AFL Round 6 Melbourne defeats Richmond: Damien Hardwick on Noah Cumberland’s work ethic
Damien Hardwick wasn’t as impressed with Noah Cumberland’s game as some may have thought, and he wasn’t afraid to tell everyone why.
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Richmond’s bold move to plug holes in its midfield has left it leaking in an even more dangerous position.
If there were any Tigers fans who didn’t appreciate how important three-time premiership defender David Astbury was to this team, they should now.
Watching Melbourne’s 20-year-old fourth-gamer Jacob van Rooyen torch Richmond in the final quarter on Monday night was a nightmare waiting to happen.
At the end of 2021, Astbury surprised many by retiring at the age of 30 after 155 games.
Back in 2017 Astbury, Dylan Grimes and Alex Rance were a brick wall which allowed Richmond to unleash a kamikaze game style on the rest of the competition.
Then Rance suddenly walked away from the game, so the Tigers were forced to turn Nathan Broad into a third tall defender, a move which has been a surprising success story.
Ryan Garthwaite was supposed to be the answer and was an emergency for the 2019 grand final team but he was gone two years later after just 14 games.
There was hope the versatile Noah Balta could fill the void, given he stepped up during the 2020 premiership campaign.
The Tigers recruiting staff saw what was happening and three months after Astbury’s retirement announcement they made two decisive moves to fix the problem.
In the 2021 national draft, they took tall defender Josh Gibcus at No.9 and also traded for veteran North Melbourne full-back Robbie Tarrant.
Problem fixed, they figured.
Gibcus showed in 18 games last year that he certainly looks the part but a horrible hamstring injury in the pre-season has meant he is AWOL, while Tarrant can’t seem to get his body right.
He’s now 33 and only played six games for his new club so the jury is well and truly out on that experiment.
Against Melbourne, they were forced to play mature-aged rookie Tylar Young as the third tall defender alongside Balta and Grimes.
He was found wanting as Van Rooyen won the game with three last quarter goals and, with Balta having to be moved into the ruck in the last quarter, the state of the Tigers defence was brought into sharp focus.
With the Tigers season at flashpoint, it’s a headache Damien Hardwick could do without.
Does he want it?
Noah Cumberland can be Richmond’s difference-maker according to Hardwick.
But the Tigers coach is frustrated the 22-year-old isn’t the finished product, yet with the coach questioning whether he has the work ethic to realise his potential.
Cumberland lit up the MCG in the first quarter with three goals but he then disappeared from the contest. He only had two more kicks for the rest of the night.
“What Noah has to realise is how hard he has to work,” Hardwick said. “He can be as good as he wants that kid but a lot has to do with Noah and how bad he wants it.
“He can rip open a game in five minutes this kid and that’s what we love about him but his body language can get better.
“He can be a difference maker and we’re excited about that but we just want it to be a bit faster.”
Missing their chance
Bad kicking is bad football.
Hardwick didn’t mince words when pointing the finger at his side’s goalkicking as the reason for the 18-point loss.
They wasted too many opportunities to have significant scoreboard pressure on the game which allowed Brodie Grundy and others to lift in the final term to get the Demons home.
Richmond kicked 6.9 goals from set shots compared to 9.5 goals by Melbourne.
In the last quarter Ben Miller, Sampson Ryan and Liam Baker all missed gettable set shots while even the normally reliable Dustin Martin was on the wrong side of the ledger, finishing with 1.3 goals.
Tigers blow lead as breakout Dee sparks comeback triumph
- Ed Bourke
Melbourne has landed a massive blow to Richmond’s finals hopes, coming from behind to snatch an 18-point win over the spirited Tigers in front of a bumper Anzac Day Eve crowd.
Precocious talent Jacob van Rooyen announced himself on the big stage with a stunning three-goal final term including a soaring pack mark, while returning captain Max Gawn made a rusty start but dealt the hammer blow with a deft tap-in goal to put the result beyond doubt.
Efficient ball use going inside 50 and relentless pressure helped Richmond open up a 25-point lead midway through the third term, but the Demons’ forward half finally began to click after the main break, as Christian Petracca exploded with 14 second-half disposals and Kade Chandler booted three goals.
The Demons moved the ball fluently and their handball game was slick, but were far from their best going inside 50 during the first three quarters, while Richmond were more ruthless going the other way.
Jayden Short showed his importance to the Tigers’ outfit on his return with 30 disposals and a game-high 644m gained, while a resurgent Jack Riewoldt fought brilliantly against the Demons’ defence with a second consecutive four-goal haul.
The crowd of 83,985 was the second largest of the seven Anzac Day Eve clashes, just shading the 85,657 who attended in 2017.
Maurice Rioli Jr limped off late in the final quarter with what appeared to be a hamstring injury in a further injury worry for the Tigers.
NOAH’S DUSTY FIRST QUARTER
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick explained Noah Cumberland’s surprise omission from the side at the beginning of the season as due to the presence of Dustin Martin, raising some eyebrows as he raised on-field similarities between the then nine-gamer and the three-time Norm Smith medallist.
Hardwick was proven right after Cumberland played the first quarter against the Demons like he was Martin’s mirror twin.
The 22-year-old bulldozed his way past three Demons to snap the Tigers’ first goal off his left boot and was a dangerous threat in the air and on the ground, eventually forcing Melbourne to swap Martin’s direct opponent Michael Hibberd onto him after a dominant three-goal opening term.
Three in the first quarter for Cumberland 🔥#AFLDeesTigerspic.twitter.com/K9yMc0IjlS
— AFL (@AFL) April 24, 2023
TWIN TOWERS NEED TIME
Melbourne was unsurprisingly unable to get the best from its All-Australian ruck combination, playing their first game together in a month.
Perhaps out of a need to manage captain Max Gawn’s minutes, the Demons appeared reluctant to use the pair up forward, keeping Brodie Grundy confined to the bench for 17 minutes in the first quarter.
The duo were solid without fully capitalising on Richmond’s inexperience in the ruck, but Gawn clunked three marks in the first few minutes after halftime in a sign he had found some rhythm.
BIG grab from van Rooyen ðŸ˜#AFLDeesTigerspic.twitter.com/b691Sfkw0g
— AFL (@AFL) April 24, 2023
JACK’S RARE MILESTONE
Jack Riewoldt’s second goal for the night was the 400th of his career on the MCG, with the 34-year-old joining his former teammate Matthew Richardson (464) and Essendon legend Matthew Lloyd (461) in an elite club.
Riewoldt needed to lift from his quiet start to the season with Tom Lynch sidelined, and apart from some first half yips in front of goal the Tigers veteran could not be faulted.
He followed his four-goal haul under duress against the Swans with another 4.2 and seven score involvements, expertly handling Steven May and Jake Lever by working up the ground into space where the Demons’ intercepting duo were not willing to go.
SCOREBOARD
DEMONS 2.2, 6.2, 10.5, 15.6 (96)
TIGERS 5.2, 8.4, 10.6, 11.12 (78)
BOURKE’S BEST
Demons: Petracca, Viney, Hibberd, Jordon, Brayshaw, Oliver.
Tigers: Taranto, Riewoldt, Short, D Rioli, Hopper, Bolton.
GOALS
Demons: Chandler 3, van Rooyen 3, Neal-Bullen, Viney, Pickett, Fritsch, Petty, Langdon, Jordon, Oliver, Gawn.
Tigers: Riewoldt 4, Cumberland 3, Hopper, Mansell, Ryan, Martin.
UMPIRES Broadbent, Deboy, O’Gorman, Rosebury.
INJURIES
Demons: none. Tigers: M Rioli (hamstring).
CROWD 83,985 at the MCG
BOURKE’S VOTES
3. C. Petracca (Melb)
1. J. Viney (Melb)
1 T.Taranto
‘Thank god’: How matchwinner was nearly subbed out
Matchwinning young forward Jacob van Rooyen was moments away from being substituted out of the game before he took the first of his three final quarter contested marks, Simon Goodwin says.
The Melbourne coach says he was extremely relieved the decision was not finalised before the 20-year-old produced a stunning 10-minute burst in the final term, booting 3.1 from four disposals to lead the Demons to an 18-point victory over the Tigers.
Goodwin said van Rooyen’s ability to impact the game in such a manner after he had not touched the ball during the third quarter and had only four touches for the game demonstrated a fantastic attitude.
“At one stage we were thinking about subbing him, so thank god we didn’t do that,” Goodwin said.
“”He took one mark, that was enough (to change the decision). He was pretty much coming off at his next rotation and we were about to sub him out and then he took a couple of clunks and we said ‘keep going son, you’re away now’.
“It’s a great thing for Jacob ... we speak about it a lot to be able to stay in the now and stay present in your game, and you’d say at three quarter time he certainly wasn’t having his best night.”
Goodwin said the four-gamer would have more quiet patches in games as he did on Monday night, but his final term would instil him with strong self-belief.
The Demons were still in a phase of experimentation with their talls, but with Ben Brown and Tom McDonald both playing in the VFL and Steven May and Jake Lever back on the park in defence, Goodwin said they were drawing closer to settling on their best mix at either end.
“We wanted to have a good look at van Rooyen and Petty together along with a ruck tonight, we’ve got a good look at that,” he said.
“We’re still experimenting if you want to put in some ways, but we’re also looking for guys that impact aerially, and all those guys that were ahead of the ball tonight impacted aerially for us.
“We haven’t had a lot of continuity with our talls in the early part of the year ... we’ve had to be a bit horses for courses in a lot of areas with our talls, but now we’ve got them all back, we can start to really settle down and work out what’s best for us.”
The Demons’ relatively clean bill of health has them in a strong position leading into a run of three games against North Melbourne, Gold Coast and Hawthorn, but small forward Charlie Spargo will miss at least one more week due to lingering concussion symptoms, Goodwin said.
Wasteful Tigers their own worst enemy
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says his side continues to be its own worst enemy after losing a game that “looked like a Richmond game”.
Poor accuracy in front of goal and an inability to keep the clamps on Melbourne’s powerful ruck duo after halftime left the Tigers vulnerable to a Demons comeback when they should have been well in front, Hardwick said.
“I thought we had chances at reasonably easy shots at goal, we just couldn’t quite nail those and take advantage on the scoreboard. From their set shots they kicked 9.5, we kicked 6.9,” he said.
“We just couldn’t get any scoreboard pressure on … we always call it ‘Richmond hurting Richmond.
“It looked like a Richmond game … time in forward half, forward half turnovers, we just weren’t clean enough for long enough.”
Hardwick said throwing Noah Balta into the ruck in a bid to combat a rampant Brodie Grundy in the final quarter may have opened the door for Jacob van Rooyen to break his way into the match with three late goals.
“I thought (Ben Miller and Samson Ryan) were gallant early, but then I thought Brodie Grundy was the difference maker in the end, I thought he just dominated that ruck battle and he had to make a change,” Hardwick said.
“I thought we were getting comprehensively beaten, so we had to move one piece of the puzzle in Noah into the ruck to try and compensate for that, and you know, we ummed and ahhed and then unfortunately they started taking marks at the other end.
“You got some young inexperienced rucks, I thought they were pretty good for the vast majority but when push came to shove their big dogs took over.”
The Richmond coach voiced some frustration at the performance of 22-year-old Noah Cumberland, who was dominant in the first term with 3.1 from four disposals before only managing three more touches for the match.
“He can be as good as he wants, that kid, but he’s got to get to work on some things in his game, and a lot of that has to do with Noah, how bad he wants it, and he’s working on that, he’ll get better,” Hardwick said.
“I was really happy with the vast majority of his game tonight. We sort of changed our structure a little bit to get him in, he’s just got to continue to play the game and realise the game will challenge him at various stages.
“His body language will get better, but we just love what he brings, his energy.”
Hardwick said Maurice Rioli Jr would be assessed for what appeared to be hamstring concern which forced him from the ground in the final quarter, but he said a “severe cramp” was possible rather than an injury.
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