“THEY’VE GOT SOME PROBLEMS”: KING’S MAJOR CONCERNS FOR UNDERPERFORMING RICHMONDAndrew Slevison
SEN
11 April 2023Richmond finds itself in a precarious position after just four rounds of the 2023 season.
The Tigers sit 12th on the ladder with a 1-2-1 win-loss-draw record on the back of a five-point defeat at the hands of the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night.
While Damien Hardwick’s side looked scary with eight second-quarter goals, they were outplayed for the majority of the game, conceding 64 inside 50s and 29 scoring shots to the Dogs.
David King has been an avid supporter of the Tigers in recent years and while he is not jumping off just yet, he has some numbers that lay bare the issues at Punt Road.
“The second quarter was an outlier, it was an unbelievable quarter,” King said on SEN’s Whateley.
“It was as good a football as we’ve seen all year, particularly in those (wet) conditions.
“We’re going to skew the numbers a little bit to show the depth of the problem. So if you take that quarter out, the Dogs win clearance 31-15. That’s a smashing.
“You cannot compete against reasonable teams when they’re going clearances two to your one and they’re going inside 50 42 times to your 23.
“For three quarters they (the Tigers) go in eight times a quarter. There’s a disconnect.”
Richmond bolstered its midfield by recruiting Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper from GWS in the off-season, and while they have both been solid individually, it didn’t work on the weekend.
The Tigers were whipped at clearance 42-26 by the Bulldogs, indicating to King that they haven’t quite worked out that part of their game as a whole in 2023.
“They’ve recruited clearance players and they’re not winning clearance,” King added.
“I think they’re finding out, they’re exploring what they’ve got and there’s a couple of players maybe paying a price for that. Taranto goes into the midfield so someone has to come out.
“Dusty (Martin) spends a lot more time forward, (Shai) Bolton is still going in there but not as regularly as he was last year, (Trent) Cotchin still goes in there, (Liam) Baker is only going in fits and starts.
“Last year they used Baker, (Jayden) Short, Bolton, Dusty when he was healthy. Maybe they have to go back to that, maybe Taranto has to spend more time forward and finish his work in front of goal rather than trying to be the kicker, because he’s not kicking the ball well at all.”
King also identified Richmond’s overall ball use, which certainly hasn’t been as free-flowing as we have seen in the past.
It is one of the main reasons why he is starting to wobble regarding his thoughts of Hardwick’s side.
“They won enough contests outside of the clearance on the weekend, their ball movement is just not what it was,” he said further.
“They’ve got some problems. They’ve started the year really sluggish and they’ve got some injuries now. They’ve got the double whammy coming at them.
“I keep saying I’m holding faith with Richmond and then you start looking at the numbers and you think, ‘Well, why?’
“You start questioning yourself saying, ‘why am I holding faith with Richmond?’
“Right now they’re underperforming for what they’ve got on hand. I don’t have great logic for it except for they’re getting beaten too easy down back, but it’s going in there too often to give them a chance to set.”
While King insists he is not yet jumping ship from the Tigers he does have his worries.
Especially considering the injury list has grown to now include Tom Lynch (foot), Toby Nankervis (ankle) and Jack Graham (hamstring), who have joined Jayden Short (calf), Ivan Soldo (foot), Josh Gibcus (hamstring), Robbie Tarrant (hip) and the suspended Nathan Broad, among others, on the sidelines.
“The concern for me is they lack damage when you give them the footy now. You used to panic when you turned the ball over against Richmond. That’s not quite there,” he continued.
“I don’t know if that’s player form or just a change in everyone’s role and it’s a little bit clunky, or the absence of some of those defenders, because in the main they’re in reasonable order. They’ve been there the first month of footy.
“They probably should have won Round 1 (against Carlton) on the numbers, they were lucky to get a draw in the end, but should have won that game a bit earlier.
“Is the ladder a false read? I don’t know, and we really don’t know for a little while.
“They’ve got a challenge, they’ve got some correcting.
“I’m not jumping off, but I wouldn’t be investing in them if they were a share right now.”
https://www.sen.com.au/news/2023/04/11/theyve-got-some-problems-kings-major-concerns-for-underperforming-richmond/
