Richmond Tigers Deep Dive: Bloodied warrior Jack Riewoldt backs Tigers forward plans
Jack Riewoldt says he doesn’t care about the outside noise about the Tigers after their reality check on Friday night. And he has faith in the club’s future.
Richmond
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Speaking with local anaesthetic and seven staples holding a nasty gash on his forehead together, an honest Jack Riewoldt opened up much like his face had been during the first quarter.
Riewoldt was managed in round 4 and said playing and training in Melbourne’s wet weather had been a grind on his 34-year-old body.
“It was good to have a week off from two aspects – good for myself to have a week off, but it’s also good for the team to learn how to play without me,” the warrior full-forward said.
“Because I’m not going to be here forever and we like what we see in Samson (Ryan) and Ben Miller tonight.
“They have to learn how to play key forward and that’s part of my role going forward – probably not so in the next 12 weeks with Tom (Lynch) being injured.”
The omissions of Riewoldt and former captain Trent Cotchin from the starting 22 last week landed as a shock.
Cotchin was ultimately named the substitute, and then was substituted out of the loss to Sydney when coach Damien Hardwick decided to pull one of his contested midfielders.
“It also provides a bit of hunger for us to be challenged,” Riewoldt said after starring with 4.1 against the Swans.
“I don’t give a s*** what anyone thinks outside the football club, and I know there’s been a fair bit of commentary about us outside the football club – some warranted, some probably unwarranted.
“Fundamentally, we care about what the people here in yellow and black are thinking and we care about what the coach thinks.
“We’re big boys, we’ve been around for a long time and we know the club comes before any player and also for us it’s about a legacy piece on how can we help the club win its next premiership.
“Whether it’s this year, next year or the year after that.”
Riewoldt likes what he sees in Ryan, the 206cm five-gamer who spends more time training than most.
“The one thing about Samson is he’s got a lot of talent, but he is an extremely hard worker and diligent,” Riewoldt said.
“He’s always the last one off the track and trying to get better at a lot of things.
“He was off the mark, and a fair way off the mark, for a while there. But it’s come at a rush where he’s found himself being a really good VFL player, and that’s transitioned to AFL.”
The Tigers are keen to lock him into their team now so he helps them in the future. That gives an insight into the transformation the Tigers are going through.
On Friday night against the Swans Ryan took two marks and dropped many more. But one of the ones he took was falling back with the flight in front of goal, and he converted the goal.
“He’ll take those marks I reckon in 3-4 weeks,” Hardwick said.
“A game tonight again just adds to what he understands and what he’ll get. He’s a player we’re excited about, we think he’s got a massive future in the game, but you only learn through experience.”
For the second week in a row they lost centre clearances by eight, with Sydney’s immediate goal – kicked by Joel Amartey after an Errol Gulden clearance – a continuation of what went wrong against the Western Bulldogs at the MCG.
The Swans recorded only two more forward-half intercepts (30-28), but punishingly outscored the Tigers 52-24 points from those plays.
The Tigers gave up 81 points on turnovers, which was their most in more than two years.
During the premiership run it was Richmond that scored so heavily off turnovers. But this is no longer that premiership team.
It’s easy to look at Riewoldt, Cotchin and Dustin Martin – who are perhaps all fading forces – and think that it is.
Against the Swans they fielded nine players with less than 25 games’ experience – Hugo Ralphsmith (22), Maurice Rioli (21) Rhyan Mansell (20), Ben Miller (14) Noah Cumberland (12), Tyler Sonsie (9), Judson Clarke (6), Ryan (5), Tylar Young (4).
None of them were part of the 2017, 2019 or 2020 flags. The injury list is as long as the lines for a drink in Hindley St.
The only AFL-listed players in Friday night’s VFL team were Thomson Dow (who played against brother Paddy), Sam Banks, Steely Green and Jacob Bauer.
Perhaps the greatest resemblance to the last triumph was the ill-discipline. Hardwick blew up about that after the qualifying final loss to Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in 2000 and it was again a frustration.
The Tigers have had a focus on reducing their free kick numbers this year and until Friday night had been pleased with the progress.
“I thought our discipline was incredibly poor tonight. A couple of incidents we just look at and go it’s ridiculous what we’re doing,” Hardwick said.
“It’s all good to push and shove, but the reality is you’ve got to pick the ball up. That’s tough footy sort of stuff. I’m disappointed with that and our fans will be.”
Riewoldt, who had seemingly just had that point made to the players by Hardwick, agreed.
“The bitter pill to swallow is the undisciplined actions at the end that cost us, those three 50m penalties which turned into three goals,” he said.
“That just kept us on the back foot unfortunately.”
But the scoreboard clicked in the seven-goal third quarter. Richmond scored from 50 per cent of forward 50 entries and their shot at goal accuracy was 88 per cent.
However in the remaining three quarters they scored from 38 per cent of entries as their accuracy sunk to 20 per cent.
As Hardwick said, spits and spurts don’t cut it at AFL level.
“I expect us to be better than what we’re delivering at the moment. All the pieces are not quite gelling at the moment,” he said.
Hardwick lauded Riewoldt’s bravery and said the 330-game superstar underwent a couple of operations every year.
As for the collision that opened him up?
“I haven’t had one like this before, just a bit of an unlucky incident where in an aerial contest I copped an errant elbow from (Hayden) McLean,” he said.
“He was coming back with some great courage and I was coming the other way and we ran into each other.
“My daughters will probably be a bit scarred when they see it.”
Originally published as Richmond Tigers Deep Dive: Bloodied warrior Jack Riewoldt backs Tigers forward plans
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