Round 2 vs North Melbourne - That Wooden Feeling

Posted on March 30, 2008 | Category: Match Reports

Richmond 13.8 (86)

North Melbourne 20.7 (127)

The Game:

After an exciting win last week, the Tiges returned to the familiar standard of last year - trying hard, remaining competitive, but just not being good enough. The Kangaroos took advantage of some fortunate umpiring decisions inside 50 early in the game, and from there they were never really challenged. The Tiges struggled to kick consecutive goals, and had a forward-line that was horribly inefficient at key points in the match.

The Good:

Not so much. Kelvin Moore played a good game, as did stand-in captain Chris Newman. Moore’s second half was particularly impressive: keeping the lurking Nathan Thomspon effectively out of the game. Jay Schultz was better than he’s been in recent memory. He actually offered a genuine forward target and managed to kick 3 goals for the game. Tambling got plenty of clearances, but fumbled the ball too much. Daniel Jackson (sporting the Benny Gale bandage across his head) was again one of the Tigers’ best. Foley was good without being great, and Troy Simmonds was our only other real winner on the ground, picking up a lot of ball and winning plenty of hit-outs. It was also heartening to see the Tiges come out fighting hard in the opening 10 minutes of the last quarter when the game already looked decided, in that we at least showed some heart.

The Bad

Unfortunately, plenty. As mentioned our forward structure was atrocious, and some early match-ups defied belief: Jake King on Corey Jones?!!! Wallace needs to have a long hard think - there’s no excuse for leaving that as long as he did. And Jake King was one of the big disappointments, after such a great performance last week he needed to stand up again and was found lacking. He will bounce back, but it was a fairly stark reality check.

Wallace has already warned that there will be changes in the side for next Sunday, and it would be hard to imagine those changes not including Cleve Hughes and Chris Hyde. For a player that is usually pretty hard and likeable, Hyde was atrocious. He stood back and watched the game happen around him, shied away from contests and was mostly only near the ball when he was standing on the mark. He did see a lot of game-time, but did so little with it that he cannot and should not see the MCG next week. Cleve once again got far too little of the ball, and did much too little with it to deserve serious consideration at the selection table next week. Jordan McMahon, Graham Polak and Brett Deledio were also among the disappointments for the game.

The Votes

3 - Chris Newman

2 - Daniel Jackson

1 - Troy Simmonds

The Final Word

We made a side that looked very ordinary last week, look a whole lot better this week. We cannot afford to have the sheer volume of players playing poorly without getting beaten every week.

(Photo credit to RealFooty)

» Filed Under Match Reports

Tags:

• Brett Deledio
• Chris Hyde
• Chris Newman
• Cleve Hughes
• Daniel Jackson
• Graham Polak
• Jake King
• Jay Schultz
• Jordan McMahon
• Kelvin Moore
• Nathan Foley
• Richard Tambling
• Terry Wallace

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