For Richmond, Ty and Jack are cause and effect
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has a chat with Melbourne legend Garry Lyon during a Demons training session at Gosch's Paddock on Tuesday.Jack Riewoldt kicked 65 goals last year, but 90 the year before. Ty Vickery played nine games last year, but every one the year before.
It is not a coincidence, there is an undoubted cause and effect there: when Ty plays, Jack plays well. When Jack and Ty play, Richmond's forward line looks better.
Vickery is not Richmond's best player, but he might be its most important - structurally at least - for the impact he can have on the other, better players in the side. This is not unique to Richmond, nor even that surprising to suggest that the centre half forward should be the most important player to a team. But in Richmond's context the argument is persuasive.
''There is no doubt the importance to us structurally of Ty playing. We are a better side by him just walking onto the ground. Do we expect him to play well? Yes we do. Do we expect him to have a better nine games than he did last year? By all means we do,'' Richmond coach Damien Hardwick said.
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In his third season in 2011 Vickery had a breakout year, he booted 36 goals, took 95 marks - 29 of them contested - and his hitouts to advantage when rucking runs at a very healthy 32 per cent in a competition where anything above 30 per cent is a benchmark for quality.
Last year, though, was horrible. He played when he shouldn't have, with shoulders as loose as the Australian top order. His shoulders would partially dislocate at training. He could not do weights, he could not raise his arms above his head, yet he continued to try to play. Yet the more he played and the worse he went, the worse he felt physically and mentally.
Eventually he and the club relented to surgery and doctors were surprised at the state of the shoulders and the fact he had been able to continue playing to the level he had.
''People forget he is only 22, 23, he seems like he has been around forever. We didn't realise the extent of the problems [last year] because he is a tough kid by nature so to go down the path he did by playing injured was important for us.
''There is no doubt Ty missing a large chunk of the season was a reason we didn't go further than we could have, he is such an important player for us,'' Hardwick said.
''He is one of those players - and every side's got them … It is amazing the importance of those players.
''We are not expecting them to kick 40, 50 goals a year but we are expecting them to chip in with one or two but also the responsibility of that player is to keep the other defenders honest so we can actually isolate those players if Jack is getting double or triple-teamed.''
A year out, shoulders repaired and another year of getting bigger and stronger, he is a different-looking proposition on the field, which by extension makes Richmond a better side.
Since the introduction of the sub rule and potentially the cap on rotations, the second ruck has disappeared. And indeed more clubs are now looking at their forward structures and dropping the second tall forward and instead playing one key permanent forward and just the second tall as a ruck/forward in the Leigh Brown role.
''It is an interesting one whether you play three or two keys. You look at last year's grand final and Sydney and Hawthorn both played three forwards. We are a little bit similar this year with Jack, Ty and Luke McGuane or Todd Elton or these types of guys,'' Hardwick said.
Hardwick said the advantage of Vickery was that he was more than a clock-soaking relief ruck, for he may develop into a better mobile ruck than forward. Hardwick can see parallels with the career path of his former teammate Paul Salmon in beginning life forward then moving into the ruck. Perhaps another former Tiger, Brad Ottens, is an equally accurate example; the heavier and stronger he got the better his rucking became.
''His ability to use his finesse in the ruck is very good and something we haven't seen enough of yet because of the development of Ivan [Maric].
''This year he will probably do 40 per cent ruck work compared to last year 20 per cent. So we look to him taking more into his game.''
It creates a small poser for Carlton of who to play on Vickery and Riewoldt. Michael Jamison's pre-season form has not been strong - he had 10 goals kicked on him in the last two NAB Cup games - with Walker and Jon Brown running him up the ground and turning him around. He might be the man for Vickery.
Richmond at least now has a forward spread to raise questions of opponents.
Read more:
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/for-richmond-ty-and-jack-are-cause-and-effect-20130326-2gsax.html#ixzz2OgxOsNqR
