NAB Cup test for Tiger cubs
12:33:51 PM Thu 9 February, 2006
Paul Gough
Sportal for afl.com.au
Richmond will reserve two places in its team for the upcoming NAB Cup for developing players as coach Terry Wallace uses the pre-season competition to continue his re-building process at Punt Road.
While Wallace says the Tigers are taking the pre-season competition seriously, he said it was also a chance to give young players a taste of senior football that they might not get during the home and away season.
"I never said that we are not playing to win every game, but I have also never gone around making grandiose statements about pre-season games," Wallace said when asked how the Tigers would approach the NAB Cup.
After resting several star players from the club's first intra-club match of the season in Ballarat on Wednesday because of only minor niggles, Wallace said the Tigers would continue to take no risks with their players during the pre-season.
But with teams permitted to use 24 players in the NAB Cup, compared to 22 in the home and away season, the pre-season does give clubs the chance to experiment.
"We will play our best 22 available at the time and we will reserve the other two spots for development players so they get the chance of having a look at senior footy,' Wallace said.
Among the Tiger youngsters in contention for a place in the team for the club's NAB Cup opener against Hawthorn on February 25 are Cleve Hughes, Dean Limbach and Luke McGuane, who were easily the most impressive of the Tigers yet to play senior football during Wednesday's hit-out in Ballarat.
Wallace also used Wednesday's game to try to come up with some more midfield options for this season in a bid to help ease the workload on his star on-ball trio of Shane Tuck, Mark Coughlan and skipper Kane Johnson.
"These days everyone has to take their turn in there," he said, adding that players such as David Rodan, Nathan "Axel" Foley, Chris Hyde, Chris Newman and Andrew Krakouer would have more midfield time in 2006.
