The criticisms we've all mentioned are least acknowledged by the coaching staff....Tigers must clean up their act
richmondfc.com.au
By Mic Cullen
Fri 27 February, 2009
IF CLEANLINESS is next to Godliness, then Richmond is a long way from heaven.
The Tigers played some reasonable football in the first half and early in the third term, but Collingwood then grabbed the momentum and kicked nine of the last 11 goals to win their NAB Cup quarter final by 46 points at Telstra Dome on Thursday night.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace saw some positives out of the game, mostly the young or returning players, but he was clearly underwhelmed with his side’s ball use, with the Tigers losing the ‘goals from turnovers’ count 11-4.
“Look, it was a strange game – I thought at half time it was game-on, and I thought six or seven minutes into the third quarter I thought we were slightly starting to get some sort of ascendancy,” he said after the match.
“But it’s a game of momentum, and when you keep having opportunities … if you have a look at scoring shots, there’s not that much between them, you have a look at stoppages, you have a look at contested balls, you have a look at inside 50s, there’s not that much between them.
“But cleanliness of ball use was the difference between the two sides.
“Shots at goal, we went at 25 per cent for the night, we’re missing them from 35 or 40 metres out in front or 45 degree angles, and they’re kicking boundary line shots.
“We went at 25 per cent, they went at 58 percent, last year we kicked at 62 per cent.
“You’re not going to beat anyone if you’re kicking at 25 per cent on goal.
“The other area that we’ve still got to work on is our tackle intensity – I think we were 20 tackles down on the opposition.
“When we had the momentum, we didn’t make the most of the opportunities, and when you do that, you leave the door open.”
The talking point of the final term was the first ever free kick for a deliberately rushed behind. Tigers defender Jordie McMahon handball crossed the goal-line as he was being tackled.
“We’re not allowed to talk about umpire’s decisions, unfortunately, but I’ll speak to Jeff (Gieschen, AFL umpires boss) about it, just to get clarification with it,” Wallace said.
“I was surprised with the call, but that’s OK – everyone’s got to get used to what goes on.
“It’s one goal in the game, it didn’t make any difference to the game, so we don’t get carried away by any of those sorts of things.
“The first thing we’ve got to know is was the umpire’s call right?
“If the call’s incorrect, they’ve got to deal with that side of it and we’ll just deal with the rule as it is.
“If the call was correct, well we probably need some explanation on why it was a correct call.
“No drama, we’ll just have a chat.”
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/72612/default.aspx