Author Topic: Richmond sweat on fitness of premiership stars for opening round (Age)  (Read 420 times)

Offline one-eyed

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Richmond sweat on fitness of premiership stars for opening round

Peter Ryan
The Age
9 March 2018


Richmond could be forced to make four changes to their premiership team in round one as they sweat on the fitness of midfielder Dion Prestia and Bachar Houli.

With Nathan Broad serving a club-imposed suspension in the first three rounds and Daniel Rioli unlikely to be ready by round one after ankle surgery from an injury suffered in the grand final, several spots could be available for the season opener against Carlton.

Although Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was cautiously optimistic Prestia and Houli would be available by round one he admitted they were still touch and go at this stage as they look to overcome minor soft-tissue injuries.

Hardwick said they were willing to take a cautious approach with Prestia to ensure he was able to play without any issues once he returned.

''We just have to make sure he is right and ready to go," Hardwick said.

"Has he played enough footy? We have to make that call at some stage.

"We know he is going to be a good player for us this year. We just have to wait and see how it pans out."

He said Houli, who was close to best on ground in the grand final, was in a similar boat as Prestia after he missed Wednesday night's game against North Melbourne with calf soreness.

"It is just a [matter of] wait and see," Hardwick said.

"[He] played a half last week [and] pulled up OK. We weren't quite prepared to push the envelope this week so he will do some training this week and put his hand up."

With talented small forward Shai Bolton in line to replace Rioli if he can maintain the forward pressure he displayed in the opening JLT Community Series game and Reece Conca shaping as a natural replacement for Broad, the Tigers will have to dig deeper into their list if Prestia and Houli don't come up.

Corey Ellis and Jayden Short, who were both emergencies in the grand final, would be candidates to replace Houli while Sam Lloyd has spent pre-season training with the midfield group and may get a chance if Prestia falls short.

With 15 days between their final JLT game and their opening match, Hardwick said the Tigers were likely to play an intra-club match as a final tune-up.

Despite the list's relatively good health and their dominant pre-season, where they defeated Essendon and North Melbourne by a combined margin of 157 points, Hardwick preached caution to those reading too much into the results.

"The scoreboard would indicate we're going OK. We're not quite going as well as we'd like," Hardwick said.

Richmond are conscious they selected close to a full-strength team against a disappointing Essendon, which had been weakened by a bout of gastro in the lead-up to the game at Wangaratta, while the Kangaroos are a developing team that is not expected to be in premiership contention.

With just two JLT Community Series games leading into the season, the Tigers will not get a chance to see what the better-credentialled teams will throw at them until mid-season as they only play one team from last year's top eight in the first nine rounds.

They meet the Crows in the grand final rematch at the Adelaide Oval in round two after unfurling the flag before playing Carlton in the traditional season opener at the MCG on March 22.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-sweat-on-fitness-of-premiership-stars-for-opening-round-20180308-p4z3i6.html

Offline Rodgerramjet

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Obviously this sensationalist doesn't believe we have any depth
The lips of Wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding.

Offline Tiger Tragic

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"Richmond are conscious they selected close to a full-strength team against a disappointing Essendon, which had been weakened by a bout of gastro in the lead-up to the game at Wangaratta, while the Kangaroos are a developing team that is not expected to be in premiership contention."

Just like last year, they like to make excuses to discount our wins.  That's fine, happy to fluke our way to another premiership.

Offline Gracie

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Yep fluked our way to 7 wins on the trot by an average 62points