Damien Hardwick confident Tigers still in finals mixAFL.com.au
16 April 2016RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick says his side can still make the finals, despite winning just one of its first four games and being thrashed by West Coast in Perth.
The Tigers managed to send the ball inside their attacking 50m arc on just eight occasions in the first half as West Coast piled on 10.13 to take a nine-goal lead into the half-time break and put the result beyond doubt.
But Hardwick said his side was still capable of playing finals football in 2016.
“It seems so far away at the moment, but as I said previously we have been in this situation before. I’m pretty confident now (of) our players and our coaching group bouncing back,” he said.
In the past two seasons, Richmond has started poorly, only to string together several wins in the back end of the year and storm into the finals.
Last year, the Tigers won 13 of their last 16, while they forced their way into the finals in 2014 with nine consecutive wins to round out the home-and-away season.
And things are looking up with the possibility of joint vice-captains Brett Deledio and Ivan Maric to return to AFL action against Melbourne at the MCG next Sunday.
Maric completed three quarters in the VFL last week and is expected to play again this weekend, though Hardwick said he would have preferred to rest his star ruckman after Shaun Hampson suffered a thigh injury against West Coast.
“He (Maric) needs games. Ideally we wouldn’t (play him), but he’s only played a half in the NAB and then played three quarters last week, so he needs touch,” Hardwick said.
Deledio, meanwhile, will have to come through another week of training before being declared ready to resume.
Hardwick said he had been disappointed with his team’s performance over the past three weeks. The process was “broken” and his side hanballed too often, he said.
“Clearance and contested ball tonight we got belted, which doesn’t help, but when you are trying to attack from the back half all the time. It’s too hard,” he said.
“Sides are too good defensively, so we have got to make sure we get the ball in our front half and then we can start to dictate terms a little bit more. We haven’t probably had that at any stage this year.”
He did reserve some praise for captain Trent Cotchin, who had 29 possessions, star forward Jack Riewoldt, and Alex Rance, who kept star West Coast full-forward Josh Kennedy to two goals.
Hardwick said Hampson had a corked thigh and was in doubt for the match against Melbourne, while David Astbury had suffered a “significant” ankle sprain.
http://www.afl.com.au/news/2016-04-16/damien-hardwick-confident-tigers-still-in-finals-mix
