WHY THERE IS A SENSE OF FAMILIARITY ABOUT RICHMOND’S SEASONBy Andrew Slevision
SEN
26 May 2021The 2021 season, so far, hasn’t panned out perfectly for the Richmond Football Club.
There has been a smattering of off-field incidents, a few cups of apparent hubris, a teaspoon or two of ‘whinging’, a dose of injury, and a sprinkle of subpar form.
But that would be a pessimist’s view.
There has also been a tablespoon of youth development and just a few ounces of previous premiership form.
When it comes to the Tigers, it is seldom a five-star work of art that feeds the masses, yet a rustic combination of chaos, system and sacrifice that draws the crowds and gets the results.
This year, yet again, the Tigers have some key operators recovering on the sidelines as they strive to keep the win-loss ratio in the positive.
That’s the way it has settled after 10 rounds with the reigning premiers at 5-5.
Pondering this scenario brings with it a sense of familiarity.
Cast your memory back to the last two seasons in particular, and there are many similarities to this year.
While pre-bye stats read well for the Tigers, it is the post-bye numbers that would sweeten the current taste in the mouths of the faithful.
Since 2017, prior to their forced in-season break, the Tigers are running with a winning rate of just under 63% with a 39-1-22 win-draw-loss record. Their percentage during that time is 111%.
After the bye things usually pan out quite well. The record stands at an enviable 37-6 with a winning rate of 86% and a healthy percentage of 142%.
That’s a winning increase of 23% after enjoying the week off.
That form improvement tends to come with the return of those who have been rehabbing and preparing for the ensuing onslaught.
In 2019, Trent Cotchin missed a chunk of games before the bye, Jack Riewoldt missed almost three months, ruckman Toby Nankervis had his season cut in half and Jayden Short was out for 10 matches, not to mention Alex Rance who went down in Round 1.
Last year, it was again captain Cotchin who spent time on the sidelines, Bachar Houli and Shane Edwards missed bulk matches for family reasons, key defender David Astbury was out for more than two months, Dion Prestia didn’t play between Round 5 and the Qualifying Final, and Nankervis again was restricted.
2021 has had Cotchin, Prestia, Edwards, Kane Lambert, Nick Vlastuin and Shai Bolton all out at some point or even still injured and ruckman Ivan Soldo continues to rehab from a knee injury sustained pre-finals last year.
You can now add Tom Lynch to that list.
Former assistant coach Justin Leppitsch touched on the significance of the situation, which has the Tigers attempting to pick up wins while well below their best from a personnel point of view.
“It’s about banking wins,” Leppitsch said on SEN’s Whateley.
“You want wins against Richmond at the moment. Your call the rest of the competition, don’t let them bank wins.
“When all these names start coming back, Prestia, Cotchin and co., they’re going to be harder to play against.”
The aforementioned injury list has also given the chance to blood some youth, such as Riley Collier-Dawkins, Rhyan Mansell and Hugo Ralphsmith, who Damien Hardwick referred to as “solid gems”.
Leppitsch explained the importance of such a scenario.
“Let’s not forget it was only 12 months ago, Shane Edwards didn’t really join the hub til late which gave Shai Bolton that opportunity,” he added.
“He ended up becoming a very good player and was top five in the B&F.
“David Astbury had a massive injury and that gave Noah Balta the opportunity to solidify a spot. Now he’s a regular member of that team.
“You just take those two for example from last year, you can find a new player. It’s great to do that. Richmond have got a lot of opportunity to test those waters.”
The Tigers weren’t expected to beat Brisbane at the Gabba last Friday. It was seen that they would be happy to come home at 5-5 ahead of winnable matches against Adelaide and Essendon.
Then they will enjoy the week off before reloading with all their top players back fit, just as they’ve done in the past.
David King acknowledges that the Tigers are capable of serving up something similar once again.
“If you have a look at Richmond of 2019, they had about six star-factor players on the sidelines, and they made a decision as a football club to play the next six rounds and hopefully split 3-3,” he said on SEN SA Breakfast.
“Even if it was 2-4 it wasn’t a disaster. Just stay afloat. They ended up falling out of the top eight at about Round 13 or 14, and then the players started to return. They started to get healthy and they said, ‘let’s channel our energies into the back half of the year’.
“They ended up winning their last nine home and away games, and obviously the three finals, winning the flag. They went on a run of 12 in a row.
“This season is shaping exactly the same. They’re going to come with a rush.”
Richmond, ironically, find themselves sitting in ninth position ahead of Round 11 but if they can bank the Ws against the Crows and Bombers, then the second half of the season appears appetising.
Leppitsch knows intimately that Hardwick will be using that past as a symbol of hope for the playing group.
“Damien will draw on those experiences of 2019,” he said further.
“Every year is different, but they’ve experienced that so they can know, ‘yeah, we actually have come from a first half of the season where we’ve been relatively even on the win-loss ladder and the losses have been pretty bad, but we’ve somehow turned it around, got our troops back and made an assault on the back half of the year’.
“They’ve got that in the bank, so they’ve got a bit of an advantage over other teams that haven’t done that.”
It has been anything but perfect so far for the three-time flag winners but there is a sense of familiarity about what is currently taking place.
The assumption among some is that history will somewhat repeat itself.
Only time will tell.
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/05/26/why-there-is-a-sense-of-familiarity-about-richmonds-season/
