Tigers can divide and conquer EaglesMick Malthouse
Sunday Herald Sun
18 Aug 2019Richmond finally has harmony in its forward line and that should worry all its rivals, because an in-sync attack is like having a majority government — it makes it a lot easier to pass a bill.
It’s taken a while, but the Tigers are now using Tom Lynch to full effect by playing him deeper as a lead-up option, with more space in front to hit him on the chest.
By bombing the ball on top of his head earlier in the season, the Tigers put Lynch at a disadvantage against his opponent. Now they look for his lead and know that he can take care of the rest.
Back from injury and match-fit, Jack Riewoldt is the roving tall, playing out of the goalsquare and up the field, anywhere but in the way of Lynch. They don’t need to contest the same ball.
And that is how a successful two-pronged tall attack works — divide and conquer.
Much like Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling at the other end of the ground.
The Eagles duo, when fit, works in tandem beautifully for maximum output, and has done for a while. My only query is Kennedy’s form. At times, he looks tired and sore and overcooked after years of giving it his all.
I expect that he and Darling will put Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes and David Astbury to the test tomorrow in contested marking.
Likewise Lynch and Riewoldt against Jeremy McGovern, Tom Barrass and Will Schofield. The Eagles’ defenders prey on slower, more one-dimensional forwards so they won’t get it their own way against the Tiger talls.
Eventually the game will be settled, like always, in the midfield.
Both so full of class it’s hard to split which midfield will end up on top and I expect it to go to the wire.
Tom Hickey has been outstanding in the absence of Nic Naitanui and Toby Nankervis’s withdrawal could hurt Richmond. I hold Nankervis in the same high regard as Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn.
The inclusion of Dustin Martin, coupled with Dion Prestia, Kane Lambert, and other cameos the Tigers use, will be a match for anything the Eagles throw at them.
Mark Hutchings will most likely tag, while Elliot Yeo, Luke Shuey and Dom Sheed are all match winners.
Richmond can’t afford to lose this game and I think it has September prep written all over it.
Richmond and West Coast haven’t met since Round 9 last year, so tomorrow’s clash is going to be a beauty.
For two teams who are poles apart in game structure, they are unbelievably similar in game stats this year.
In fact, there are only two major stats where they greatly differ, which in turn highlights the structural contrast between the two teams, and could decide the outcome.
The Eagles play a controlled game. Kick to retain the ball.
Richmond’s style looks like controlled chaos. Kick, thump, bash the ball forward at all cost.
Average disposals per game has Richmond tallying 10 per cent higher than when it won the 2017 flag, at 372 per game. West Coast has 353 disposals on average this year.
In the split, that’s 215 kicks and 158 handpasses for the Tigers, and 226 kicks and 128 handpasses for the Eagles.
Richmond goes inside 50m 56 times per game for an average return of 86 points for and 76 points against, compared to West Coast’s inside 50, 50 times, at 88 points for and 75 against.
Clearances are relatively even and contested football numbers are almost identical.
It’s the uncontested football stat where the Tiger’s average numbers are 10 per cent greater than the Eagles and the marking stat where the team from the west has a 10 per cent advantage over the home side.
These stats are parallel to the game styles of the two teams and where their differences are most evident.
West Coast wants a kick and mark game. It wants to control the tempo and the ball and it wants the opposition to do all the hard work in trying to take the ball off them.
Richmond confuses and unsettles its opponent by hammering the ball forward any way it can. It intercepts the football at the contest at a loose ball, by using numbers, pressure, panic and scramble.
Sunday’s game won’t be one for experimentation. The Tigers must win to retain a top-four spot. The Eagles need to start stamping their September authority. So I see them both engaging in tactics that they will employ during finals.
The Tigers have accepted that Alex Rance won’t return this year so the backline is getting on with its job without him. The return of Josh Caddy has given the Tigers a lift.
They’ve won their last seven games and confidence, hunger and momentum is building with finals around the corner.
The Eagles are still teasing us. Of their last eight games they’ve won seven, but they’ve had lapses with a one-point loss to Collingwood, and even against Adelaide last week they let the Crows back into the game.
They are still lacking that steely resolve, though I think it will come. It’s when, that’s the premiership question.
Not this week. Wet weather specialists Richmond by five points, only because of the forecast.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/richmond-duo-tom-lynch-and-jack-riewoldt-can-help-divide-and-conquer-west-coast-writes-mick-malthouse/news-story/2bcbf695754177987dc84637a229c202
