Despite loss, Tigers stick to the plan
By Lyall Johnson
The Age
April 7, 2006
DESPITE making three changes to the line-up that was thumped by the Western Bulldogs, Richmond assistant coach Brian Royal said the club would not be doing anything different in an attempt to perform against St Kilda tonight.
After a poor showing against the Bulldogs, the Tigers will remain focused on the systems and strategies they practised over the summer. The club believes those plans can work provided the players can perform to the level required.
"St Kilda is a very, very good side and certainly they will be wanting to come out and win tomorrow night because they lost last week," Royal said yesterday.
"It's just important that we continue to play in the manner that we want to play. We're going to be doing nothing different, we spent a lot of time over the pre-season with our game plan and the way we want to play and that's what we expect.
"It didn't happen last week (but) we'll be continuing to reinforce what we have coached over the last probably six months."
The Tigers received a drubbing in just about every key performance area and were even accused by Bulldog Ryan Griffen of fighting among themselves and giving up after half-time.
Royal said the players had got over the loss fairly quickly and that the attitude on the training track had been positive.
"It's been terrific all week … and we're really looking forward to a strong performance. Actions speak louder than words, don't they, and the way they perform (against St Kilda) is going to be the way you judge that," he said.
Nathan Brown again did very little of yesterday's session, the Tigers happy for him to rest on the day prior to matches.
But Royal said it was unlikely the club could get Brown to agree to a James Hird-style situation of being eased through the year. "In three weeks' time we'll just have to sit down with Nathan and see how he's going. But I'd be suspecting at this stage that Nathan would continue to play."
The Tigers have named Greg Stafford despite doubts over his availability, while during the final drill of yesterday's training session, full-back Darren Gaspar collided with a teammate and appeared to injure the knee he had to have reconstructed two years ago. But Gaspar recovered to complete the session.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/06/1143916657177.html
