AFL 2021: Damien Hardwick says Tigers are still in the flag dicussion for 2021

Tigers coach Damien Hardwick has revealed which players are out of sorts at Richmond, as he defended the team’s premiership hopes for 2021.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 25: Noah Balta of the Tigers injures his leg as Josh Battle of the Saints tackles him during the 2021 AFL Round 15 match between the Richmond Tigers and the St Kilda Saints at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 25, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Reports of Richmond’s demise are greatly exaggerated, defiant coach Damien Hardwick says.

Friday night’s two-goal horror show against St Kilda turned the blowtorch on the Tigers, who Hardwick afterwards admitted were “incredibly poor” and “off the pace”.

But the triple premiership coach scoffed on Tuesday morning at suggestions his powerhouse team – clinging to a top-eight spot with a 7-7 record – had reached the end of its dynasty.

“People are entitled to their opinion. They’re news-makers; that’s what they do. They’re after big headlines but we’ve been in this situation before,” he said.

“It does feel a little bit different with the amount of personnel going in and out (because of injuries).

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Richmond senior coach Damien Hardwick prepares to speak to the media. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

“We’re not playing well, we understand that, so we’ve got some work to do in a lot of areas, but this group has responded before and I’m pretty sure they’ll respond again.”

Players and coaches pored over game vision on Monday, with Hardwick conceding they weren’t ‘playing the Richmond way’.

“We’re a blue-collar side that plays the game a certain way and we’re just not quite where we want to be in that situation,” he said.

“The vast majority of the vision we showed yesterday; it’s the same players who’ve been in the spotlight before and have done the job for us before, so we expect them and our organisation to respond accordingly.

“We’re a really good side when we play our way – we’re just short of that at the moment.”

The Herald Sun revealed on Monday night the inconsistencies this year in the Tigers’ trademark turnover game.

Their game-to-game fortunes are swinging wildly based on whether they score 50 points or more off turnovers, including five defeats in as many matches when they fail to reach that threshold.

Hardwick admitted some concern at that but was less fussed about the club’s stoppage struggles.

“Stoppages have never been a strength for us. We set up for a turnover game and the game is won or lost on the back of turnover, in our opinion,” he said.

“What’s probably been hurting us is we haven’t scored heavily off turnover as well as we would have liked.

“We’re still moving the ball relatively efficiently but the scores from turnover haven’t been there.

“There are some things in our game we’re not quite doing as well as we’d like from the ball movement point of view, and we’d like that to click a little bit quicker than what it has.”

Why the Richmond surge won’t happen

The murmurings about the Tigers’ struggles this year turned into a roar after Friday night’s horror loss to St Kilda, when they mustered only two goals in a 60-year-low scoreline.

Off-field controversies and the Covid-19 hub environment couldn’t bring down Richmond last season, and mass injuries failed to deter it in 2019.

The Tigers won their last 12 matches two years ago and nine of their final 10 games last season, performances they may need to replicate to snatch a historic fourth flag in five years.

Placed precariously on the edge of the top eight, only a Giants defeat to lowly Hawthorn on Sunday spared them from tumbling out completely.

So what are the issues threatening to end Richmond’s dynasty?

Damien Hardwick blames a lack of continuity because of consistent injuries as one problem.

PROBLEMS IN THE MIDDLE

A date this week with the Suns could not be timelier for Damien Hardwick’s men, but it’s the way they’re playing as much as their middling 7-7 record that is cause for concern.

Richmond’s patented turnover game was still delivering it about 10 goals a game before Friday night’s debacle, but there are inconsistencies within this.

The Tigers have won seven of their nine games when they score 50-plus points off turnovers, but are winless in the five matches they failed to do this.

Making matters worse is they are struggling at stoppages, even with No. 1 ruckman Toby Nankervis playing 11 of 14 games.

Richmond ranks last in clearance differential and 14th in contested possession differential and points from stoppage differential.

What was a strength in the 2020 finals series is now a significant concern.

David Astbury’s four-week absence has hurt the Tigers.

When Dylan Grimes misses it really hurts the Tigers.

DEFENSIVE DEFICIENCIES

The Tigers’ premiership defence is suddenly leaking like a sieve.

They gave up 89.3 points per match between rounds eight and 15 — only three clubs conceded more — as opposed to 72.9 in the first seven rounds.

David Astbury is the biggest missing piece, sitting out the last four matches, while Dylan Grimes was out for one game.

Liam Baker was shifted into the midfield at times because of injuries in that area, but Nick Vlastuin, Bachar Houli, Nathan Broad and Noah Balta played every match in this period.

Balta is set to miss an extended period with a syndesmosis ankle injury, while Broad may be out against Gold Coast because of a low-grade version of the same setback.

Sloppy ball use down back is killing Richmond.

The Tigers rank 13th this season in defensive-half giveaways — the worst kinds of turnovers — and 14th in opposition points from defensive-half giveaways.

They aren’t defending those turnovers well, either.

Richmond also isn’t winning many defensive one-on-one contests, placing second-last in this category.

Noah Balta injures his leg as Josh Battle lays a tackle on him at the weekend.

THE LIST DEMOGRAPHICS

Hardwick blames a lack of continuity because of consistent injuries as one problem the Tigers have faced in 2021.

They’ve never had the longest list of outs this year, but they have consistently been without key players.

The other issue is Richmond doesn’t have the same quality of depth after years of other clubs nibbling away at their peripheral players.

That’s left the Tigers’ bottom end extremely young and inexperienced, including half the list entering the season with 21 or fewer senior games to their name.

Most of their stars are older than 30 or entering that bracket, with captain Trent Cotchin averaging decade-long lows in disposals, clearances and contested possessions.

And who will be Cotchin’s successor as skipper? Richmond has a number of wonderful leaders but most are well advanced in age.

Nick Vlastuin, at 27, looms as the likeliest option if a handover occurs in the next two years.

Based on ranking points, Tom Lynch (-10%), Dion Prestia (-11%), Kamdyn McIntosh (-14%), Astbury (-15%) and Daniel Rioli (-29%) — who’s been sent down back in the VFL — have dropped off the most this year.

Originally published as AFL 2021: Damien Hardwick says Tigers are still in the flag dicussion for 2021