Posted on April 14, 2008 | Category: Match Reports
Fremantle 10.13 (73)
Richmond 20.17 (137)
Do you ever get that feeling that you’re being listened to? Let me quote from last game:
(from ‘The Bad’) - “Forward structure. We continue to do the thing that every defence in the land knows we’re going to do, and bomb it up in the air to Richo. And while Richo was hardly in good form, it is impossible to ask him to mark against three men. The Deledio experiment has to go down as a failure: he does not get enough of the ball to warrant us losing his impact in the middle of the ground.”
I didn’t see most of the game (only saw us win the first quarter), but what a relief for us to be willing to try a different forward structure. We ran and ran, and simply outplayed an opponent who looked a shadow of the team that beat the weagles last week. (Insert own assumptions about the derby being “Freo’s Grand Final” here).
Understand that I’m mostly going off newspaper reports, but there were good signs all over the field. Richo kicking 4 in a game where he spent lots of the game up the ground is a beautiful thing. Tambling continues to improve and will have snuck into my votes (OK - after reconsidering Kane Johnson’s efforts, he just missed out). McMahon played well, Mitch Morton is starting to show why we’d want him in the side, and Nathan Foley is proving himself to be good enough to handle the negative attention he’s copping every week.
And we thrashed a side. I don’t remember the last time Richmond actually closed out a game properly - perhaps Collingwood last year - but it’s very rare. Even when we win, we tend to let the opposition put a few back on the board late in the game, so it was a godsend to see the Tiges really belt someone. Plus we won a first quarter for the first time this season, and deserved to.
At the risk of doing my best scratched-record impression, it was the disposals again. Turnovers and kicking for goal that were the difference between winning by 10 goals and winning by 15. Decent sides (or sides playing well) will not let us get away with that sort of footy, and we still lack a forward line that has any reliability in front of the sticks. Plenty to work on this week for the boys. Graham Polak has the natural ability to be a genuinely good tall forward, just as long as he has some sort of confidence in his own ability.
3 - Matthew Richardson
2 - Kane Johnson
1 - Nathan Foley
Wallace has responded, listened, and delivered to keep the unhappiness at bay for a short while. It took courage to drop Bowden, and to try some new things with the forward line - but it paid off. We have a tough four weeks ahead: including three sides that are currently undefeated and will desperately need to scrape at least one win out of that period. But eat, drink and be merry, for the Tigers have won!
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April 14th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
yep, enjoy…the young fleet footed brigade…smart coaching