This is a bit reactionary, GWS played their grand final last week, they were pathetic today. Sides look quick when you don't put them under immense pressure. Port is a much quicker side than us all over the park, did you get that impression from when we played them Round 22? They looked a lot quicker than us in round 6.
Richmond won 6 of their first 7 games before losing to us and triggered a bit of a losing streak following a bad run with injuries but we put the heat on Richmond. We had 72 tackles vs 55, only allowed them to take 76 marks so didn't allow them to switch and run, they looked slow against us and it was pretty much only a Herculean effort from Martin that kept them in the game before he faded out of the game.
GWS got smashed in the hitouts, laid 56 tackles vs 53 and both teams were allowed to accumulate 100+ marks with Richmond 113 vs 107, this is in the realms of pretty s**t defensive effort by both sides after quarter time. Richmond had no incentive to change it up, everything was going their way after quarter time, GWS just bent over and grabbed their ankles.
Richmond is a much better balanced side in terms of inside vs outside than us, but they had a number of issues when they faced us, Riewoldt and Rance were out injured and Cotchin was coming in after a 8 week layoff due to injuries. They had 9 players with less than 50 games, 2 50-99, 6 100-149 and 5 150+, they fielded a side with 98.5 games of experienced compared to our 111.4 games and Cotchin wasn't 100%.
The difference between the sides were -Stack, McIntosh, Higgins, Balta, Butler and Garthwaite and +Riewoldt, Pickett, Lambert, Short, Nankervis and Rioli which turned the side into 4 players less than 50 games, 6x 50-99, 2x 100-149 and 10x 150+ with an average of 125.6 games. They fielded a better, more experienced side and it had better balance but players that are unavailable are because of injuries or form and you need some depth in your squad to have a shot or pray for an injury free run.
I don't think it is speed, it is consistent work-rate running both ways. We have shown we can play to the required standard, we haven't shown that we can do it consistently.
Speed is not the only reason but with us it is a big issue. We have marking players, contested players but we don’t really have players who can spread at pace. And yes that means getting up and down the ground consistently as you say but Dumont is not really considered a strong player because he does do that. He lacks the speed to make the defensive and offensive running hurt and that is what speed brings.
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