Posted on March 10, 2009 | Category: Discussions
This season, there is but one question that really matters. It’s nothing to do with Ben Cousins, it doesn’t even reference Trent Cotchin nor the unstoppable force that is Richo. And while Terry Wallace’s fate in intricately entangled with this question, it is not specifically about him either. The question is this:
Can
we
make
finals?
There are innumerable factors that can influence the answer to that question, and the aforementioned fellows will have a not insignificant part to play in deciding how it all turns out. But football, at its heart (and despite the efforts of rule-makers) is a simple game. You’ve got to get the ball out of the centre (midfielders), to the guys who kick the goals (forwards) and when that doesn’t happen, you need some guys to stop your opposition from kicking goals (defenders). With that in mind – here’s the preview of Richmond’s 2009 season.
OK – this is where Ben Cousins actually deserves a sliver of the coverage he’s been receiving in the lead-up to kicking the season off. If Ben Cousins can attract the attention of our oppositions best tagger, then Nathan Foley could well win a brownlow. Left untagged in the Vic vs All Stars game he ran riot and was close to the best midfielder out there, so the prospect of Cousins and Foley splitting the taggers is a pleasant one indeed. Trent Cotchin is wearing plenty of expectation as he comes into season 2009 (who hasn’t uttered “Messiah” under their breath), and as strange as it is to be saying this – so does Richard Tambling. Tambling showed some fantastic signs last year, and has started putting his (tiny little) body in hard for contested ball, which was noticeably lacking in previous seasons.
Brett Deledio is poised for a big year, and we’ll need his disposal and run through the midfield. You have to think that being Richmond’s third best midfielder couldn’t hurt him too much either. And you can’t talk about the center of the ground without mentioning Matthew “brownlow contender” Richardson. For my mind, Richo is still only one really proper injury away from retirement, but that could still mean we get another three from the big man if things all fall the right way. I think it’s time that Richmond started taking Matthew Richardson efforts as a bonus: we cannot rely on the big man to be our match-winner, but we’ll take whatever we get from him. It seems inconceivable that Terry Wallace would play him anywhere other than on the wing (or wherever it was that we called the wing), but it’s also inevitable that we’ll need him up forward. One thing is for sure – we’ll be talking about Richmond midfielders plenty this year.
If there’s an area that will make or break Richmond’s season, it is our forward line. We have a long list of players poised to become genuine key-position forwards (Cleve Hughes, Jack Riewoldt, Mitch Morton, Graham Polak, etc) but none who have definitively stood up and claimed the mantle. Which is OK, but it means that we’ll have to see a long list of goalkickers in every match if we’re to claim a spot in the eight. Nathan Brown will need to average 2-3 goals every game, and we’ll still see Richo slotting a few important ones. No matter what happens though, we cannot go back to the Richo-centric abomination of a forward structure. We have a quick side with a fantastic ability to get the ball moving fast (when coached properly) and so we can probably get buy with a smallish, hard-leading forward line. As long as we kick it to our own players.
Making it a pretty big concern.
Last year was a watershed year for our trio of key-defenders. While it was devastating to see the loss of Graham Polak, the emergence of Kelvin Moore, Will Thursfield and Luke McGuane has been the untold revelation of 2008 at Punt Rd. Thursfield was really the only one of the three who could reliably expect a senior game, and now K. Moore has been added to the Tigers’ leadership group. There’s still some room for improvement, but Darren Gaspar can now sleep at night in the knowledge that the full-forwards won’t get an Ablett-esque night on the town every time they face the yeller and black.
Of more concern seems to be our smaller defenders. While Chris Newman had in many ways been acting as Richmond’s captain before the official announcement, and Joel Bowden able to rush behinds at a moments notice, we are still lacking a genuinely quick small defender to match up on a Stephen Milne, Alan Didak or Cyril Rioli type forward. I don’t have an answer: unless Jake King can grow a couple of inches and learn how to make good decisions with the football it seems we may be rolled by clever forwards for a while to come.
No idea. Maybe. Maybe not.
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March 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
A lot of questions and not many answers to them hey??
I think Richmond will have a bit to look forward to this year and you fans may even crack a smile
March 10th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Spoken like someone who’s never had their dreams crushed by the boys from Tigerland
March 27th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Can it get any worse?
March 27th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Well – it’s Richmond so you never say never.