AFL 2021: Damien Hardwick believes Tigers remain in flag window but ‘circle of life’ is a a challenge
Damien Hardwick still believes his side is firmly in the premiership window — but there’s a catch.
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Damien Hardwick says Richmond is “well and truly in the premiership window” but has conceded the Tigers are fighting gravity which will eventually bring down their golden era.
The 7-8 Tigers are outside the top eight and will be fighting for survival when they meet Collingwood on Sunday after a sliding doors moment in Perth before their bye.
They led West Coast by 22 points in the final quarter and victory would’ve seen Hardwick’s team sitting pretty at 8-5 with the top four in sight.
But a lack of composure in a 10-minute fadeout against the Eagles has been compounded by disastrous performances against St Kilda and Gold Coast as Richmond’s front-half game disintegrated.
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However list boss Blair Hartley and recruiter Matthew Clarke have quietly stockpiled six picks in this year’s top 50 to fuel hope the Tigers won’t fall off a cliff like Brisbane Lions and Hawthorn did after their premiership threepeats this century.
Entering round 17 the Tigers held picks 10, 14, 27, 29, 42, 48 and at least one of those will be offered to Fremantle for classy midfielder Adam Cerra.
“We really rate the intelligence of our organisation. We’re a side that is well and truly in the window (and) we’ve also got a bevy of picks in this year’s draft,” Hardwick said on Friday.
“We back them (Hartley, Clarke and football boss Tim Livingstone) in to do a lot of work to make sure we stay at the top for as long as we possibly can.
“The circle of life always challenges with that, it’s like a bell curve in theory. But we’re trying to stay up there as long as we can.”
From rounds 10-16 the Tigers rank 14th for time in forward-half differential, 17th for inside 50 differential and 18th for contested ball and clearances.
While they have never been a strong stoppage team, their inability to lock the ball in their front half has been unlike Richmond.
“The fact of the matter is we’re a forward-half turnover side,” Hardwick said.
“When you give up 62 entries inside 50m you’re attacking from the back half and that’s not a Richmond brand of footy.
“Our contest work wasn’t quite to the level we’d like, our pressure wasn’t there – but the fact of the matter is we didn’t get the ball inside 50m.
“You’re going to be challenged when you’re trying to move the ball from the furthest part of the ground to the offensive side.”
Hardwick held some “challenging conversations” with his team before the Gold Coast game and cautioned a “lag effect” meant those conversations might not trigger an immediate response.
“From a media perspective we worry about the outcome, we’re about the journey,” he said.
“They don’t necessarily change in one week, it might take two, three or four. We’re hoping it comes sooner rather than later.”
Hardwick said returning ruckman Toby Nankervis was good for 10 contested possessions, which would help get the Sherrin going Richmond’s way.
Shane Edwards (ankle) is likely to return for what should be Jack Riewoldt’s 300th game against Brisbane Lions next Friday night.
Hardwick held a season review with the brave but banged-up Edwards on Friday, where Edwards said he hadn’t entered a single game feeling healthy this season.
Edwards, Kane Lambert, Dion Prestia and Callum Coleman-Jones ran laps in a star-studded rehab group at Punt Rd.
The Tigers are confident hard man Sydney Stack has turned a corner off the field. Stack has not played since Round 13 last year after being suspended for 10 matches for his infamous Covid breach.
“Everyone matures and everyone grows up at stages,” Hardwick said.
“He can play the game, but what we’ve been really impressed with is how he’s gone about his life off field.
“He’s started to get some things in place and started to grow up.”
Mid-season draftee Matthew Parker dominated last week’s VFL game with 31 disposals, five clearances and 11 tackles (127 SuperCoach points) to show Clarke might have found another rookie gem.
Real reason why there’s trouble at Tigerland
By Jon Ralph
Richmond had so many attacking options for so many years Damien Hardwick didn’t even need his small forwards to kick goals to stay in the side.
In 2017 he changed the game, winning a premiership with one tall forward in Jack Riewoldt and a mosquito fleet at his feet.
In the 2019 premiership, the Tigers boasted 10 players under 182cm — with Jason Castagna kicking five behinds — and still won with a leg in the air.
What Hardwick would do for five scoring shots from his favourite small forward in Castagna against Collingwood on Sunday.
The starkest example of Richmond’s fall from grace in recent weeks is this: since Round 10 a team that once had the ball living inside forward 50 is second-last for inside-50 differential.
Forwards such as Castagna and Jake Aarts are not kicking goals and are not pressuring opposition forwards, while Rioli was banished to the VFL to be repurposed as an attacking half back.
From Round 10 onwards, the club’s fleet of small forwards have kicked just 10 goals between them, the lowest tally across the AFL’s 18 teams.
Jack Riewoldt told AFL 360 this week the club was a “bloody good footy side”, warning “I believe that we can beat anyone”.
But until Hardwick finds a way to rediscover that forward pressure, rivals will keep streaming the ball out of the Richmond backline in a manner not seen since 2016.
Castagna is goalless in seven of his past 10 games, having laid only four tackles in the past three games.
Aarts has gone cold, kicking one goal in five weeks, while Shai Bolton has kicked only two goals in the past three weeks.
If he wants a megabucks deal, he better play as if his life depended on it.
Funnily enough, Rioli was still an above-average pressure player when he was dropped, although he had kicked only nine goals in 12 rounds.
His cousin Maurice Rioli Jr ranks No.2 of all mid-forwards in the VFL this year for tackles (5.8 per game) but despite a four-bounce goal on the weekend had only six touches.
Richmond does not have the luxury of recalling Dan Butler or Jack Higgins as it did in recent years given rivals have poached them and stripped the Tigers of depth.
Since Round 10 the club’s decimated midfield has meant the ball hasn’t even been in the forward line often — Richmond is 14th for time in forward half and 11th for forward half intercepts.
And the midfield has arguably been worse — 18th for contested possession, 18th for clearances differential.
The backline is decimated by injury and Toby Nankervis is just returning from injury, so you start to get the picture why the Tigers are losing to teams such as St Kilda and Gold Coast.
So Richmond’s confidence about its ability to turn it around might be well-founded, but it’s not on the underlying trends or statistics.
Collingwood moves the ball so slowly there will never be a better chance to turn it around.
And yet Richmond will likely be six premiership points outside the eight by Sunday night if Hardwick can’t find a way to spark the forwards who have done so much for him to create this Tigers dynasty.
‘Not her job’: Riewoldt fires back at Caro over Dimma crack
—Nick Smart
Richmond star Jack Riewoldt has issued a warning to the rest of the competition and declared his side can still beat anyone despite falling out of the top eight.
The last of those came against lowly Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium last week, but Riewoldt dared opponents to write them off at their own peril.
“I think people have probably been waiting for their opportunity to stick their boots into us because we have been so successful for such a long time,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“But good luck if you’re playing us in the last seven weeks no matter where we sit on the ladder.”
Riewoldt also shut down suggestions from journalist Caroline Wilson that issues in Damien Hardwick’s personal life were having a negative impact on the club.
Earlier this year Wilson wrote a column suggesting that Hardwick’s decision to separate from his wife and start a relationship with a junior colleague could tarnish his legacy at the club.
Wilson doubled down on the stance last week, telling Channel 9:
“I don’t know whether the off-field is affecting the on-field at the Richmond Football Club – only the players and coach can know that. But what I do know is that great football clubs are strong and united and hold together at every point.
“And I know that there are people at Richmond who have not enjoyed some of the things that have happened off-field as a result of Damien’s personal issues. I know it’s a tricky subject, but that’s the fact.”
Riewoldt fired back in support of his coach on Tuesday night, insisting the players were not affected by the publicity.
“It’s not my job to talk about someone else’s private life in the public eye, and I don’t think it’s Caroline Wilson’s either,” he said.
“I’ll tell you now, it has absolutely zero to do with our performance at all.”
Riewoldt backed the Tigers to bouce back from their recent form slump.
“We have a firm belief we’re a bloody good football side.
“Yes we’ve played really poorly the last two weeks and probably two weeks and a quarter as we were really disappointing in that last half against West Coast as well.
“But good luck if you’re playing us in the next seven weeks.”
The Tigers spearhead said he believed it would not be long before his side turned it around.
“We’re lacking a bit of soul and confidence, but you don’t lose what you’ve got overnight,” he said.
“We played some pretty good football when we were away on that three-week stint away from home, which was a real Richmond brand.
“Yes, we’ve got a few injuries and some young players playing, but it brings some opportunity and we look forward to the challenge against our arch rival in Collingwood.”
When asked if he believed Richmond can still win this year’s premiership, Riewoldt said:
“I believe we can beat anyone, yeah.”
In the face of recent media speculation, Riewoldt also reiterated coach Damien Hardwick’s off-season marital split and new relationship with a club staffer has had “zero” impact on the playing group.
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