Damien Hardwick disappointed by Richmond’s inability to stop opposition’s easy goals from centre bouncesGlenn McFarlane
Herald-Sun
May 02, 2015 7:01PMRICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick lamented his team’s inability to curb opposition centre clearance goals this year as a “knife through your heart”.
While the Tigers were among the best in the competition in that regard last season, yet another lapse at the start of the final term against Geelong highlighted a worrying trend this year.
“We (were) AFL No.1 from centre bounce goals last year, and this year we are AFL (No.) 18,” Hardwick said after the nine-point loss to the Cats.
“We gave up four today and they are goals that are a knife through your heart. Unfortunately, they are easy goals ... to give up three in the last quarter took the game out of our reach.”
The Cats kicked three goals from centre clearances within the first five minutes of the last term, with Joel Selwood important after being well held early on.
“Our boys will rectify that, I’ve got no doubt, because we are normally very good at that,” he said.
“It is hard to keep good players (Selwood) down. I think he was involved in two of those centre bounce goals.
“He (Selwood) got them over the line (against Richmond) last year and he did it again today.”
Hardwick was satisfied with the effort and endeavour of his team yesterday, but maintained the execution still needs to be better ahead of Saturday’s clash with North Melbourne.
“Their attitude and intensity was pretty good, but it is the consistency we are looking for,” he said. “One week doesn’t settle that.”
“They (Geelong) had a 10- to 12-minute period (where) they dominated us on the scoreboard.”
He defended the decision to start David Astbury on Tom Hawkins, who kicked the first two goals of the game, saying that he had kept the Geelong forward goal-less last season.
“We backed Dave in and we would back him in again,” he said.
Hardwick made the change at quarter-time, pushing Alex Rance onto Hawkins, while Astbury eventually went forward to provide a contest.
Ben Griffiths (calf) is likely to return for Richmond this week, with Hardwick flagging that he might play three key forwards, saying Ty Vickery was still in the best Richmond 22.
“He (Griffiths) will be a chance, (Reece) Conca played today and (Brett) Deledio (calf), we will see how that goes,” Hardwick said of possible inclusion, though Deledio would be the least likely to play.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/damien-hardwick-disappointed-by-richmonds-inability-to-stop-oppositions-easy-goals-from-centre-bounces/story-fndv8t7m-1227332017602Giving up three goals from direct centre clearances in the last quarter, and not capitalising on the momentum the Tigers’ generated in the second quarter were other issues that irked Hardwick.
"Zero [goals] five [behinds], unfortunately you kick that and you don't actually put the opposition on the back foot at any stage.
"It's something we've been working on but we've just got to make sure we continue to get better in that area because you never get your nose in front.
"Overall, I thought their attitude and intensity was pretty good but it's the consistency we're looking for. One week doesn't settle it."
The Tigers could be bolstered by Brett Deledio next week, who said in a pre-match radio interview on ABC Radio he was hopeful of returning from a calf injury.
Hardwick wouldn’t apologise for the Tigers playing an attacking style that could result in turnovers.
"It's the way we're going to play. We're going to be attacking, we're going to be bold and unfortunately we're going to turn the ball over in certain situations also," he said.
"We've just got to make sure we continue to be clean inside 50. We had a number of opportunities when we had players out and for whatever reason we just botched them.
"We've been training it, we'll continue to train it and eventually it will click."
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-02/damien-hardwick-postmatch
