The goals will come, says Richmond coach Damien Hardwick
Damien Hardwick has forecast a return to higher scoring as football’s restart continues to find its groove
Dual Richmond premiership coach Damien Hardwick has forecast a return to higher scoring as football’s restart continues to find its groove, but admits it is an issue that he will continue to monitor.
The Tigers drew with Collingwood last Thursday night with just 10 goals scored on a dewy night at the MCG. And despite the revelation that superstar Dustin Martin will miss Thursday night’s clash with Hawthorn with bruised ribs, Hardwick believes there are more goals in his side. And he believes scoring will be an element of the game that will continue to evolve, and that both sides will come out firing.
“Our game was incredibly short last week — 90-odd minutes,” Hardwick said. “The scoring will, I think, improve as the season goes on because you need to get that score on the board relatively early. But the problem is what’s happened is that sides score generally more towards the back-end of the quarters as compared to the front-end. It’s something I think will change over the course of the season as we do evolve and look at it. But there’s certainly some trends that have popped their heads up at the moment that we are looking at and that we’ll continue to monitor.”
He said that both teams had played to their defensive strengths in the game, but said that scoring had been a primary focus before the clash with Hawthorn.
“I expect both Richmond and Collingwood to be a little bit better at going across the (forward 50m) arc this week,” he said.
“We had pretty much the same amount of inside-50s each as everyone else, we just couldn’t score because we’re going up against the two best defensive sides in the AFL. We did a fair bit of work on that this week, it would be fair to say, and hopefully we come across with a better result. More goals is always good.”
Brownlow medallist Martin will miss the Round 3 clash due to a rib injury. Martin will be assessed for what the club described as ‘minor bruising’ during the week and is expected to feature against St Kilda in round four.
It is one of two changes Richmond has made, with Liam Baker returning to Western Australia due to a family matter. They have been replaced by Jack Ross and Josh Caddy.
Harry Morrison makes way for Jaeger O’Meara at Hawthorn.
“Bakes has got a personal issue, so he won’t play this week,” Hardwick said. “At this stage, we’ll add another player to play. He’s got a family issue that he’s gone home for. So we wish him and his family all the best.”
Despite WA quarantine rules for travellers to the state, Baker has been granted an exemption as per a number of permitted entry conditions and will not have to serve the state’s mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
Ivan Soldo shouldered the ruck load against Brodie Grundy last week but Hardwick maintained that the team’s ruck plans would be a “week-to-week proposition”.
One thing that does change when Richmond meets Hawthorn is how often Hardwick speaks to close friend — but tonight’s foe — Hawks counterpart Alastair Clarkson. “It’s generally the week of (the game) and the week after that we keep a bit of a wide berth,” Hardwick laughed. “Our families are obviously very close, but we sort of have a Hardwick-Clarkson rule going forward for the next couple of weeks.”
Clarkson has demanded a fierce response from his midfielders after they were embarrassed by Geelong last week. He conceded the Hawks were “smacked” in the contest and clearances by the Cats after halftime, which resulted in a 61-point thrashing.
But Clarkson expects the likes of James Worpel, Tom Mitchell and Shaun Burgoyne to stand up and take the fight to Richmond’s battle-hardened on-ball division at the MCG. “Whenever you get a fair licking like we did last week in the second half, these guys are proud players and I’d expect some sort of response,” Clarkson said. “If we’re not strong in that space then we’re in for a pretty horrid night.”
Herald Sun, AAP
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