Don’t write us off: Tigers to put stamp on AFL again, says RiewoldtMichael Gleeson
The Age
February 3, 2022 — 11.45amIt’s premature to call an end to Richmond’s era of dominance, with the Tigers determined to put their mark back on the competition this year, veteran Jack Riewoldt says.
And he warned there was a sense that Dustin Martin was determined, like his side, to get back to where he was as the competition’s pre-eminent player before suffering a serious kidney injury last year.
“He’s got a bit of a buzz around him at the moment and I feel like maybe there is a little bit of hunger there to get back to where he was,” Riewoldt said.
“The way we’re using this year will be interesting as well. We may push him into the midfield a little bit more to see if we can get that bull from 2017 back again.”
In a difficult year physically, Martin has also been grieving the death of his father Shane in New Zealand.
After finishing 12th last year, Riewoldt said he understood the discussion around whether it was the start of the fall, but he was confident the Tigers could return to premiership contention.
“I think there’s a real air of excitement around where this group can go. The pundits out there might may write us off and see that 2021 was maybe the start of the downward fall of the Richmond Football Club, but we feel like we’re in a good position,” the full forward said.
“You learn from past experience and obviously 2018 we were flag favourites and were bundled out in the prelim final and I remember Kane Lambert speaking about the year of redemption, and maybe there is a small feel about that, that there is a chance for us to stamp a mark on the competition again.”
At the draft table at the end of last year Richmond put a priority on foot skills and signalled that they recognised the game was shifting. Riewoldt admitted they had spent a lot of time on skills work this pre-season but said the game style and approach would still be fundamentally the same.
“So that’s really exciting. Fundamentally we’ll still play the same way we just looked to hone our craft and make sure that when round one rolls around our skill base is [where it needs to be[. A really great indicator where you’re going to go is how many skill minutes you can get in and we feel like we’ve got a lot in at the moment. ”
Tom Lynch has a small hamstring strain and ran laps at training.
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/don-t-write-us-off-tigers-to-put-stamp-on-afl-again-says-riewoldt-20220203-p59tfh.html
