Injured stars, depth exposed, Dusty down: Where to for ailing Tigers?April 1, 2019 2:44pm
Matt Balmer
FOX SPORTSBefore the season had even begun there were many jumping on the ‘Tiger train’, suggesting Richmond would claim their second premiership in three years.
And it wasn’t just the hundreds of thousands of Richmond fans singing their praise, but the AFL captains who declared the Tigers were the club most likely to reach the Grand Final, other then their own team.
However, a disastrous two week period has seen the Tigers lose one of their most crucial players in Alex Rance to a season-ending knee injury, star forward Jack Riewoldt ruled (wrist) out for a month, and reliable defender Dylan Grimes to sit out their huge Round 3 clash with GWS due to suspension.
So where to now for Richmond?
Is it season-over for Damien Hardwick’s men before the season has really begun? Or can the Tigers recover and contend for the flag as many expected coming into the year?
A host of former players are split on their views — but so far nobody is willing to write them off completely.
“I still think they’re a contender, certainly, I’m not going to write them off yet,” St Kilda great Leigh Montagna told AFL Tonight on Friday.
“But it certainly does make things a lot more difficult, obviously the next month or so without Jack Riewoldt in particular.
“But once they get him back and obviously Grimes back from suspension, they’ll still be thereabouts but there were some concerning signs last night (Thursday) if you’re a Tigers fans.”
KEY PILLARS TO RICHMOND’S SUCCESS‘ALEX RANCE IS THE SYSTEM’There’s no doubting five-time All-Australian Alex Rance is a key player in the Tigers’ premiership structure, with Fox Footy analyst David King noting how important the defender is to the 2017 premiership team.
“I went to that game [against Collingwood] just to watch the Richmond back six and see how much they missed this guy,” King told SEN on Saturday.
“The vision that we will show on Wednesday night on [AFL] 360 will mirror the exact same instances of positions where the ball is on a wing or going inside 50. With Rance there it is such a different look, he doesn’t cover a man, he covers five men from the opposition. He’s constant, you can’t replace him.
“I stopped short of saying it last Monday with you [Gerard Whateley] and Wednesday [on AFL 360] that he is the system and it got endorsed on Thursday night. They are going to be picked apart down back.”
DEPTH PLAYERS MAKE THE NEXT STEPOne strength of Richmond’s 2017 premiership was their remarkable depth. While the AFL team played off in the Grand Final, their VFL side also contended and were one kick away from victory.
But they will be severely tested without Rance, Riewoldt and Grimes this weekend against the Giants. The likes of youngsters Ryan Garthwaite, Oleg Markov and Noah Balta have just been given an even bigger task in a season where nothing has gone right for the Tigers.
Making matters worse, the Tigers lost a number of their depth players over the off-season, including 2018 J.J Liston Trophy winner Anthony Miles — who is now playing at Gold Coast.
Reece Conca, Anthony Miles, Corey Ellis, Sam Lloyd and Tyson Stengle moved clubs over the summer, taking their valuable experience elsewhere.
“They’re going to go with the same system, lesser players just get things wrong,” King explained.
“They don’t have the speed to recover, they’ve got things wrong or they don’t have the same trust. So three players fly instead of just one spoil and the third man in, you have three in the air. The overlap goal, there’s a classic overlap goal that we will show on Wednesday night, if Rance is there it doesn’t happen.
“It’s an easy statement to make. But when we show the exact same play mirrored then your understanding at the challenge at hand, this guy is a walk up Hall of Famer. You can’t replace them and Richmond know that.
“They’ve operated on the back of four stars and a stack of role players. Now one of the stars goes down and they lose another for a month, it is hard to get role players to play marquee roles given their absence. That’s the challenge.
“Damien Hardwick has got the absolute most of this group. This is a totally different challenge and I think he’s going to go to most gun fights with a knife.”
DUSTY AND FELLOW MIDFIELDERS NEED TO LIFTWithout two of their key personnel at either end, the onus is on the Tigers midfield to lift according to King.
Dustin Martin has had a down start to the season, with just 18 disposals in the blockbuster Round 2 clash against Collingwood, suggesting his rise could come at a great time to coincide with a Richmond lift.
“Now we see them without two of their pillars, it does come back to their midfield. They’ve been a pretty poor clearance team in the last few seasons, so they’ve got to elevate,” King said.
“It’s not that Dustin has to become Dustin again. [Kane] Lambert needs to get back to where he was, Dusty goes up 10 per cent. They need Prestia more than they’ve ever needed him.
“It’s a group thing. It’s on their midfield now. They need to protect their back six.”
However, Kane Cornes was stoic in his belief that Martin needed to dramatically lift as soon as possible, to give the side an injection.
“He’s supposedly one of the best players in the game. You’ve paid him 1.2 million [dollars], he needs to get back to that. I think the whole side needs an injection of something,” he told SEN.
“Cotchin needs to get back to that 25 [disposals], eight tackles and clearances. Edwards, Lambert the same. They need their absolute best out of their best players.”
The next four weeks will make or break the Tigers’ season, but after the many surprises in the last handful of seasons, the premiership race still remains wide open with Richmond yet to be ruled out.
ALL IS NOT LOST: MAGPIES AND EAGLES SUFFERED PAIN IN 2018Both Collingwood and West Coast made the Grand Final in 2018.
But neither team were at full strength for majority of the season, with premiers West Coast arguably missing a number of their crucial players for the Grand Final.
For the Magpies, their horror run of injuries begun when Tyson Goldsack tore his ACL in a practice match in March. Darcy Moore’s season was limited after continued hamstring setbacks, as was small forward Jamie Elliott who is lighting it up in 2019 after missing the 2018 decider through injury.
Matt Scharenberg ruptured his ACL against Richmond on the MCG — and the list goes on, with more than a handful of players on the Magpies’ injury list by the time September rolled around.
And then there was the Eagles, losing ruckman Nic Naitanui during the season, which was supposed to start a decline for West Coast, after he ruptured his ACL.
Tall forwards Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling were injured during various stages of the season, while Jeremy McGovern nearly didn’t get up for the Grand Final after a horrible back knock in the Preliminary Final.
Two crucial Eagles Brad Sheppard (injury) and Andrew Gaff (suspension) didn’t play in the Grand Final either.
If there’s a model for Richmond to look out, it’s the adversity the Pies and Eagles went through in 2018.
PRIZED RECRUIT TO TAKE CONTROL INSIDE 50Alex Rance was quoted in 2018 that he wasn’t super keen on Richmond bringing in another key forward in Tom Lynch, as it would play with their structure.
But there’s no better time for the former Gold Coast Suns co-captain to step up and lead the Tigers forward line.
Lynch has booted six goals in two matches for Richmond, but will now draw the opposition’s No. 1 defender as Jack Riewoldt sits on the sidelines for the next month due to injury.
“He needs to earn his pay check now, Tom Lynch,” Montagna said.
“He’s had a couple of games to ease himself back into a bit of form and fitness, having Jack Riewoldt alongside him.
“But now he’s going to have to be the main focal point so it’s going to be interesting to see how he goes (over) the next month.
“There’s been a lot of hype about Tom Lynch and we’re gonna see if he can deliver.”
UN-RICHMOND LIKE PERFORMANCE AGAINST PIESCollingwood fell just short of a record for most marks in a game against Richmond on Thursday night, employing a tactic where they chipped the ball around and didn’t allow for the Tigers to get the numbers back.
And while some were quick to pot the Tigers for laying just 33 tackles in what was a match where they laid their lowest pressure since 2017, King explained the game style employed by the Pies wouldn’t allow for the Tigers to tackle.
“I think everyone will look at that and the Dogs did it late last year in the season. Most teams are looking to do that but Richmond have been so good in not allowing teams to mark, therefore that eight mark chain. I think that’s a constant arm wrestle, Richmond are trying to get it into chaos,” he said.
“If they haven’t got Rance, make them defend for longer. If you don’t have Riewoldt for a month, it makes it even harder. Grimes is not going to be there next week so things are going to be challenging. We hadn’t seen them without Rance for five years.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-2019-what-next-for-preseason-premiership-favourites-richmond/news-story/b0ad9b63ce9ee365fb5519d26c85ad8b
