Injured talls worry Wallace
foxsports
By Roger Vaughan
March 10, 2007
A LACK of key position players, rather than no pre-season wins, is the major concern for Richmond coach Terry Wallace as the AFL season approaches.
Melbourne beat the Tigers by 28 points today at Princes Park, 15.13 (103) to 10.15 (75).
It was Richmond's third loss of the pre-season, but it was missing tall players Matthew Richardson, Troy Simmonds, Ray Hall, Kent Kingsley, Will Thursfield and Adam Pattison through injury.
Wallace is concerned that his team will have had little or no time at even close to full strength going into the season opener on April 1 against Carlton.
"One thing we would have liked to have done is have more practice with a structure in place," he said.
"That's probably the biggest concern leading into the start of the season, is just how the boys will come to hand if we play Simmonds, if we play Richardson.
"But others are going through the same thing, you look at Brisbane, they haven't played with (Daniel) Bradshaw and (Jonathan) Brown, Port Adelaide haven't played with (Warren) Tredrea."
The Tigers are confident Richardson (hamstring) will be fit for round one, but Simmonds (ankle) remains uncertain.
Fremantle recruit Graham Polak played at centre half-forward for Richmond today and he will spend most of the season in defence.
The lack of structure was most evident at the start of the match today, when Melbourne kicked the first five goals to lead by 31 points early in the second term.
Richmond trailed by only 10 points in the third term and 14 points during the final quarter, but their inaccuracy in the second half (4.
was costly.
The Demons, by contrast, often used slick handball to break out of defence and generally had the game under control.
Key midfield player Travis Johnstone had 25 touches as he returned today from a toe injury and was particularly effective in the final term.
Young midfield player Nathan Jones continued his encouraging pre-season and wingman Chris Johnson also had plenty of the ball.
Assistant coach Peter Curran was in control of the team today as senior coach Neale Daniher watched from the grandstand.
"It was good on-the-job training, I appreciate the opportunity," Curran said.
"But the most important thing was we'd had a look at a few guys over the last couple of weeks and we had something like our best side in today.
"So we took a step forward, there are still things we can work on.
"Importantly, our best players aren't going to get much better, but our middle-tier and younger players are the ones who can help us improve. Chris Johnson and Nathan Jones really helped in many of those areas."
Demons captain David Neitz and ruckman Jeff White kicked three goals apiece, while Kayne Pettifer and Shane Tuck impressed for the Tigers.
Richmond's Kelvin Moore suffered a jarred ankle, while Brock McLean is likely to return next weekend for Melbourne.
The Tigers will play Collingwood on Friday night in Mildura and Melbourne will play Geelong on Saturday at Skilled Stadium.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21359031-23211,00.html
