Sam Lloyd says Richmond must find harder edge after looking ‘a little weak’ against Melbourne
SAM Lloyd says Richmond was made to look “a little weak” by Melbourne on Sunday night, calling on the Tigers’ mid-tier and younger brigade to lift.
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SAM Lloyd says Richmond was made to look “a little weak” by Melbourne on Sunday night.
Lloyd called on the Tigers’ mid-tier and younger brigade to lift, lauding the effort of captain Trent Cotchin and star Jack Riewoldt.
Nine Tigers were yet to touch the footy late in the first quarter and the Demons finished with more clearances, contested possessions and broke even in tackles despite racking up an extra 89 disposals.
Coach Damien Hardwick told his players straight after the 33-point defeat they had too many passengers.
“No one likes losing but to lose like that and to be made to probably look a little weak out there was very disappointing for the football club,” Lloyd told the Herald Sun.
“It’s probably our mid-tier group and our younger boys that really need to stand up and we’ve just got to be harder at the footy.
“We’ve got to get better at putting our heads over it and get in there and get it out to our running players and we just haven’t been good enough at the moment.”
Lloyd, 26, was one of the better performers against the Demons with three goals and impressing with his forward pressure (five tackles).
He threw his support behind Cotchin while Riewoldt said the stinging criticism the Richmond skipper copped was “probably a bit of a witch hunt”.
“I’m always proud of Cotch and I think any criticism that comes his way is unfair,” Lloyd said.
“He works harder than a lot of people think, he puts his head over the ball every time and has a lot of weight on his shoulder.”
The Tigers were 2-4 last year and 3-9 in 2014 but stormed home to make an elimination final both times
“I think we can (salvage the year),” Lloyd said.
“We’ve done it before and we can do it again, we’ve just really got to take a good, hard look at ourselves as individuals and as a team and really work hard to turn our season around.
“We’ve done it before and I’m confident we can do it (again).”
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