Bowden likely to get big Fevola job
The Age
August 15, 2006 - 7:20PM
Joel Bowden appears destined to be given the huge responsibility of curbing in-form Carlton full-forward Brendan Fevola to keep alive Richmond's remote AFL finals hope.
Fevola leads the league goalkicking with 77 majors, including eight in last Sunday's loss to Hawthorn, and is capable of torpedoing the Tigers' hopes at Telstra Dome this Sunday.
Bowden will be giving away 3cm but up to 10kg if he lines up on the star Blue, and Richmond coach Terry Wallace admitted he was bereft of big, strong defenders with Darren Gaspar and Andrew Kellaway still injured.
"Good question," he said when asked who would take Fevola first.
"Darren Gaspar and Andy Kellaway - both of them are unavailable.
"We played Joel last week on (on Brisbane's Daniel) Bradshaw and I was really pleased with Joel's efforts.
"I think defensively he's got better and better and better since I've been at the footy club."
The taller but slower Ray Hall is the other option for Fevola and did take him in round five, when the latter booted 2.4 in the Tigers' narrow win.
In better news for Richmond, which needs to win its last three games and hope either the Western Bulldogs or Collingwood keeps on losing, star forward Nathan Brown should return after two games out through a hamstring injury.
"Hope so, he'll be training tomorrow and he's got to get through the session and through the week to get himself fit enough to play on Sunday," Wallace said.
"Certainly it was always this week or next week depending on how the injury progressed."
Even if Richmond (10th) misses out on the finals, the Tigers are still a good chance to improve on last year's 12th-place.
The Tigers have posted nine wins like they did in 2005, play Carlton and then fellow struggler Essendon in round 21, and Wallace believes a tough draw and bad injury run have hindered the Tigers in 2006.
"The draw was the toughest in my time coaching ... we have had a pretty torrid run with injury and we've developed a lot of new, young boys, so we really do believe if we finish around the same sort of levels (as 2005) we've made some advancements," he said.
Meanwhile, Wallace denied reports the Tigers were leading the race to secure Jason Akermanis in 2007 from the Brisbane Lions.
Wallace said Richmond had gained the public favouritism because it had owned up to having spoken with Akermanis, as Tigers football director Greg Miller had spoken with the midfielder recently.
Wallace said Richmond would inquire into what the Lions wanted for Akermanis during the trade period, but was not confident.
"It is less likely than more likely, but we'll play the game like everyone else is pretending they're not," he said.
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