Pre-season report - afl.com.au

[wayne]

Pre-season report

A NEW captain and the competition’s highest-profile recruit adds up to a good start to a vital pre-season for the Tigers.

Arrivals

Onfield: Ben Cousins (Port Melbourne), Adam Thomson (Port Adelaide), Tyrone Vickery, Jayden Post, Tom Hislop (Essendon), Robin Nahas (rookie), David Gourdis (rookie), Andrew Browne (rookie), Alroy Gilligan (rookie)

Off-field: Wayne Campbell (midfield coach, from Western Bulldogs)

Departures

Onfield: Greg Tivendale (retired), Chris Hyde (delisted), Danny Meyer (delisted), Travis Casserly (delisted), David Gourdis (delisted), Tristan Cartledge (rookie), Cameron Howat (rookie), Clayton Collard (rookie)

Off-field: -

Pre-season training started: Monday October 27

Medical room

Numbers in the rehab group have fluctuated wildly in the last couple of months. Initially large, with players recovering from pre-season operations or getting over injuries carried through the season, the numbers have thinned as those players move back into the regular squad.

Jarrad Oakley-Nicholls, Adam Patterson and Angus Graham had operations.

The club has been very careful with some calf soreness in young midfielders Trent Cotchin, Daniel Connors and Alex Rance and has had them on modified programs.

Kane Pettifer is rehabbing from a knee reconstruction and Graham Polak from his tram incident, while Mark Coughlan is training well after his mid-season hamstring treatment in Germany.

Who's burning?

Daniel Jackson (12:36) and Matthew White (12:37) both smashed through the 13-minute mark for a lap of the Tan last week, something assistant coach Brian Royal hadn’t seen in his time at the club. With White being one of the quickest players off the mark, to have him also excel at the longer distances is great news for the young midfielder and for the club.

Pre-season training camps

The Tigers had a camp for their first to third year players in Barwon Heads at the end of October and will have their Telstra Community Camp in Craigieburn in early February.

Pre-season training overview

“All in all, we’ve been really pleased with the pre-season. There have been some outstanding contributions from players like Matty White, Daniel Jackson… Luke McGuane has improved enormously – he’s had the opportunity of having a full-preseason, so Luke’s probably advanced more than anyone else.

“Dean Polo, Shane Edwards … Andrew Raines is back on track and has put in a strong pre-season.

“Your normal ones like Brett Deledio and Nathan Foley have continued to be outstanding. Chris Newman, as new captain, has really led by example, and is showing some really strong signs that he’s going to take another step up this year.”

- Assistant coach Brian Royal

What assistant coach Brian Royal says:

“We’ve been training footy – there’s a few things in our gameplan that we felt that we needed to change so we’ve focused on that throughout the last eight weeks in particular.

“There’s got to be a fitness component focus as well as a strength focus, but also the components from a footy point of view. I guess we felt that we needed to improve the defensive aspects of our game.

“Certainly there’s a skill component that you’ve got to improve, and you’re continually working on that, but the major part of the pre-season is implementing things into our gameplan which will help us defend better.

“If you look at the offence, we’re one of the better teams in the competition, but defensively, we’re one of the poorer teams, so that’s the area that we’ve been focusing on. But I can’t give you too much detail about that, unfortunately.”

http://richmondfc.com.au/tabid/6301/default.aspx?newsid=71081

[Stripes]

I believe this would be refering to areas such as the midfield zone they copied from Hawthorn so effectively last year in the latter part of the season plus forwardline pressure - keeping it in the F50 and general man on man defense. The main defensive strategies will involve whole team defensive strategies and strategies in particular to assist in our back half. We now have a more stable and stronger defensive lineup which will allow the coaches more flexibility to build around and strategize with.

Just hope we don't drop off offensively as a result

Stripes

[mightytiges]

Hopefully it means we're working more on gut-running and working harder off the ball offering more options and doing basic things like blocking, shepherding and tackling which we are one of the worst sides at. Reducing our dumb turnovers even further should help us defensively as well.

Most of these preseason reports have everyone at every club burning up the track and breaking club records so you can't read much into that but it's good to hear we have very few injuries. Touchwood it stays that way  .

[Stripes]

I agree completely about the work with shepherding, blocking and tackling. It is a real deficency in our match play. The running ahead to recieve rather than defending the ball carrier is a flaw in our style of play certainly but these are more attacking strategies are they not rather than defence...defending the attacker as it were???

Our lack of tackling pressure comes from many fronts - general lack of size/strength and attempting to hedge/carrol (sp?) players rather than try and tackle a risk letting them move past. Again I agree though, tackling is a much better option which creates turnovers and implied pressure that creates skill errors. In the second half of the season when we made tackling a focus we were a much better team as a result.

I still think TW loves the midfield zone - it will become a major defensive strategy for the team next year after opposition kick ins or free's against us in our forward 50.

Stripes

[Hellenic Tiger]

We have been awful with our one percenters over the years. An improvement in those will go a long way to helping us get better and lay down good defensive foundations.

[Infamy]

I don't think we need to give the players too much of a defensive mindset, we want them running forward to create options, but we certainly need more teamwork to protect the ball carrier plus create more pressure when the opposition has the ball. Shepherding and blocking is a massive weakness for us, not just in the midfield to protect the ball carrier, but also allowing players to get clear of their opponent so they can present as an option upfield. I'm not so concerned about our tackle numbers and I believe the corraling of players is as per instruction, but what we need to do is run AT the opposition with the ball because it puts immense pressure on the disposal and that creates turnovers.

I think tackle numbers are a bit of a false economy because low tackle numbers can also mean the opponent doesn't have the ball. What we need to do is make sure our tackles stick and that they tackle with aggression so that it tires out the opposition from getting thumped into the ground.

[Darth Tiger]

I think tackle numbers are a bit of a false economy because low tackle numbers can also mean the opponent doesn't have the ball. What we need to do is make sure our tackles stick and that they tackle with aggression so that it tires out the opposition from getting thumped into the ground.

Disagree that it is a false economy, tackling is a measurable intensity factor.

Can understand the point that a team can't tackle effectively if they continue to butcher the ball and provide turnover disposals when running forward in waves.

[Chuck17]

Disagree that it is a false economy, tackling is a measurable intensity factor.

It can be but you cant expect high tackling stats if the opponent doesn't have the ball for a large percentage of the game.

Or if you do then you should expect a lot of frees paid against for tackling while not in possession of the ball.

[Infamy]

Case in point, Round 4 2008 vs Freo

Freo
Tackles - 37
Score - 73

Richmond
Tackles - 24
Score - 137

[mightytiges]

There'll be exceptions in games and due to gamestyles but you coming last or near last in the comp. in tackles year after year is something that needs to be fixed urgently. Defensive team pressure have become vital in modern footy. Hawthorn weren't a high tackling side over the season (13th in the AFL) but they could step it up when needed in finals and big games. That's the question mark over us. Can we step up when the pressure is on and return the pressure to win. The Adelaide game showed we failed miserably and the Geelong games showed we're still a long way off from being a top side even though we admirably took them on playing positive footy.