Is this the key to Richmond’s finals hopes?News Ltd
May 29, 2016RICHMOND’S sudden upturn in form should be of no surprise.
It has, once again, coincided with the return of star utility Brett Deledio.
In assessing Deledio’s importance to the Tigers, look no further than to analyse the team’s form when he is not in the side.
Having battled injury issues that limited his pre-season and ruled him out of the first five matches in 2016, Richmond limped to a disastrous 1-6 start.
However, such a disappointing opening to the club’s campaign was no anomaly.
The Tigers were 3-10 before racing into the finals in 2014 and finished fifth despite a 2-4 start last year.
The common trend? Deledio’s absence.
An ankle injury sidelined the experienced Tiger for a month early in 2014, while suspension, achilles and calf injuries kept him out of four games to begin 2015.
It was achilles and quad problems, sustained during pre-season, that hindered Deledio’s start to the club’s current campaign.
Now back and once again in full flight, both Deledio and the Tigers are looking like the prospects the yellow and black faithful had hoped to see in 2016.
While Richmond isn’t entirely dependent on Deledio — the side’s 38-point victory over Essendon had a number of key contributors — his influence is telling.
The 29-year-old adds poise in possession, class in important areas and an ability to impact the match in a range of different positions on the field.
He is the polish the Tigers lacked in the first two months of the season. He is also the player able to swing a game when it counts.
Deledio celebrates one of his three goals.
In Saturday’s Dreamtime match at the MCG, Deledio produced an opening term that went a long way to killing the game as a contest before it had kicked off in earnest.
That was despite illness keeping him from the team’s final training session prior to the game on Thursday.
Spending the majority of his time floating across half forward, Deledio had racked up 10 disposals and kicked two goals by the first change.
Inevitable fears over an upset only Richmond could manage were alleviated before they could even enter the minds of Tiger fans.
He finished with 23 touches, seven marks and three goals.
Although it was only his fifth match for the year, it wasn’t the first time Deledio had produced a significant contribution at a telling time in a game.
In an after-the-siren win over Sydney, the team’s second of the season and one that could still prove to be a defining moment in the club’s year, Deledio had 25 disposals to half time.
It kept Richmond in the contest and enabled them to be in a position to achieve what was an unlikely upset win at the death.
Unable to kick beyond 30m due to quadriceps issues earlier in the year, it took Deledio hardly any time to settle when rushed back into the senior side.
A tidy 22-disposal effort against Port Adelaide in his first match back was perhaps overshadowed by a lethargic team display that resulted in another defeat in Round 6.
On Saturday evening, that wouldn’t be the case, as the Tigers took control of the match from the outset on the back of Deledio’s first-quarter showing.
The performances of Dustin Martin (38 disposals and 10 marks), Trent Cotchin (29 disposals and two goals) and Brandon Ellis (30 disposals) might have been enough to earn the Brownlow votes.
But Deledio’s impact, as it has been throughout the last three years, was the most significant, the most influential and — in the case of Richmond’s season — perhaps the most defining.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/afl/why-star-tiger-utility-brett-deledio-is-the-key-to-richmonds-finals-hopes-after-third-straight-win/news-story/70efb71128692f40150207bf35593ce4
