With just two wins in AFL season 2014, Richmond face its line in-the-sand game against Geelong in Round 7Jon Ralph
Herald-Sun
May 04, 2014 DAMIEN Hardwick has spent Wednesdays chasing his tail this year, all for the benefit of the Richmond fans.
Hardwick’s “Dimma Dissects” segment is a brilliant web initiative that sees him playing video edits to allow the fan into how the game is won and lost.
Unfortunately most times this year Hardwick resembles that boy with his finger in the dyke, fixing up one area of concern before another threatens to flood his defences.
This week against Hawthorn he was pulling his hair out over five conceded centre-bounce goals and four goal-to-goal scoring chains that cost the club dearly.
Against the Western Bulldogs it was silly late errors and lack of composure, with Hardwick as fierce and vocal to players at half time as at any moment in his tenure.
For the entire season it has been a lack of overlap run, dare and dash that made the Tigers such compulsive viewing last season.
Finally comes the line-in-the-sand moment.
As Hardwick explained this week, he is sick of cajoling and explaining and nurturing and hoping.
It’s time for his Tigers to put up to save their season, even if it does mean beating a side that has a total dominance over the Tigers in the past three decades.
“We expect a better result. The players are on board. They realise what they have to do, we just have to make sure we take that into next week,’’ he said as his side prepared to battle Geelong today.
“We are sick of doing a lot of talking. We just have to make sure we get our game back on track and deliver with actions.
“We have players back, we expect the players within the side to get better, we expect to coach better and we will go onwards and upwards from here. Hang tough.’’
The mood at Friday’s Tommy Hafey Club lunch among senior players and administrators was the same — time to risk everything, time to run and exciting and inspire.
Time to stop waiting for the season to just turn.
The players have banded together and taken responsibility in player meetings, the 1990s sack-the-coach ethos is not apparent, the footy department remains calm and united.
But how has it got to this, a do-or-die game just seven weeks into the season when so many expected a top-four position?
Because as much as the missing trio of Alex Rance, Ivan Maric and Brett Deledio have somehow morphed into Sheedy, Bartlett and Roy Wright, their absence is not Richmond’s only problem.
Put simply, too many players are down on form and confidence and the flow-on effect is immense.
As club champion Matthew Richardson put it yesterday: “It is a few things. You lose your confidence, you don’t pull the trigger and go for a kick that you once might have gone for.
“You miss the moment now in AFL footy, it has passed, and it’s hard to get going again. It’s just confidence and it’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact, that if you get your best team out there it helps.
“I think they can compete with the good teams, but like a lot of teams in that middle part of the player you lose players, you lose confidence and it can slip away quickly.”
Deledio’s line-breaking wasn’t missed until he was gone, and while David Astbury is having an outstanding defensive season he doesn’t intercept-mark anywhere near as much as Alex Rance, who returns today.
Shaun Hampson’s hit-outs-to-advantage numbers are huge but he provides a fraction of the raw energy of Ivan Maric — still a fortnight away — and has taken just seven marks in five weeks.
As Hardwick says of Rance and Deledio: “Metres gained is a big stat in the AFL and those two are very high up in that area. And it is something you notice in our games, we have been lacking from a run point of view all year. Last year was our best from a ball movement point of view but we are still lacking the flow we had last year, which we are working on.”
Talk tactics or motivation or flow-on effects, but too many midfielders are just stinking it up.
So much was expected of top-15 picks Reece Conca, Brandon Ellis and flanker Nick Vlaustin — maybe too much — but they all have individual highlights rather than constant and significant improvement.
Shaun Grigg has been lucky not to be demoted at times for basic errors, Bachar Houli has dropped off significantly and best-and-fairest winner Dan Jackson missed huge slabs of the pre-season.
Shane Edwards flew under the radar again for the wrong reasons last week and Ricky Petterd wins the pill but is nervous with ball in hand.
How many Richmond players have improved on their 2013 performances?
Champion Data statistics say on hard data just nine of the 29 players to take the field in yellow and black have better Champion Data averages and even that belies the reality.
No one’s statistics have dropped off a cliff, but the likes of Ty Vickery (down 12.4), Jake King (down 30.6 in his two games) and Shaun Grigg (down 8.0 in his six games) are glaring.
Club whipping boys who have left are also having their credentials re-examined.
Luke McGuane is no world-beater but had 12 goals after six rounds last year and was a constant if erratic forward-line presence.
Matt White was Richmond’s best runner, but at Alberton Oval he isn’t in the club’s top-six endurance machines.
He is not only missed, his fall down the endurance charts at the Power illustrates that Richmond just doesn’t have the running power this year.
So what happens now.
“Richo” believes his old side can turn it around.
“It’s an unpredictable season,” he said. “Port are a very good team, but I would have tipped Geelong every day of the week after being Hawthorn the previous Monday. So you never know. I think anyone can beat anyone. It’s good for the season, I reckon.”
And while this seems make-or-break, Hardwick is still refusing to put up the white flag if Geelong does continue its dominance.
“Geelong play an exciting brand of footy and they are prepared to kick to players. It something we have spoken to our boys about. Kick to our players in one-on-one positions and get the ball going our way.
“Yes, (2-5) is bad, but we are only one game out of the eight. It is an incredibly long season, it is a very even season.
“We are one games out of the eight, but we are one game from bottom position as well. We knew it would be an even year and knew anywhere between positions 3-14 would be tough. We just have to win games, and start winning them quickly.”
WHAT’S GONE WRONG AT TIGERLANDPOOR BALL MOVEMENTA BIG strength of Richmond’s game in recent years was its transition from defence to inside attacking 50 and score.
In 2012, despite not making the finals, Richmond transferred a defensive-half chain into an inside 50 36 per cent of the time – ranked second behind runner-up Hawthorn – and scored 16 per cent of the time – ranked fifth.
But this season is a much different story from behind centre. The Tigers’ inability to transfer the ball from defensive 50 is alarming. They generate an inside 50 the fifth-least and from defensive midfield the fifth-least.
Overall from defensive-half chains the Tigers have dropped to 13th in generating an inside 50 and 16th in generating a score.
In total they are scoring 20.8 points per game on average from back-half chains – 11.8 fewer points than last season and 19.4 fewer than 2012.
DELEDIO FACTORDUAL best and fairest winner Brett Deledio has played just two games this season.
The Tigers are down 402m gained per game this season, an area that Deledio specialises in.
He gained 444m per game last season – ranked No.1 at the club.
Richmond ranked eighth for metres gained per game last year. This year it is 14th.
THE BOOKENDSRICHMOND is in trouble at both ends of the ground.
Last season it ranked fourth for both percentage of scores once inside 50 and also for percentage of scores allowed once its opponent entered the attacking arc.
This year the Tigers rank 13th and 15th in those areas respectively.
Alex Rance, who has played just one game in 2014, is the team’s chief interceptor in the backline and has been sorely missed.
CENTRE BOUNCESLAST season Richmond’s ability to score and defend from centre bounces was a major strength. Of Richmond’s total scores against, just 8.8 per cent of those came from centre-bounce clearances, the lowest percentage in the competition.
But this year 17.4 per cent of its points against are from centre-clearance losses – the third highest percentage in the competition. Overall the Tigers have conceded 16.3 points per game from centre clearances – the third highest average in the competition. Last year that figure was 7.1 per game – the lowest among all clubs.
The numbers highlight the loss of aggressive ruckman Ivan Maric through injury.
In 2013 Richmond outscored the opposition by 135 points over the entire season from centre clearances – a massive differential of 50 points better than any other side. This year they sit 16th at -25 points.
OUT OF FORMIT’S tough to win games when you have a host of players down on form.
TEN Tigers are averaging at least five SuperCoach points less per game than in 2013.
Only four are averaging five SuperCoach more per match.
THE FALLENSuperCoach comparison to 2013.
Player 2014 games Fall
Nathan Foley 2 -39.9
Jake King 2 -30.6
Tyrone Vickery 4 -12.4
Dustin Martin 6 -12.4
Shaun Grigg 6 -8.0
Chris Newman 6 -7.9
Nick Vlastuin 6 -7.6
Dylan Grimes 5 -7.2
Bachar Houli 6 -6.7
Trent Cotchin 6 -5.5
IMPROVEDPlayer 2014 games Rise
Dan Jackson 4 +16.4
David Astbury 6 +15.3
Reece Conca 6 +10.3
Brett Deledio 2 +9.5
NO DAREWHILE running bounces are not everything, they do give an insight into a team’s intent to take the game on.
It’s an area sadly lacking in the Tigers’ game.
Last year Richmond ranked fourth for bounces with an average 14 a game. This year it ranks 16th with an average of 4.5.
Amazingly, Trent Cotchin has not had a running bounce at all this season.
2013 top Tiger bouncers (with 2014 numbers in brackets)52 Brett Deledio (2)
35 Bachar Houli (3)
32 Dustin Martin (1)
30 Trent Cotchin (0)
27 Matt White (now at Port)
16 Nathan Foley (0)
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/with-just-two-wins-in-afl-season-2014-richmond-face-its-line-inthesand-game-against-geelong-in-round-7/story-fndv8t7m-1226904351499
