A great excerpt from the book about the comeback Prelim Final win over Geelong
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The half-time speech is always the briefest of any match. The pre-game speech is prepared well in advance, with a week-long window to design a video or plan a theme or bring in a prop. The post-game speech can be lengthy, too, given the totality and completeness of a win or a loss; but at half-time, everything is still in play, in flux, yet to be determined. And time is short. In this instance, the speech is not even two minutes long. Hardwick needs just 117 seconds to state the plan, to make them believe in the plan, and to believe in themselves. He starts slowly, and with nuts and bolts.
“Defensively, we’ve gotta press up. I don’t want us fanning back. Make them come through us. Next half we’re all coming up. We’re all in their faces. Think about what it looks like…and feels like.”
He talks next about offence. “Where do we want our attack coming from? The mids and the backs or the mids and the forwards? Yeah, the mids and the backs. So what are our expectations of the forwards? Yeah, get forward.”
Having settled on the strategy, he comes to inspiration.
“We’re in the Bottleneck. We’ve got a half. We get an opportunity,” he says. “We can sit there and do nothing, or we can go down the Richmond way! Let’s get back to what we know! Let’s get back to who we are! Understand every single one of us is on them, on them, on them! We go down by a hundred, or we win!”
Eight seconds. That’s how long it takes for the game to turn, for the balance to tip. The ball is bounced in the middle, it falls to the perennially bloodied Joel Selwood, who handballs wide to the running ruckman Rhys Stanley, but Cotchin—like a heat-seeking missile—has been stalking Stanley since before the handball was even released. The ballistic captain collides with his target, spins him and dumps him and wins the free kick, but the ball has already bobbled to Josh Caddy, who feeds a handball forward to Prestia, whose nimble feet scurry and purr as he squares up his body and delivers a long, low and luscious drop punt to Lynch, who marks with outstretched arms, then kicks his third. The comeback has begun, filled with great Richmond way moments.
Read the full excerpt here: https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/2019-11-12/excerpt-from-stronger-and-bolder-by-konrad-marshall
