Jack misses his goal/Riewoldt wants to end AFL season wellPaul Daffey - afl.com.au
Robert Grant - wwos.ninemsn.com.au
Tue 21 Aug, 2012RICHMMOND forward Jack Riewoldt says he's disappointed in his 2012 season despite the fact that he's second on the Coleman Medal table, behind only Fremantle's Matthew Pavlich.
Pavlich has 60 goals and Riewoldt 56, having kicked 78 and 62 goals in the past two seasons.
Riewoldt, 23, said his main concern in 2012 had been inconsistency.
He kicked six goals against Essendon and eight goals against St Kilda during a purple patch in rounds nine and 10, but he's failed to kick a goal in two matches and he's kicked only one goal on five occasions.
In the past two weeks he's kicked five against the Brisbane Lions and two against Fremantle.
"It's been very inconsistent," Riewoldt said of his season.
"In terms of kicking goals, I've kicked the second most in the competition, but in terms of where I want to be and where the club wants me to be … I wouldn't rate it a failure but it’s not up to the standard I've set myself.
"Consistency will have to be something I'll work on next year.
"I just hope to play all right over the next two weeks and hopefully finish on a good note."
Riewoldt went into the 2012 season below his best after taking time to recover from five operations during the off-season.
He had an ankle reconstruction, a shoulder reconstruction, two operations on his hips and an operation on a finger, and then spent a month on painkillers.
He was unsure whether he faced more surgery after the 2012 season.
"Hopefully I don’t go through the same process as last year," Riewoldt said.
"It probably set me back a bit before this season.
"I'll have my medical at the end of the year. If they deem that I need something done, I'll have something done.
"If not, I'll go away on a holiday and come back fighting fit when I return for the pre-season."
Riewoldt says one of the Tigers' main regrets this season has been their inability to at last give veteran skipper Chris Newman a chance to play AFL finals.
The Tigers are 12th in the ladder after a topsy-turvy season which has included some extremely unlucky losses.
Their season has included eight losses by 21 points or fewer - in rounds 16-18 they suffered infamous defeats to Gold Coast, North Melbourne and Carlton by less than a goal.
They are desperate to finish the season on a high with wins over Essendon and Port Adelaide.
The Tigers are not qualified for a finals series since 2001.
"It is very, very disappointing for our group, no more than for Chris Newman," Riewoldt said.
"This year we had a real focus to try and play finals for him - it's obviously been well documented that he hasn't played finals."
The Tigers fell out of finals calculations after dropping three straight games to Gold Coast, North Melbourne and Carlton, all by less than a single goal.
"We sort of felt that we were good enough to play finals this year," said Riewoldt.
"The ball bounces a couple of different ways those three weeks and we lose by a goal.
"We were probably right in the hunt to have a shot in September but unfortunately we're in the position now where we can't make it."
However, Riewoldt said the club was still focusing on finishing off on a bright note, starting with the clash against Essendon on Friday night.
"It's still a really big two weeks for the club," he said.
"I'd like to think we can finish 11 and 11, and finish on an even scale of win and loss for the year.
"It's something we haven't done for a while."
Riewoldt said Richmond would focus mainly on the closing two rounds, hoping to gain impetus for next year, rather than concentrating too much on the 2013 lead-up.
"If you even start thinking about pre-season, or round one next year or NAB Cup or anything like that, your focus goes away from what footy is actually about and it's about Friday night for us," he said.
"It's about putting a side out on the park that can compete and hopefully coming away with a result.
"No doubt, if we can get a couple of wins over these next two weeks, it definitely puts us in good stead for next year and we can take a little bit of momentum into pre-season."
The 23-year-old said coach Damien Hardwick's comments about Fremantle pulling a ruse by bringing in Aaron Sandilands at the last second before their match at Patersons Stadium on Saturday were made in the heat of the moment.
Sandilands was named among the emergencies when the teams were lodged 90 minutes before the match.
He was included in Fremantle's team after ruckman Jonathon Griffin had tweaked his groin during the warm-up, and his performance in the first half helped to set up Fremantle's 22-point victory.
"I wasn't too fussed," Riewoldt said.
"It was a bit of a heat-of-the-moment comment after the game.
"We move on and focus on Essendon."
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