TigermanM2
Norm Smith Medallist
- Mar 7, 2013
- 8,145
- 26,240
- AFL Club
- Richmond
FORM
Tigers were competitive against the Demons last week going down by 16 points at the Swinburne Centre. Truth is that they had the better of Melbourne for three quarters and only a poor second quarter where they conceded 5 goals while not troubling the scoreboard attendants themselves cost them the game. For Richmond, the quartet of Conti, Brennan, Lavey and Seymour continued their outstanding start to their seasons with brilliant footy and long may it continue. The game plan looks sound and one of the most pleasing aspects to this year is, despite last week's second quarter, we are finding different avenues to goal which is resulting in bigger scores being kicked than in the past. If you can at least manage to get goals on the board you will be in more games than not.
An early favourite to take out the premiership in 2021 before a late slump thwarted their chances, the news that the mercurial forward Sabrina Duffy would sit out the 2022 season and Roxy Roux's absence so far was not exactly what Dockers fans were expecting. However, Fremantle have two wins in the bank against West Coast in round 1 and Giants in round 2. Their form has been patchy winning both games in short purple patches of each match. They can probably get away with this against teams who probably won't figure at the business end of the season but the Tigers are clearly an improved unit and if the Tigers are on, one quarter of good Freo footy is just not going to cut it in my opinion. Clearly Bowers and Miller have been the standouts in the first two rounds with Haughton and Ebony Antonio looking dangerous forward.
THE TEAM
Get out the dart board. Whilst we know that Wakefield, McKenzie and Kelly are outs with medium term injuries, it's that dreaded "injury" called "AFL Health and Safety Protocol" that can strike at short notice and has the potential to strip any team of any player. Who can predict it? So we will just ignore and see what impact it has when the teams are released.
Hopefully D'Arcy, Shevlin and Stahl return this week. Yassir and Molan are also a chance to come back into the team. So that's possibly 5 changes (unless we see more H & S Protocol omissions). Will Lavey play? Bendigo Spirit play Friday at 5pm. Is an AFLW match 24 hours after a WNBL game realistic? We will see. She stays in my side for now.
I think its possible that D'Arcy may end up forward so Lynch stays and McClelland stays as a ruck option for Seymour. We really have no other choice.
I heard someone mention why doesn't Miller get used as a ruck with her being 185cm? Well does Dylan Grimes get thrown in the ruck? Same thing. Someone will break them. No, Miller stays back for mine.
The two unlucky outs this week may be Dargan and Burchell. Dargan played her best game but I left her out as I think better options can come back in. Burchell is tough to leave out and it's an omission that I'm not all that comfortable with but for all of her good work last week some of the errors resulting in turnovers were costly.
Seymour and Jacques just didn't do enough and Macdonald is just a last in first out type of thing. I think she will have more to contribute as the season goes on. She just need a touch more time on the track.
RICHMOND
B: R.Miller 15 H.Cordner 23
HB: B.Lynch 32 J.Hosking 111 M.Shevlin 35
C: T.Lavey 37 S.Hosking 7 K.Dempsey 19
HF: M.Brancatisano 5 T.Stahl 24
F: K.Brennan - C 3 S.D'Arcy 12
Foll: G.Seymour 28 M.Kiely 31 M.Conti 4
I/C: E.Yassir 27 C.Bernardi 9 S.Reid 25 McClelland 16
Emerg: K.Jacques 10 M.Macdonald 38
IN: D'Arcy, Shevlin, Stahl, Yassir, Molan
OUT: Jacques, Dargan, Macdonald, Sansonetti, Burchell
PREDICTION
Might be accused of bias hear as I'm picking the Tigers by 11. However, even if I took off my Tiger goggles I would still go Tigers just on form. If you line up the two games each team has played I think the Tigers have played the better footy and I can't discount the fact that Richmond played St Kilda and a quality Melbourne outfit at near full strength while Freo played lesser ranked teams.
D'Arcy will be a really important player (if she plays). Was our best player when we were so so in that first quarter against the Saints and has rarely put a foot wrong as a Tiger in our backline. If Miller is our Grimes, D'Arcy is our Vlastuin. As I mentioned, don't be surprised if she swings forward.
Nothing surer though, we need to be really switched on to get our season back on track. Can't be jumped at the start and we need to be ready to stifle Freo's "purple patch" moments.
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