership drought when they beat the West Coast Eagles by four points in the 2005 AFL grand final.

It could also see a homecoming for Richmond’s ex-Gold Coast trio of Trent Knobel, Andrew Raines and Luke McGuane.

Ruckman Knobel (pictured), is now established in the senior side. Originally from Broadbeach and now 25, he has played a total of 72 AFL games with Brisbane, St.Kilda and Richmond, including 18 with the Tigers last year after switching from Moorabbin.

Midfielder Raines, the son of ex-AFL champion Geoff Raines and a Southport product, will look to consolidate a senior spot this year after playing one AFL game late in 2004 and adding a further six senior appearances last year.

Utility player McGuane, a Queensland Under 18 representative drafted from Broadbeach in 2004, will look to break into the top side after spending most of his first season with the Tigers on the sideline with a badly broken arm.

Tickets for the Sydney-Richmond game will go on sale immediately – they are available from all Ticketmaster outlets and on-line at ticketmaster.com.au.

Prices are:-

General Admission Tickets
Adults - $12.80
Juniors (6-14) - $3.10
Children (U6) – free
Concession - $7.80
Family (2A&2C) - $35.60

Reserved Seating
Adults - $22.80
Juniors (6-14) - $8.10
Children (U6) – $6.10
Concession - $17.80
Family (2A&2C) - $57.80

Also, match organisers have confirmed that the free shuttle buses, which carried a heavy load in transporting patrons to Carrara from Nerang Railway Station and Surfers Paradise via Broadbeach and Pacific Fair, will be in operation again.

Confirmation of the two teams for the NAB Challenge match completes the list of 16 AFL matches to be played in south-east Queensland this year – four at Carrara and 12 at the Gabba.

Sydney and Richmond each will now make the first of two visits to Queensland next week, joining Adelaide, Essendon, Hawthorn and Melbourne as twin travellers to the Sunshine State.

Carlton, Fremantle, Geelong, St.Kilda, Western Bulldogs and West Coast will play once in Queensland, leaving Collingwood, the Kangaroos and Port Adelaide as the only three clubs not to venture north this year.

http://aflq.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&aid=103661

[H Tiger]

I hope we take it seriously MT.

I don't want to pay my hard earned to see us get spanked by the Ducks (even if it is only a practice match).

However if we played a lot of kids and they showed me they could be competitive, that would be even better.

Will post a report of the game.

HT

[one-eyed]

Tigers wary of improving Swans
ABC site
Thursday, March 9, 2006. 10:43am (AEDT)

 Richmond coach Terry Wallace says he is treating this weekend's AFL challenge match with the Sydney Swans as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming premiership season.

 The Tigers will meet the reigning premiers at Carrara on the Gold coast this Saturday night.

 Wallace said he felt his side could give a good account of themselves against Sydney's experienced line-up.

 "We were able to knock them over at the MCG last year so we've always played fairly well against them, but obviously they're a very developed squad and getting stronger as the summer months go," he said.

 Wallace said although the Swans lost by 31 points to the Kangaroos in the first round of the AFL preseason cup, he believed they were not far away from the form that won them last year's premiership.

 "I actually had a look at them play in a practice match down in Melbourne last week and they're just starting to get back to the real strength that they had in the grand final last year," he said.

 Meanwhile, the AFL will use a limited trial of allowing boundary and goal umpires to award free kicks in the preseason challenge match between St Kilda and the Western Bulldogs at Princes Park on Friday.

 The boundary and goal umpires will be restricted to making decisions on issues such as throwing the ball, pushing players in the back and illegal blocking.

 The AFL said the trial was aimed at assessing whether the boundary and goal umpires could pay free kicks that were not able to be seen by the field umpire.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1587491.htm

[one-eyed]

Thanks to Julz and Moi:

Raines returns home
Gold Coast Bulletin
9Mar06

RICHMOND coach Terry Wallace yesterday had some good news and some bad news for Tigers fans on the Gold Coast.

The good news is Richmond will be bringing their strongest possible squad north for the NAB Regional Challenge match against reigning premiers Sydney at Gold Coast Stadium on Saturday night.

The unfortunate advice from Wallace though was that only one of his three Gold Coast products currently at Richmond, utility Andrew Raines, will get to play in front of home-town fans.

The other two, ruckman Trent Knobel and tall utility Luke McGuane, will be turning out with Richmond's reserves in Melbourne.

Knobel is not far enough advanced in his pre-season program, said Wallace, and teenager McGuane is still on the 'improvers' list.

"Trent has played only 50 minutes of footy so far, so he will be in the reserves," said Wallace.

"And Luke is just not at that selection level yet, even though he's developing nicely.

"But Rainsey will definitely be playing. He really is playing some good footy."

Wallace said he is treating Saturday night's clash as 'almost a full dress rehearsal' for the start of the season in three weeks.

He welcomed news from Sydney the Swans are likely to name 19 players from last year's grand final side for the Carrara engagement as they, too, go for as strong a squad as possible.

"That's good because they were obviously the benchmark last year even though we did beat them in Melbourne in our only match," he said.

"At this stage of the year it's a great opportunity for us to see where we stand.

"Obviously they're playing a fairly full squad and we're playing a fairly full squad, so hopefully that makes for a good game."

Star forward Nathan Brown, on the way back from a broken leg last season, will 'definitely' be playing against Sydney, as will other Richmond headliners Matthew Richardson, Joel Bowden and skipper Kane Johnson.

Wallace agreed the pre-season match should provide the AFL with a good guide of what to expect later this year when two premiership matches are played at Gold Coast Stadium.

The AFL was very pleased with the 13,000 fans who watched the Brisbane-Essendon NAB Cup match last month, but they will be watching this weekend's exercise more closely.

"You have two teams, one of them the premiers, so you think there'd be a bit of interest in it," said Wallace.

"If people are legitimately keen to see AFL matches played in southeast Queensland on a weekly basis, then they should support this one."

Ticket sales for the match have been 'good', according to organisers. Prices are $12.80 for general admission and $22.80 for reserved seats.

[one-eyed]

Tigers boosted by return of key players
12:50:27 PM Thu 9 March, 2006
Tony Greenberg
richmondfc.com.au

Richmond will be close to full strength when it takes on reigning premier Sydney in a practice match at the Brisbane Bears' old home ground Carrara this Saturday night.

The Tigers, coming off a 78-point victory over the Western Bulldogs at Shepparton last weekend, will regain the services of key players such as captain Kane Johnson, Matthew Richardson, Chris Newman, Troy Simmonds and Greg Stafford, for the clash with the Swans.

"We'll be taking a much stronger squad up there," said Richmond's Football Operations Manager Paul Armstrong.

"The guys that we rested last week will all play, along with the experienced players who returned to the line-up last week - Gaspar, Kellaway, Coughlan, Brown, etc.

"From all reports, Sydney will have a fairly strong side in, so that will be a good test for us up against the reigning premiers.

"We're looking forward to playing at Carrara and seeing how the facilities have apparently improved since footy was last played there a decade or so ago.

"It'll be an interesting exercise as far as the AFL's concerned as to whether football on the Gold Coast will attract a crowd in a game that doesn't involve the Lions. I think that's the basic reason behind why we're playing there."

With Richmond scheduled to play six games interstate this season, the Club believes the trip to Queensland this weekend will prove most beneficial.

"The more our guys get used to traveling the better," Armstrong said.

"You tend to think that traveling interstate as a group is good for the bonding amongst the guys . . .

"We're going to stay in Brisbane on the Friday night, get a bus down to Carrara on the Saturday, play the game, and then stay in Brisbane Saturday night, before returning home on Sunday morning."

The 28-man Richmond squad for Saturday night's match against Sydney at Carrara is:

Richmond squad: Chris Newman , Darren Gaspar, Brett Deledio, Andrew Raines, Troy Simmonds, Nathan Brown, Thomas Roach, Greg Stafford, Joel Bowden, Matthew Richardson, Trent Knobel, Patrick Bowden, Kane Johnson, Ray Hall, Shane Tuck, Daniel Jackson, Mark Coughlan, Jay Schulz, Adam Pattison, Andrew Krakouer, Richard Tambling, Chris Hyde, Greg Tivendale, Brent Hartigan, Cleve Hughes, Andrew Kellaway, Nathan Foley, Jeremy Humm

In: Newman, Simmonds, Stafford, Joel, Richo, Johnson
Out: Polo, Rodan, Limbach, Meyer, White, Thursfield, McGuane

Sydney squad: Leo Barry, Craig Bolton, Jude Bolton, Amon Buchanan, Paul Chambers, Nick Davis, Sean Dempster, Stephen Doyle, Nic Fosdike, Adam Goodes, Heath Grundy, Barry Hall, Darren Jolly, Brett Kirk, Jarrad McVeigh, Nick Malceski, Ben Mathews, Jarred Moore, Ryan O'Keefe, Michael O'Loughlin, Ted Richards, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Tim Schmidt, Adam Schneider, David Spriggs, Luke Vogels, Paul Williams.

http://afl.com.au/?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=250168
http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=250156

[WilliamPowell]

Sydney are supposed to be playing 19 blokes from the premiership side (that's what Tezza said last night) so it should be a good game.

The Tigers not going will be playing in the Coburg praccy game this week

[PuntRdRoar]

Anyone know of any radio station in queensland thats covering it...maybe we can get internet audio of the game!

thanx
ramps

[julzqld]

In the Gold Coast Bulletin its says that Knobel isn't playing???  Do they do a radio broadcast of a practice match?

[bluey_21]

Why is Pets sitting out again?