Tiger ruckman to miss
Emma Quayle
The Age
March 25, 2007
RICHMOND will launch its 2007 season undeterred by its disappointing pre-season, but without ruckman Troy Simmonds.
The Tigers had hoped Simmonds, who had surgery on a fractured ankle in January, would be fit for round one, but coach Terry Wallace has revealed he is still a few weeks away.
"He won't make it. I don't think he'll get there," said Wallace. "We're keeping the door open and we'll keep working with him but, personally, I don't think he'll make it.
"We're looking at the first month or so, but the other thing is, you sort of look at each player having three practice matches as the perfect lead-in to the season.
"Do you play Troy straight away, off none, or do you let him run around for a couple of weeks in the VFL, so at least he's ready to go? That's the choice we'll have to make."
The Tigers were beaten badly by Geelong in their round-one NAB Cup clash, and lost practice matches to Melbourne and Sydney before beating Collingwood by seven points in their final trial last week.
Matthew Richardson (strained hamstring) has missed most of the pre-season games, as have recruits Kent Kingsley (ankle) and Ray Hall (hip).
Wallace described the Geelong loss as horrible, but said his side had slowly started to ramp things up in the weeks since despite its personnel problems.
"It's been a bit of a battle only because we haven't had the right cattle on the track. But we've got a little bit better and more mature each week so we're comfortable," he said.
"I think you'll find that what really has happened in the pre-season is the sides who have had the more mature sides have won, regardless of where you've been on the ladder.
"If you've had an average games tally of 70 on the park, you've been able to beat a top side if they've had an average games tally of 40.
"We haven't had an average games tally greater than our opposition in one game yet, and we won one out of the four games. Once we get into the season proper we'll start having everyone back together, and we'll be able to compete."
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