Tiger midfield lacking depth, speed & star power [merged]

[one-eyed]

THEY DON’T HAVE THE STAR POWER”: THE AREA OF CONCERN THAT WILL TROUBLE RICHMOND IN 2022

BY SEN
20 March 2022

Richmond have been forced to re-evaluate their midfield dynamic after being smashed by Carlton’s on-ball unit in Thursday night’s 25-point loss.

That clash was decided at the stoppage, with Carlton winning the clearance count 40-22 and the inside 50 count 64-40, numbers that don’t bode well for the Tigers particularly with Dion Prestia facing a period on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

With Prestia now out, plus the likes of Brandon Ellis and Jack Higgins departing the club in recent off-seasons, Kane Cornes expects a lack of star power and depth on-ball to hold back the Tigers as they look to return to finals in 2022.

“I’m worried about their depth, and I have been for some time,” Cornes said on AFL.com.au’s The Round So Far.

“I didn’t quite get the hype around them in the pre-season, many predicted them to bounce back up the ladder, but they can’t because they don’t have a midfield that can compete with the best eight midfields in the game.

“You see the lack of influence … Prestia gets injured again, he’s played 18 games in the last two years with reoccurrences of soft-tissue injuries.

“Trent Cotchin has been on the decline now for two years to be fair.

“They have a B+ ruckman in Toby Nankervis, but he’s not a (Brodie) Grundy, he’s not a (Max) Gawn.

“They’ve got concerns all over the field, Richmond, but with the likes of (Shane) Edwards at 33 and Graham is a good workhorse, but they don’t have the star power that other midfields do.

“I think that’s going to really trouble them this year.”

While depth was a key pillar behind Richmond’s three premierships in 2017, ’19 and ’20, a raft of retirements and departures in recent years has significantly reduced their quantity of AFL ready players.

AFL Media’s Riley Beveridge believes that concern was highlighted in the club’s VFL practice match thrashing also at the hands of Carlton on Thursday.

“You mention the lack of depth, I wondered down to the VFL practice match on Thursday,

“They (Richmond) were down by 100 points to Carlton at three-quarter time … that was reflective of that lack of depth.”

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/03/20/they-dont-have-the-star-power-the-area-of-concern-that-will-trouble-richmond/

[Francois Jackson]

Cornes is spot on. I share those sentiments and never bought into we can bounce back and challenge rhetoric.

How can we possibly challenge if no one steps up to consistently aid the older guys? Not going to happen and we wanted to challenge we should have opted for experienced mids like lepibski in the draft. We really missed an opportunity as jack Ross  types will get you nowhere

[eliminator]

Ageing midfield are a real problem.

[Willy]

Cornes is stating the obvious.

[georgies31]

He's stating the obvious,  but gez you must be blind Freddy not to see this coming we won 3 flags in 4 year period we took our era with both hands unlike chokers Port if you don't know we're in a transition period we'll wake up I just hope Dimma plays the youth.

As for Riley Beveridge please we haven't tanked and been bottom 4 and got the picks his blues had another clown.

[WilliamPowell]

While I get the gist of it and agree that the person who put the article together named Ellis and Higgins  no longer being at the Club and using them as massive losses is well   ...... laughable

[sdc01]

basically CRAP recruiting last 4 or 5 years

Ross, RCD, Martyn, Dow??, Hugo, Naish, Rioli Jnr, Mansell, Parker....

if 3 of the above were top players we wouldn't have an issue right now

[Knighter]

Yep I reckon Clarke is on notice. Talks the talk but yet to walk the walk with recruiting

[camboon]

Well, what a surprise , you get bad draft picks when you keep winning premierships.
I wouldn’t swap a premiership for a first draft pick, how about you😁

[one-eyed]

We've had the worst midfield in the AFL since Round 15 last year.


TIGERS MIDFIELD

Since Round 15, 2021:                      Avg    Rank

Contested possession differential     -12.2     #18
Clearance differential                        -9.9    #18
Points against from clearances          35.2    #18

Source: On The Couch.

Full discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lftT-IzQn-Y

[eliminator]

He's stating the obvious,  but gez you must be blind Freddy not to see this coming we won 3 flags in 4 year period we took our era with both hands unlike chokers Port if you don't know we're in a transition period we'll wake up I just hope Dimma plays the youth.

As for Riley Beveridge please we haven't tanked and been bottom 4 and got the picks his blues had another clown.

Agree need to play youth.

[crackertiger]

He's stating the obvious,  but gez you must be blind Freddy not to see this coming we won 3 flags in 4 year period we took our era with both hands unlike chokers Port if you don't know we're in a transition period we'll wake up I just hope Dimma plays the youth.

As for Riley Beveridge please we haven't tanked and been bottom 4 and got the picks his blues had another clown.

Agree need to play youth.

There are two major problems plaguing us as follows:

1) We have a very complacent senior players getting picked even though on form they shouldn't be playing. Their efforts drop off after half time or as soon as we are behind. There are no consequences for there poor efforts as they keep getting picked. We are not playing younger players enough to create hunger or competition.

2) Our centre square and around the ground Ruck set and Midfielder cohesion is a shemozzle. Wrong angles, players in wrong positions so we are gifting our opposition clearance dominance. I have never seen such a bad set up even during the bad times. They change contest angles but then force the ball in favour of opposition mids all the time. Our mids are never where the ball is going. Clearly there is no common understanding of any particular tactic between Ruckman and mids. They just need to stop the sudden angle changes and contest front on. Whoever is in charge here has to come under serious scrutiny. To be clearly last for clearance since round 15 last year is very compelling. Indefensible.....

[Buddysucks]

I thought RCD showed plenty in the few games he played last season. Does anyone know what is preventing him from being selected?

[Andyy]

I thought RCD showed plenty in the few games he played last season. Does anyone know what is preventing him from being selected?

Agree.

And he was a good shot at goal too. I would be playing him between midfield and forward line.

[georgies31]

We heared we worked on so much in the preseason on things yet we played like 2021.