Damien Hardwick backs Richmond’s trio of key defenders to stop Sydney star Lance Franklin
RICHMOND coach Damien Hardwick is backing his trio of defensive talls led by Alex Rance to beat Sydney’s spearhead Lance Franklin on Saturday.
Richmond
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DAMIEN Hardwick says Lance Franklin is an outstanding player and his Sydney Swans are the form team of the competition.
But that won’t stop him backing his trio of defensive talls led by Alex Rance to beat the brilliant 800-goal tall on Saturday.
Franklin dined out on the Tigers last year with bags of 5.0 and 7.4, but had been kept to eight goals in the four matches against the Tigers before 2016.
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The football world would love to see four quarters of Rance v “Buddy”, with the league’s best two talls battling away all afternoon.
In truth David Astbury is every chance to spend plenty of time on Franklin, with Dylan Grimes’ closing speed meaning he is also a solid match-up.
Hardwick said Sydney’s shaky start — as well as that Round 23 rout — were both irrelevant given the recent changes to both teams.
“We think Alex has got a pretty good record against Buddy, to be fair,’’ he said.
“I will back any of our key defenders against Buddy. David Astbury is in terrific form as is Dylan Grimes and all three of those guys are putting their hand up to get Buddy at some stage.
“Alex has got a good record on most players, he’s a fantastic player and Buddy is an outstanding players as well.
“Where Lance plays dictates who gets him. What I do know is Alex is a fantastic player in career-best form and a three-time All Australian. I am prepared to back my guy in every day of the week.”
The Tigers have come off their mid-season bye at 7-4, with Sydney’s only blemish in the past five weeks when two men down against Hawthorn.
Speaking at an AFL Coaches and Chemist Warehouse quit smoking campaign, Hardwick was adamant the Tigers were still improving.
He is aware George Hewett might go to Dustin Martin after taking down Jason Johannisen last week but isn’t overly worried.
“He did a terrific job on Johannisen but Dusty has gone through these things before,’’ he said.
“The great thing about our footy club is Dusty can play midfield, he can play forward. When he has a relatively quiet day — which doesn’t happen often — (Trent) Cotchin, (Josh) Caddy, (Dion) Prestia and Shane Edwards come into their own.
“We are confident if one of those players has a down day we have the depth to cover those players and move the pieces around which has been a real strength of ours this year.”
Nick Vlastuin (shoulder) is only a week away from a return, while the Tigers are keen to soon reward Corey Ellis’ strong VFL form.
But Hardwick is wary of the threat of a resurgent Sydney after a tardy start to the year.
“”We are playing the form team of the competition this week and it’s going to be a lot tougher than their record suggests,’’ he said.
“You can totally disregard their first six weeks, they have all their personnel back and over the last five weeks they are 4-1.
“Their contested ball and tackling game is back, it’s going to be a really good contest on Saturday.”
Originally published as Damien Hardwick backs Richmond’s trio of key defenders to stop Sydney star Lance Franklin
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