Chris Greenway's Footy Commentary!

Rd 14 Richmond V Adelaide 04/07/2009

The round was more notable for the clash of the heavyweights between St Kilda & Geelong than anything the Tigers or the Crows did, but I’ll put down my thoughts about that all the same.

For the 3rd week running interim coach Jade ‘The Blade’ Rawlings selected a debutant. This time it was Jayden Post (2nd round draft pick in the 2008 draft), in 3 weeks it looks like Rawlings has selected more debutants than Terry Wallace did in 4 ½ years. The difference is that Rawlings is coaching for the future of the club, whereas Wallace was coaching for himself under the belief that a win one week was better than a solid foundation for future success.

Alex Rance was the unlucky dropee for Post. I think Alex needs a rest, he came back very quickly from the facial injury and you don’t want to hamper his future by overplaying him at this stage of his career.

Richmond did try hard and they went down fighting. At one stage in the last quarter they may have even pinched the game. What could have been a blowout was a 17 point loss. As I’ve said before I’d rather see them make mistakes and lose as long as they’re genuinely having a crack, rather than some of the insipid, scared football they played under Wallace. The usual things caused the loss: over possession, skill errors, turnovers. Rawlings can’t change ingrained habits developed over years in half a season. What he can and is doing is play young players that haven’t developed these things and let the older players who never developed their skills continue to play for Coburg. The worst thing to come out of this match was a calf injury to Nathan Foley that will sideline him for 2 – 3 weeks, the upside of that is that Rawlings is more likely to play a promising youngster rather than the Wallace tactic of calling up an older player who has let him down time and time again, but has experience on his side.

Here’s how I saw the players:

2) Will Thursfield: just doesn’t look up to it at the moment. I still think he’s injured, there’s no other explanation for how he’s playing.

3) Brett Deledio: getting better, got a lot of the ball, but didn’t start to penetrate until the 2nd half of the game. Still needs some self belief.

8) Jack Riewoldt: there are 2 things stopping this young man from being a genuine power forward. One is his lack of physical size, should spend the summer in the gym bulking up, the other is his inaccuracy when shooting for goal. He kicked 2, but could have had 4 or 5 and this is the case most weeks. It has to be addressed.

9) Trent Cotchin: improving slowly. Knows how to get the ball, who to give it to and how to do that. Has future captain written all over him.

10) Shane Edwards: a little better, was actually moving the ball with confidence out of the backline.

14) Dean Polo: one of the beleaguered backline’s better players.

16) Luke McGuane: the only effective genuine KPP in the backline.

17) Chris Newman: still goes for the dinky little kick to himself and run away too much for mine from the kickout, but recaptured his chasing and tackling ability and that’s real captain by example stuff.

20) Mitch Morton: exciting and effective forward, but he again played in flashes. I want 4 quarters, not 1 or 2.

21) Shane Tuck: in everything, once again the top possession winner for the Tigers. Disposal still lets him down.

23) Daniel Jackson: once again shut down his opponent and got a fair bit himself, plus kicked a goal.

27) Tim Hislop: works hard, but just doesn’t have the polish required.

29) Ty Vickery: looking good, will be a good forward and ruckman as he develops physically.

30) Richard Tambling: continued his rich vein of form. Really put his body on the line which was encouraging.

32) Ben Cousins: dangerous every time he went near the ball, starting to command a decent opponent, which helps the rest of the midfield.

36) Jarrod Silvester: will not make it, totally slaughtered by the Crows forward Kurt Tippett.

37) Jayden Post: nice debut. He’s a big kid and takes a strong grab, can play either end of the ground.

38) Robin Nahas: his 5 goals made him the Tigers best.

40) Kelvin Moore: needs help, although he kept his opponent relatively quiet.

41) Nathan Foley: injured early, made little impact.

42) Andrew Collins: returning from a week off with injury, very quiet.

44) Angus Graham: strong in the ruck and around the ground, accurate when kicking at goal.