Media Articles and Stats: Forgettable half ends Tiger hopes

[one-eyed]

Forgettable half ends Tiger hopes
richmondfc.com.au
Jason Phelan
5:32 PM Sun 06 April, 2008

Collingwood      5.2 11.7 15.9 18.14 (122)
Richmond          1.1 4.5  9.10 11.12 (78)

GOALS
Collingwood: Rocca 3, Medhurst 3, Thomas 3, Cloke 2, Anthony 2, Davis, Maxwell, Fraser, Johnson, Wood
Richmond: Pettifer 2, Pattison 2, Richardson, King, Newman, Brown, Morton, Tambling, Polak

BEST
Collingwood: H. Shaw, Medhurst, Lockyer, R. Shaw, Thomas, Davis
Richmond: Brown, Foley, Johnson, Tuck

INJURIES
Collingwood: Nil
Richmond: Polak (concussion)

Reports: Pettifer (Richmond) reported for striking Maxwell (Collingwood) by umpire Nicholls in the second quarter

Umpires: Margetts, Nicholls, McInerney

Official crowd: 70,802 at the MCG


A SLOW START has cost Richmond dearly in Sunday’s clash against Collingwood, with the Tigers falling to an 18.14 (122) to 11.12 (78) defeat in front of 70,802 fans at the MCG.

The Magpies exploded out of the blocks and held a 56-point lead late in the second term, but Richmond dug deep and put in a much more competitive second half to eventually go down by 44 points.

Shane Tuck (29 possessions) and Nathan Foley fought bravely all day, as did Matthew Richardson up forward. The big spearhead kicked just one goal, but his hard work went largely unrewarded.

Skipper Kane Johnson was also prominent with 27 touches and seven clearances, while Will Thursfield had an engrossing tussle with Anthony Rocca, who kicked three goals.

Heath Shaw was excellent for the Pies, leading all players with 33 touches. 

Rocca led Thursfield to the ball to kick the first goal of the match, but Kayne Pettifer kicked what was to be his side’s only goal for the term when Nick Maxwell gave away a 50-metre penalty.

Richardson found himself outnumbered whenever the ball came into his forward zone, with the Magpies mopping up the loose ball to counter-attack effectively.

Collingwood was giving its own forwards good service with Leon Davis, Travis Cloke and first-gamer Jack Anthony, a late inclusion for Ben Reid, all getting on the scoreboard as the Pies opened up a 25-point lead at the first break.

Kel Moore was unfortunate to give away a free to Cloke right in front of goal in the opening minute of the second quarter, but Richardson did well to reply soon after with a slick snap under close attention from Alan Toovey.

Just as in the first term, however, the Magpies, who were running and creating more space, were able to put on a blistering display with five unanswered goals, including Anthony’s second with just his second kick at the elite level.

At 56 points down in the shadows of half-time, the situation looked grim for the Tigers, but they showed commendable grit and determination to kick the last two goals of the stanza to trim the margin to 44 points.

Jake King and Chris Newman did the damage, and they remained prominent as the Richmond resurgence continued after the break.

Brett Deledio was moved into the middle from the forward line and helped his side gain the upper hand around the stoppages. Goals to Nathan Brown and Mitch Morton reduced the margin to 31 points, giving the Tiger Army reason to find full voice.   

That would be as close as Richmond could come, however, with the Pies rediscovering the running game that served them so well in the first half.

A brilliant goal to Dale Thomas halted Richmond’s run, but Collingwood was unable to break away as in the first half with majors to Adam Pattison, Richard Tambling and Pettifer keeping the Tigers within 35 points at the final change.

The first goal of the last quarter was a must for the Tigers if they were going to mount a late charge, but Paul Medhurst did the job for the Magpies. Richmond fought to the end, with Pattison kicking the last goal of the match.

On the injury front, Graham Polak was concussed in the third quarter and Jay Schulz rolled an ankle, but both managed to finish the match.

Pettifer was reported for making high contact with Nick Maxwell in the second term.

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsId=57437

[one-eyed]

Magpies defeat Tigers by 44 points
AAP | April 06, 2008 04:59pm

A DOMINANT first half allowed Collingwood to cruise to a 44-point victory over a disappointing Richmond in their AFL clash at the MCG today. Collingwood won 18.14 (122) to Richmond 11.12 (78).

The Magpies led by as much as 56 points late in the second quarter, before the Tigers offered a minor fightback, at one stage reducing the margin to 31 points early in the second term.

But, in front of a crowd of more than 70,000, they never seriously threatened to turn the game into a contest.

On top of the poor loss, Richmond had forward Kayne Pettifer reported during the second term, for making contact with his forearm to the head of Collingwood player Nick Maxwell.

The Magpies controlled the game from the outset, outscoring Richmond 5.2 to 1.1 in the first term, then kicking six of the first seven goals in the second term to bury the Tigers.

Half-back Heath Shaw was sensational for the winners, keeping Richmond star forward Nathan Brown from having any impact while picking up a stack of touches himself.

The Tigers won their share of the ball through the middle of the ground, thanks largely to the hard work of Shane Tuck and Nathan Foley.

But their attack was like a trampoline for most of the first half, providing the springboard for many of Collingwood's attacking moves.

Shaw's classy use of the ball was responsible for many of the forward thrusts, while Scott Pendlebury, Tarkyn Lockyer, Ben Johnson, Dale Thomas and Leon Davis gave their side run through the middle of the ground.

Thomas provided the match highlights with some scintillating pieces of play.

He set up Anthony Rocca for a goal early in the second term, after gathering the ball at half-forward, twisting beautifully between opponent Jordan McMahon and the boundary line, taking a bounce and hitting Rocca between two Tiger defenders.

Early in the third term, he capped a nice Collingwood passage of play which started at fullback with a sensational snap which rolled through from tight in the forward pocket.

Thomas capped his game with his third goal midway through the final term when he took a flying mark over Richmond's Joel Bowden at the top of the goalsquare.

Tall forward Travis Cloke was also one of the Magpies' better players, finishing the game with 15 marks to be a constant avenue into attack.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23493130-19742,00.html

[one-eyed]

Team Stats

Disposals:      391 - 378
Effective %:     80 - 79
Kicks:            182 - 252
Handballs:     209 - 126 
Con. Marks:       6 - 13
Uncon. Marks:  92 - 131
Tackles:           36 - 54
Clearances:      33 - 23
Clangers:         42 - 33
Frees:              11 - 17
Con. possies:  104 -114
Uncon. poss:   289 - 253
Inside 50s:       57 - 54
Assists:            15 - 22

Individual Stats

player         D EFF% K H G B CM UM T CL C RT RA   

Tuck           29  83  6  23 0 0 0  4 1 2 2 85 79 
Foley          28  82 12 16 0 0 0  3 3 5 1 102 88 
Johnson      27  81  8  19 0 0 1  3 2 7 0 98 115 
King           27  81 13 14 1 1 0 11 2 1 3 101 105
McMahon    25  88 19   6 0 0 1  6 1 0 2 90 61 
Deledio       24  75 11 13 0 2 0  4 1 3 0 73 85 
Bowden      22  86   7 15 0 0 0  5 0 0 1 90 84 
Brown         20  80 15  5 1 1 0  4 0 1 2 75 67 
Pattison      18  94  2  16 2 0 0  5 2 1 1 77 64 
Tambling    18  67  6  12 1 0 0  3 2 3 5 45 46 
Moore         17  82  7  10 0 0 0  2 1 0 3 71 61
Newman     17  76 10   7 1 0 0  4 2 0 1 72 95 
Jackson      16  81 10   6 0 0 1  4 3 2 2 54 58 
Richardson 15  53 11   4 1 1 2  7 1 0 5 44 78
Tivendale   14  86   8   6 0 0 0  0 0 0 0 52 52 
Pettifer      13   69  9   4 2 1 0  3 1 1 6 30 63
Schulz       12 100  5   7 0 0 0  5 3 2 1 50 80
Morton       11  55  9   2 1 1 0  7 5 2 1 54 54 
Simmonds 11  73   2  9 0 0 0  3 2 2 3 35 58
Polak         10  80  8   2 1 2 1  5 1 0 2 51 72 
White          9  89  3   6 0 0 0  2 3 1 0 45 45
Thursfield    8  88  1   7 0 0 0  2 0 0 1 53 58

player      FF FA CP UP I50 A     
   
Tuck          1 0 11 18 0 0       
Foley         1 0 10 19 4 1       
Johnson     2 0  9 18 2 2       
King          0 0  4 24 4 1       
McMahon    0 0  4 20 2 0       
Deledio       0 0 5 19 5 1       
Bowden      1 0  7 16 0 0       
Brown        0 0  5 15 5 2       
Pattison      0 1  3 15 1 2       
Tambling    1 0  4 14 4 1       
Moore         3 1 10 7 1 0       
Newman     1 0  3 14 2 0       
Jackson      0 1  4 12 5 0       
Richardson 0 4  4 12 6 1       
Tivendale   0 0  4 9 4 0       
Pettifer      0 3  1 12 4 2       
Schulz       0 1  3 9 1 0       
Morton       0 0  2 9 4 0       
Simmonds 1 3  2 9 1 0     
Polak         0 2  2 8 1 1       
White        0 0  4 5 1 1
Thursfield  0 1  3 5 0 0

http://superstats.heraldsun.com.au/gamestatslive/5015579.html

[one-eyed]

Pics from today's game:

http://www.gspimages.com.au/photography/results/?q=collection:AFL%202008%20Rd%2003%20-%20Richmond%20v%20Collingwood&sub_code=all&per_page=100

[one-eyed]

Magpies give Tigers a kick
Michael Gleeson | April 7, 2008 | The Age

TERRY Wallace sat his team down after yesterday's loss and posed the question to his players: what was it about 19 of them that did not match up to Alan Didak?

That sort of open-ended inquiry could provoke troubling answers for a coach, but the answer for Wallace was equally problematic.

Didak, an exquisitely talented player but seldom a high possession earner, had 12 kicks in the last quarter. Nineteen Richmond players had had 12 kicks or fewer for the entire match and it was a worrying statistic made worse by the lop-sidedness of another statistic column: handballs.

Richmond became handball obsessed yesterday. It appeared that to stem the Collingwood onslaught — the Magpies led by 56 points midway through the second quarter — Richmond decided that holding on to the ball and moving it by hand rather than foot was the safer option to frustrate Collingwood.

Thirteen Richmond players had more handballs than kicks, several of them dramatically so — Shane Tuck, for instance, who managed 23 handballs but just six kicks. Greg Williams could have destroyed a side with those figures, but Tuck is not Diesel.

"Clearly we had too many midfielders with high handball-ratio stats and nowhere near enough kicks," Wallace said. "That's not the way we want to play; clearly that's not the way we want to play … If you get as much possession of the footy as what we had today you can't be finishing with 170 kicks in a game of footy; if you're not getting over 200 kicks in a game of footy, you won't win.

"Unless you're getting some of your midfielders and running backs with high kick numbers you're not going to win games of footy and that's what we spoke about."

Wallace insisted the reason for the sudden imbalance was curious to him.

It was not an instruction to move by hand, as the Bulldogs appeared to do with great effect on Friday night; the Richmond players instead were drawn into the panicked chipping game by Collingwood's relentless pressure.

Intriguingly, the Tigers should have been freer to move because Collingwood had been unable to take the ball away from the ball-ups. This was despite their ruckmen more often getting their hands to the ball first.

Either they were tapping to the wrong places, or the midfielders were unable to take possession and clear it.

Collingwood was better at hunting down the player with ball and retrieving it. This sort of pressure was present across the ground for Collingwood but most notably absent in Richmond's forward line.

The Tigers had a single-focused forward structure that seemingly required Matthew Richardson to kick double-figure goal tallies for Richmond to win. When the marking contest was halved and the ball in dispute it did not remain an argument for long.

The Tigers applied no pressure as Collingwood took the ball, carrying it the length of the ground.

Heath Shaw, the dominant figure on the ground from the outset played, nominally, on Nathan Brown for three quarters. He was the bedrock upon which Collingwood's creativity was built.

The Magpies' midfield, although beaten at the stoppages, boasted the superior result for its run and delivery.

Scott Pendlebury had his best game of the year, Dane Swan his quietest in some considerable time. The Collingwood midfield looks better when Leon Davis and Didak move up the ground which is something that has been made possible by the arrival of Paul Medhurst.

Dale Thomas' game was electrifying but his finest moment was not his last-quarter screamer in the goal square, nor his earlier rolling dribble goal. The moment came in the second term when he turned Jordan McMahon around on the wing having kept his feet at a marking contest. He then collected the ball off the deck and ran away from McMahon around the wing and put his kick on Rocca's chest having had to kick across his body to spear the pass low and flat at full pace.

John Anthony came into the Pies' side and played his first game. His VFL career has been as a defender but he began this at full-forward. His first two kicks were goals. He is steady and revealed no obvious tricks, but is regarded for a James Clement-like composure in defence.

THE UPSHOT Richmond's games are often over by quarter-time, the Tigers congenitally required to give the opposition headstarts. Bad teams let them back in, but not the good ones.

TALKING POINT Richmond's handball frenzy. Player after player had more handballs than kicks. Wallace could not explain why.

HOT AND COLD Heath Shaw was superb as the game's dominant, most creative and attacking player — and he was on Nathan Brown. Graham Polak was belted in the first by Cloke then all but knocked out.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfmatchreport/magpies-give-tigers-a-kick/2008/04/06/1207420205150.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

[one-eyed]

Easy win, but Malthouse left feeling uneasy
Len Johnson | April 7, 2008

MICK Malthouse had one substantial beef about Collingwood's performance in beating Richmond by 44 points at the MCG yesterday.

The Magpies dominated most aspects of the game and have now won two from three, their only loss being by two points to Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in round two. As expected, Richmond, pretty much a unanimous pick to finish bottom four again this year, did not trouble them unduly.

Except in the area of clearances. Collingwood did not so much lose the clearances, said Malthouse, it was "smashed".

Richmond won the clearances 33 to 23, all that edge coming at the centre square. That the Tigers were unable to capitalise on this advantage, was in no small part due to the counter-attacks Collingwood built from its back line.

For Malthouse, it was a new experience this year and one he is keen not to see repeated as the Magpies face old foe Carlton next Sunday, followed by North Melbourne, Essendon and Hawthorn.

"It is the first time this year that we have been really taken to (at) the clearances," he said. "I don't know what the scores were from clearances but we were absolutely smashed."

Malthouse said that part of the game review would focus on what had happened at the clearances and "we had better work that out pretty quickly, given who we play over the next month".

While one coach was worried about his side's performance at the game's starts and re-starts, the other was worried about the start, full stop.

For the third game in a row, Richmond found itself in the position of having to chase down an opponent.

"(Our) starts are killing us," said coach Terry Wallace. "We've played three games now. We were five goals behind Carlton in round one and we managed to get out of that and win the game.

"Last week, it was 11 scoring shots to four in the first quarter and this week they've had seven of the first eight scoring shots.

"We've clearly got to be working on our first quarters and be better than that early in games.

"When you play two top-four sides from last year and you give them a start, they don't let you back in."

Wallace also thought the Tigers were over-reliant on handball and that his players' propensity to handball instead of kick under pressure had to be addressed and changed.

The Tigers have small forward Kayne Pettifer on report for allegedly striking Collingwood's Nick Maxwell in the second quarter of the game and Graham Polak and Chris Newman will be assessed for concussion after receiving heavy knocks during the game. Polak was off the field for the rest of the first half after he was accidentally connected by Anthony Rocca's knee in a marking contest. He returned in the second half and played up forward, kicking a goal.

Newman was downed in a heavy collision with Collingwood's Dane Swan, which looked legitimate but earned the Collingwood man the ire of Tiger supporters for the rest of the afternoon. Newman stayed on the field and soon afterwards kicked a goal, the second of four in a row the Tigers scored either side of half-time. The match review panel will decide whether there was more to it than first appearances suggested.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/easy-but-malthouse-feeling-uneasy/2008/04/06/1207420205147.html

[one-eyed]

From: Medhurst gives Pies new bite
Rebecca Williams | April 07, 2008 | Herald-Sun

The gloss from Richmond's first-round win against fellow battler Carlton seemed long gone as the Tigers' season took another wrong turn.

Leon Davis set the Pies alight with a 10-possession opening term that helped set up a 26-point lead at the first break.

The Magpies stretched that to 56 points late in the second term as the match looked as if it could turn into a landslide.

But the Tigers mounted some sort of fightback late in the second term after Chris Newman was felled behind play in the middle of the ground, later remonstrating with Dane Swan.

The incident snapped a five-goal run from the Magpies, with Jake King and Newman kicking the last two goals of the half for the Tigers.

The revival carried over after the main break when the Tigers, through Brown and Mitch Morton, kicked the first two goals of the third quarter.

Richmond won the third quarter five goals to four, but inaccuracy and inability to capitalise on their chances ruined any chance of a comeback.

King and clearance star Nathan Foley worked hard all day for the Tigers, while Will Thursfield's effort on Rocca was commendable. There were few other positives.

Forwards Matthew Richardson (one goal) and Brown had little impact, with delivery into the forward line giving them no chance to do their thing.

One area where the Tigers did have the better of Collingwood was in the clearances.

The Tigers finished with 33 clearances to the Magpies' 23 and that had Malthouse looking for answers after the game.

The report for goalsneak Kayne Pettifer capped a miserable day for the Tigers.

And with matches against Fremantle in Perth, the unbeaten Bulldogs, Hawthorn, St Kilda and premier Geelong in the next five weeks, the outlook doesn't look any brighter.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23496111-11088,00.html

[one-eyed]

Kicking shortfall far from trivial
Mark Stevens | April 07, 2008

It is an understatement to say using it by foot once every minute is not going to win you games.

Tigers midfielder Shane Tuck finished the game with six kicks and 23 handballs.

At the last change he had just three kicks and 21 handballs.

Tuck has a penetrating, if not always accurate, hoof on him.

This was a crazy day out of the box.

"I should've been kicking more today. I found myself in a position to handball a lot today, to be honest," Tuck said.

"I got a bit of the ball around the stoppages. It was just one of those days."

Tuck usually likes to go one-for-one or have slightly more disposals by foot than hand.

He was out of whack and not alone as the Tigers refused to back themselves and took the safer short option under pressure.

"We spoke about it. We'd better get that right," Tuck said.

Tuck's midfield mates also joined in.

Kane Johnson had eight kicks and 19 handballs and Nathan Foley 12 and 16.

It stood out because Collingwood is the most traditional team in terms of kicking it.

The Pies had 252 kicks and 126 handballs -- a ratio of 2:1.

Didak, the centre of the trivia quiz, had 23 kicks and zero handballs.

And of course, 12 in the last.

Wallace has a simple theory that you cannot win unless you have 200-plus kicks.

The Tigers managed only 129 in the first three terms and only got anywhere near 200 with a late flurry when the game was all over.

"Clearly, we had too many midfielders with high handball-ratio stats with nowhere near enough kicks," Wallace said.

"That's not the way we want to play. That's the thing we'll work on.

"Clearly, it's called football for a reason and that won't ever go away.

"You've got to kick the footy.

"Clearly the opposition held on to possession of the ball, we gave up possession of the ball too easily."

Wallace said it was easier under pressure to hit somebody with a handball three metres away than pump it by foot to a longer option.

Too often yesterday the Tigers went short by hand as Plan A.

"We were trying to do the opposite. In fairness, it comes down to opposition pressure," Wallace said.

Handball happy or not, there was not a lot to like about the Tigers yesterday.

Collingwood was its usual professional, clinical self.

The Pies were up by four goals at quarter-time and never looked like losing -- even if the Tigers kicked the last two goals of the second and the first two of the third.

There was a sense of inevitability about it all as early as 10 minutes in.

Has there been a flatter match in front of 70,000 at the MCG? You'd suggest there has not been many.

Wallace praised Matthew White for his forward pressure, but the Tigers desperately need more from bigger names than White before another season is killed off quickly.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23495280-19771,00.html

[{X}]

matt white was crap

[Tigermonk]

McMahon handballed 1 metre to standing player while up field there was players clear screaming for it
Talking of McMahon we just brought ourselves another dud for 3 years for a important draft Pick 18 
This guy better start performing & start showing his better disposal skills cause after 3 games l'm shocked at his skills & his effort to walk after disposal while his man is running around doing damage 

[TFL]

Over using the footy, its not something new to the RFC 

I can understand if it was a one off, but this has been happening for a long time. Wallace needs to take responsibility for this as well as the players.

We need to develop a better game plan, surely the old Northey kick it quick and long into the forward line couldnt be any worse. We have some decent targets.

[Little Jackie]

McMahon handballed 1 metre to standing player while up field there was players clear screaming for it
Talking of McMahon we just brought ourselves another dud for 3 years for a important draft Pick 18 
This guy better start performing & start showing his better disposal skills cause after 3 games l'm shocked at his skills & his effort to walk after disposal while his man is running around doing damage 

McMahon

[Tigermonk]

Over using the footy, its not something new to the RFC 

I can understand if it was a one off, but this has been happening for a long time. Wallace needs to take responsibility for this as well as the players.

We need to develop a better game plan, surely the old Northey kick it quick and long into the forward line couldnt be any worse. We have some decent targets.

Wallace said on taking over at Tigerland was that they will be playing long direct football
4 years on we have basicly a turned over list & still making the same mistakes & no long direct football & our percentages are still low from not meeting or defeating the targets
whos to blame for the teaching of the near new list
The Coach & his coaching staff + the development & fitness staff for not being tuff enough with thier instructions

[TFL]

I am surprised he doesnt wear long sleves to hide his chicken wing arms!!!

[Tigermonk]

  chicken tonight