Struggling Jack Riewoldt says he and Tom Lynch will rediscover best form
Jack Riewoldt isn’t hiding from the fact he and fellow Richmond key forward Tom Lynch are struggling for form. But this isn’t the star Tigers’ first rodeo and he’s warned the naysayers not to write them off.
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Richmond is showing out-of-form forward duo Jack Riewoldt and Tom Lynch videos of them “at their very best” to snap them out of their funk.
The Tigers key forward duo have kicked just four goals between them since Round 5, and come squarely under the microscope for their modest return for the reigning premiers in recent weeks.
Riewoldt on Tuesday night acknowledged he would “love to be playing better” but is adamant he is “a good player” whose fortunes will turn.
“I’m not playing as well as I’d like, but I still am a pretty important role player in terms of what I fulfil off the ball,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.
“I look at that sort of stuff, and know that I’m playing my role in that part.
“I’d love to be playing better.
“I try and put a lot of my time and energy into making other players play better and find form, so clearly at the moment myself and Lynchy aren’t playing the way we’d love to be playing, but I think when you’ve been around for as long as I have, you develop an inner belief that it’s only one quarter away, 10 minutes away, of good footy to get back to your best.
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“I know that I’m a good player, and I know it’s not far away. I’ve been doing plenty of hard work, as Lynchy has been as well, and that the tables will turn.
“Sometimes, this is footy, and this is a completely different year than we’ve had before.
“So it’s just taken us a little bit of time to adjust.”
Riewoldt said that being in Queensland meant he had been able to escape much of the commentary surrounding his form, but said his maturity meant he was more equipped to handle criticism than he would have been in recent years.
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Coach Damien Hardwick said he was confident his star duo would bounce back and find form, after he showed them videos of them playing their best footy.
“We had a really good review meeting with the players and we probably aren’t helping them to be honest, we haven’t been that active inside 50 and our execution and polish inside 50 hasn’t been at its usual level also,” he said.
“So there are a couple of things that is compounding it, it is easy to look at the individual for their form but they are probably a by-product of the way we are playing. We are doing a lot of things right but we aren’t probably hitting that last kick inside 50 the way we would like
we think it will come, hopefully this week.
“We went through some vision with them to show what they are like when they are at their best, and when they are probably not at their best so they have a really good understanding of what that looks like and what makes them play their best football.
“So we are expecting a better result from those two boys and our forward half execution this week.”
Lynch has 11 goals for the season, while Riewoldt has just seven - after he kicked five in the 2019 Grand Final.
Champion Data has Riewoldt’s average of 51 ranking points ranked as poor, while eight disposals and one goal a game is considered as below average.
His 3.9 marks a game and 3.4 score involvements are rated as average, while Riewoldt’s 1.3 contested marks, his 2.3 forward 50 marks and 16.1 forward half pressure points are rated as above average.
Hardwick said Riewoldt needed to remember just how good he was.
“You’ve got to remind players just how good they are,” he said.
“It’s just about reminding those players of what they look like at their very best, sometimes doubt kicks in and they doubt themselves.
“But Jack is a prime example, he kicked five goals in the biggest game on the biggest stage.
“Once again he is not playing the sort of football he or I would love but it is not far away.
“His training form has been outstanding, he is an incredible player. Both those boys are, and we expect a better performance this week.”
The Tigers aren’t the only side to have key forward issues in 2020, and Hardwick said he expected them to find form across the competition as the season progresses.
“I think you will find over the course of the season the key forwards get bigger and better as the season goes on, the game evolves so we are expecting those guys to have a pretty dramatic increase at some stage,” he said.
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