Tigers confident they can beat anyone, says EdwardsMichael Gleeson
The Age
8 September 2019Fresh off an ominous qualifying final victory over the Lions on Saturday night, midfield star Shane Edwards says Richmond are different and better than last year and have the confidence they can take down any side.
"We've had a different season to last year, last year we were chased all year and didn't really have that many things up against us. This year we have had to find some resilience over our injuries and losses early in the season," Edwards said.
"We are a different team to what we were last year by the fact we have two rucks and we have Lynchy [Tom Lynch] and we don't have Rancey [Alex Rance], so we have had to change a few things.
"We have still got in our toolkit how we played last year, but we are playing a bit differently this year."
Edwards was outstanding in the victory over Brisbane, especially in the third quarter when Richmond rode the momentum shift and opened up the margin to claim victory.
While the Tigers were assailed in the first term by Brisbane, who kicked poorly and did not capitalise on their field dominance, Edwards said Richmond had suffered from the Lions inaccuracy.
He said his side had been unable to get the ball out of their defence, so a Lions goal might have actually helped them in allowing them to re-set.
He said the Tigers now had confidence that sticking to their style would ensure they could prevail against anyone, and that while Brisbane had jumped them, they were sure of themselves in being able to come back at them.
"We know that throughout the year whoever we play, wherever they are on the ladder, the games are an arm wrestle. Rarely do we just blow teams out at the start or do we just kick away without it being an arm wrestle.
"That's the way we play and how we want the game to look, so it's exactly what it was going to be like and that was how it was."
Edwards took a bigger midfield role in the third term when Dustin Martin was sent to the goalsquare. The pair was dominant in the second half in particular.
He said he would ordinarily have rotated more with Martin forward but when the Brownlow medallist was in goal-kicking form, he was hard to shift from the goalsquare.
"Sometimes it's hard to get a swap and Dusty likes kicking goals a lot more than what I do," he said.
"Sometimes you look up and you want a swap and Dusty gives you the 'nup I like it here,' that's just how it pans out. Why wouldn't you want him up forward? Well, why wouldn't you want him on ball? But up forward the way he is playing you leave him there.
"Sometimes he is more useful to us up forward, sometimes on ball."
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/tigers-confident-they-can-beat-anyone-says-edwards-20190908-p52p6r.html
