’If I was Jack Riewoldt ... I’d go’: MaclureHerald Sun
5 August 2016CARLTON great Mark Maclure says Jack Riewoldt should leave Richmond.
Riewoldt, 27, has played 10 seasons with the Tigers and been the club’s leading goalkicker every year since 2010.
The star forward has kicked 41 goals in 18 games this year and has been one of the side’s best in its disappointing season that will see it miss the finals.
The Tigers have won just seven games in a year many predicted they could make the top four and possibly challenge for a premiership.
This season has highlighted the holes in the club’s list, leading to many suggesting Richmond will embark on a rebuild.
Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton wrote in the Herald Sun on Friday Riewoldt, captain Trent Cotchin, Alex Rance, Dustin Martin and Brett Deledio are the five star players Richmond must keep.
But Maclure says if he was in Riewoldt’s position, he would leave.
“If I was Jack Riewoldt ... (you’ve got to ask) is he going to win a premiership at this footy club?” Maclure said on AFL360.
“I’d go. I’d seriously go if I was Jack because I cannot see a change in what they’re doing at the moment because they’ve done it for three to four years.
“They’ve played in finals and played the same way. They tried to change it at the start of the year and you know what, they didn’t stay the course. They didn’t go down the path, they stopped and went back to where it was before and that’s why they are where they are now.”
Coach Damien Hardwick has been criticised for his use of the two-time Coleman Medallist, opting to play him up the ground rather than close to goal as a genuine full forward.
His 41 goals this season is his lowest tally since booting 32 majors in 2009.
The Tigers are under pressure after slumping to a humiliating 88-point loss to GWS last Saturday in which it kicked a record-low 23 points for the game. Riewoldt kicked two of the Tigers’ three goals.
Hardwick insists the Tigers’ current list, which he rates as the best in his time as coach, is capable of playing finals but simply hasn’t produced its best footy enough this season.
Maclure disagrees, saying the club and its coaching staff need to go back to the drawing board.
“They need a total re-program. A total re-program of their coaching style and their playing style. In the last six weeks, they don’t play like a team at all,” he said.
“They’re the second worst side in the competition in tackling and in pressure acts as well, the second worst.
“That comes because they chip the ball around and take easy marks.
“The big thing for me is the senior players and the coaching staff — if the coaching staff tell them that’s how they should play, they’re kidding.
“It couldn’t possibly be that way.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/footy-form/mark-maclure-says-jack-riewoldt-should-leave-richmond-as-lack-of-success-at-the-tigers-continues/news-story/8b94c7ef6183b370b08aeed51bf3a0d3