Why the Tigers are flaggingMichael Gleeson
The Age
26 June 2020Richmond won two flags based on a system of play, a passion to play and an ephemeral feel-good connection between players.
This year's flagging form, not flag form, might be as simple to explain yet difficult to fix as the season itself.
The broken continuity of the season and the training restrictions all inform the idea of what is hampering the Tigers.
First the problem, and yes the sample size of a few games is small but the game they have played has looked unlike anything of Richmond in recent years. A few numbers illustrate the point: Richmond have scored a combined 32 points in the first half over the past two rounds, their lowest scores over two weeks since rounds 18-19, 2016.
They have scored a combined two points in first quarters in the past two rounds. Two. It's their lowest amount over two weeks since rounds 16-17, 1961.
OK, you can have bad quarters and slow starts but their scoring percentage for inside 50s - less than 20 per cent - is the worst it’s been in 20 years.
Jack Riewoldt is out of form and Tom Lynch has had one good quarter. They are not alone and Damien Hardwick was right to say the midfield delivery of the ball was horrible. So, too, is the effort of the small forwards and the pressure everywhere bar the back line has gone.
The concern is not about results or statistics – though these are mediocre at best – it is that Richmond, especially since the break, have not looked like Richmond.
In the search for answers key explanations could be that Richmond are suffering from the lengthy break in the season, the absence of crowds and the enforced distance between players in training.
A former Richmond player felt two things were especially important to Richmond’s success. Their game is built on their system and on effort. And both are missing.
The effort to execute a high-energy, high-intensity game has not been up to the levels needed for it to be effective. Their offence is based on pressure and knocking the ball forward and gaining territory and opportunity.
This could be as simple, yet out of their control, as the fact there are no crowds. Richmond are used to playing in front of 70,000 people each week and they feed off the crowd for energy. It is harder to be aroused for high energy in front of a stadium that would embarrass a Sheffield shield match.
There is no doubt when the Richmond crowd is in full voice their players lift so the converse must surely also be true.
The other point is that the most system-based teams, the teams whose games are based most fundamentally on connection and understanding of where each player will be and what part each player performs in the total construct, are West Coast and Richmond. Both are struggling.
The impact on training from physical distancing measures, from the fragmenting into small training groups and limits on the number of contact sessions the teams can have looks to have hurt the system-based teams.
When you can’t train and constantly drill the system it breaks down and Richmond and West Coast’s game are not functioning as they usually do.
“Damien Hardwick and Justin Leppitsch play a highly systemised game,” an analyst from another club said.
“Richmond and West Coast are the most highly systemised teams and you have to train that constantly and they have not been able to do that. There are other reasons for West Coast struggling not just the interruption to training – they are in a hub and it’s been dewy and slippery and they play a high-ball marking game – but the ability to train your system is really important.
“In season you train system not decision-making and they are not training their system as they normally would."
The lack of connection in training affects the system yet it also disrupts the more profound idea of the connection between Richmond players.
This is a team that has attributed a large part of its success to mindfulness, to the connection and bond between players. That connection has been disrupted because like all of us they were in isolation and now they are physically distanced at training.
There is also truth in Hardwick's observation that shorter quarters are hurting the most physically robust teams like his because Richmond's strength has been their ability to score late in quarters when the opposition is tiring.
There is also a more basic explanation that it is about personnel - Dusty Martin was missing last week and Alex Rance is gone. Because Richmond won the flag without Rance last year the assumption was his absence had been covered – and certainly their defence has held up well – but you don’t lose an elite player without it having an impact.
Hardwick is correct that the sky is not falling at Punt Road after a couple of bad games, but dark clouds are gathering.
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/why-the-tigers-are-flagging-20200626-p556h5.html
