Hardwick's post-match presser: A 'horrendous game' due to opposition tactics

[one-eyed]

Dimma took aim at opposition tactics. He said it was 'a horrendous game of footy' but there wasn't much he could do in the coaches box when the opposition is flooding back trying to stop scoring with all their players inside our forward 50.

[The Machine]

The Sydney way

[pmac21]

Spot on.

[Tigeritis™©®]

Better ball movement.
Better inside fifty entries.
Increased pressure on the ball carrier.
Forward fifty pressure so force the opposition on turnovers.

It’s only all the things we’ve done in the last three years that has brought us success.
I’m not sure why we are so far away from anything resembling it.

[Diocletian]

Excuses excuses - couldn't score against a shyte team a man down who is also their best mid for most of the game...

[tdy]

Lynch and jack barely took a mark, the feed was terrible, the crumbers were non existent and the few chances we got we rooted.

[Lozza]

Stringing more than three possessions together in a chain might help. Think we have executed about twice this season. At one stage today Dusty with no pressure couldn't nail a two metre handpass and we were immediately under the pump. These guys get paid the big bucks and train and practice the game endlessly but still can't execute basic skills, Dusty is a superstar so I guess he gets scrutinized more than others but this issue is across the board at the moment, frustrating to watch at times.

[one-eyed]

'Farcical': Hardwick blames Swans after 'horrendous game of football'

Daniel Cherny, Andrew Wu
The Age
13 July 2020

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at Sydney counterpart John Longmire for tactics that contributed to Sunday’s “horrendous game of football” at the Gabba.

The Tigers’ 4.10 (34) to 3.8 (26) victory made for the lowest aggregate total in an AFL game since the Brisbane Bears beat Footscray at a boggy Whitten Oval in round 16, 1996.

While wet conditions in Brisbane and shorter quarters contributed to Sunday’s low scores, Hardwick apportioned responsibility for the scrap in the direction of his fellow premiership coach, adding that if games continue to be played in such a manner it is “absolutely” a concern.

“It was a horrendous game of football,” Hardwick said.

“There’s no doubt about that. It was hard to watch, it was hard to play, it was incredibly frustrating. Unfortunately it’s sometimes how games pan out. You have a lot of players in one D50, they can’t get out and we can’t score. I think we had 50 odd inside 50s for what was it, four or five goals. Which is farcical in nature really. Horrible game of football.”

Longmire said the Swans did not deploy an extra player in defence. Callum Mills was able to repeatedly clean up in defence, finishing with a game-high 29 possessions.

"We kept our six defenders, they had an extra up at the ball. Our six defenders played behind the ball. We didn't have seven defenders," Longmire said.

"We didn't go with them, which is what they often want up around the footy. We held our structure and needed to punch through a bit quicker when we got opportunities as well."

But Hardwick disagreed with that assessment.

“We just couldn’t execute to use our spare as well as theirs,” Hardwick said.

“The fact of the matter is the spare’s down there. The ball was played in our half. I think it was 29 forward half turnovers to nine. It was down there for the vast majority of the game.

“I didn’t think we were much chance of scoring, but they were no chance of scoring. I think they got two goals from 50-metre penalties but outside that they kicked one goal for the game.

“There’s not much I can do. We’re attacking, we’ve got 75,000 people in our forward 50. It’s pretty hard. It’s become a tactic in the AFL. Foldback mentality is really keeping sides in games.”

Richmond ruckman Ivan Soldo said that while the game was ugly, it had been a rewarding performance for the undermanned Tigers.

“It was more of a grind. It was a good win. Those are the wins you enjoy, the ones where it was more of a grind,” Soldo said.

Hardwick added that the Tigers could regain defender David Astbury (knee) for next Saturday night’s match against North Melbourne at Metricon Stadium but that Trent Cotchin (hamstring) was at least another week away from returning.

Soldo said the Tigers' depth would be able to cope should the AFL opt to condense matches in the coming weeks.

"It's nothing that we're not ready for," he said.

"It's out of control, it's something we've got to accept."

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/farcical-hardwick-blames-swans-after-horrendous-game-of-football-20200712-p55be6.html

[Tigeritis™©®]

Stringing more than three possessions together in a chain might help. Think we have executed about twice this season. At one stage today Dusty with no pressure couldn't nail a two metre handpass and we were immediately under the pump. These guys get paid the big bucks and train and practice the game endlessly but still can't execute basic skills, Dusty is a superstar so I guess he gets scrutinized more than others but this issue is across the board at the moment, frustrating to watch at times.

[Tigeritis™©®]

We are currently last for inside 50 tackles. 

That means that even Melbourne is doing better than us in one of our most important stats.

If we aren’t prepared to make pressure a priority, especially inside f50 we are kidding ourselves.

[Willy]

We are currently last for inside 50 tackles. 

That means that even Melbourne is doing better than us in one of our most important stats.

If we aren’t prepared to make pressure a priority, especially inside f50 we are kidding ourselves.

Yep. This is the biggest issue we are facing right now.

Our defence is fine and our depleted midfield held up ok on the weekend.

Our forward line sucks right now.   

[sugark]

Might help if our forwards stay home if opposition back 6 are going to maintain their shape, we have extras at the contest and bomb the ball into the 50 only to allow oppo to mark or clean up without pressure.  All opposition teams will do this to us now so we need to plan around beating this poo style, a start would be to get our forwards to also hold and back us in to win the contest.  Cant keep allowing the same thing to happen again, it was Mills yesterday, hawthorn did exactly the same thing to us but had some forwards to beat us, we got sucked too far up the ground

[Lozza]

I don't quite get why we aren't prepared to go man on man inside 50 if need be. At least it's a 50/50 each time and ideally we hold it in there for a bit longer and create a stoppage at worst. The problem with Lynch in there is he is a witches hat at the best of times so if we don't man up opposition defenders then they will continue to just stroll the ball out without any pressure.

I know we like to create space in the forward 50 but if the opposition are going to do what the Swans did then you quickly adapt accordingly not stubbornly do the same thing and say the opposition are trying to stop us scoring, isn't that the point, we have to find another way it's that simple.

[one-eyed]

'Unnecessary and unwarranted': Longmire hits back at Hardwick

Vince Rugari
The Age
13 July 2020

John Longmire has fired back at Richmond coach Damien Hardwick's comments about Sydney's tactics, saying they were "unnecessary", "unwarranted" and bucked the convention of collegiality between coaches.

Longmire's rebuke came as he confirmed Swans star Isaac Heeney would miss the rest of the season after undergoing ankle surgery on Monday. Co-captain Josh Kennedy will miss up to two months due to a medial ligament injury.

Those injuries were contributing factors, Longmire said, to what was the lowest-scoring match in the AFL since 1996 on Sunday as the Swans fell by eight points to the Tigers in rainy conditions at the Gabba.

He dismissed Hardwick's suggestions that Sydney's use of a spare defender made the aesthetics of the match "horrendous" and "farcical in nature".

Longmire said Hardwick called him immediately after his press conference to apologise but the damage was done.

"The comments after the game from Damien were completely unnecessary and unwarranted. They just weren't correct," Longmire said.

"We didn't play an extra defender, Richmond bring a player up around the ball and have been doing it for a long time. We just held our six defenders in place.

"If Damien didn't want to do that, he could have brought his forward back in and just played 6-6-6 and the issue would have been done.

"I'm not sure it's my role to walk up to Damien's coaches box, knock on the door and say 'what would you like us to do?' That's how it happened."

Longmire said he was disappointed Hardwick and other AFL coaches had begun making public comments about other teams.

"I thought that coaches were really collegiate and I was hoping that would still be the case, but we've got to be careful, I reckon, as an industry that we don't drop into this habit of potting other people and finger-pointing," he said.

"It's a bit of a challenging time for all of us and I just think we need to take a deep breath and help each other through this.

"Clearly we want to score more than three goals. There's a few things at play here.

"Damien called me straight after the game, apologised for the comments, which is appreciated, but as I said to Damien, they're out there. Now you've got to have a press conference and talk about it."

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/afl/unnecessary-and-unwarranted-longmire-hits-back-at-hardwick-as-heeney-ruled-out-for-season-20200713-p55bma.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[Knighter]

Fair enough Horse - Dimma just sour grapes that his team were woeful all day.