Why was Hilton on Woewodin?

[wagstaff]

Tonight I watched a fair bit of the 2nd quarter of Friday night's game, and what stuck out the most was the blatant mismatch of having Hilton on Woewodin.

There was no logical basis for that matchup being to Richmond's advantage. Collingwood had been severely weakened in their midfield with the losses of Burns and Licuria; surely it would've been more prudent to tag the rest of the Magpie midfielders (O'bree, Woewodin, Buckley) in the knowledge that there was very little in substance in the backup.

But what does Frawley do? He puts on the opposition's second best midfielder someone who wouldn't know a tag if he saw it on a suitcase at an airport. Hilton had no interest in tagging Woewodin, presuming he was told to do that job, he was never in cooee of him when the ball was contested and he paid for it big time.

There were several glaring examples. Collingwood kick the ball to CHF where Woey marks it (Rory several metres away) but a free kick off the ball sees Richmond gain possession. Hilton rushes down the field like a march hare, presumably to get an easy possesion down in the forward line. Richmond stuff up the possesion and after a period of battle for possesion, Buckley grabs the ball on centre wing. He looks down the ground and who does he see all alone at centre half forward? Why it's the 2000 Brownlow medalist of course!

Then there was the passage where Richmond gain possesion and kick it down to Richo in a one-on-one contest. Rory and Woey are (for once) relatively close to each other waiting at the fall of the ball. For some reason (presumably the hope of an easy goal) Hilton forgets the basic rule of waiting front and square for the crumbs at a contest, instead going behind Richo and his opponent. THe ball spills from the contest front and square straight into Woewodin's lap and he comfortably gets Collingwood out of danger.

Not only is Hilton unable to be a tagger, but he seriously overrates himself if he thought he was good enough to play off Woewodin and beat him. Woewodin is no champ but he's a clearly superior player to a flighty, lair of a player in Hilton.

Richmond can whinge about their supporters all they want, but their problems would be marginalised if they displayed some disclipine and common sense through their playing and coaching group.

 

[CJH]

That wasn't the only tactical faux pas committed last week!

Why was Rodan left for the whole game on Leon Davis? Now when everything is going his way, Davis can be dangerous but this is very, very rare. A genuine goalsneak in the same situation (like Farmer or Milne) would have scored 5 goals on Rodan in the same situation before half time.

Presumably, Rodan was there because he had the pace to match it with Davis. If this was so, then why not play Hyde or even King back there? We lost the game ultimately because we didn't attack enough from the middle and yet leave our most attacking midfielder trying to be a back pocket!

Royce Vardy may not be a pimple of a key forwards butt but he still is a big tall lug that could have been stood in the goal square. Would have made it harder for Collingwood to double/triple team Richo and surely he would have been able to kick a bit straighter!

Aaron Fiora shouldn't be played as a forward. His biggest asset is his pace and his long kicking. Therefore, he should be playing as a half back flanker or on the wing, were he can gather the ball and run the lines towards goal.

He didn't have the body strength to hold a position in a pack mark situation nor to be able to turn and break a tackle.

(As an aside, I see the day soon when Fiora will be taking over the role of Tivendale in the team. Tivendale is really just a one-trick pony who is finding the game increasingly hard. At least Fiora has a few more aspects to his game.)

 

[Rodgerramjet]

agree

Yeah, playing Rodan in the back pocket was just diabolical, it's what you call being reactive rather than proactive. Our coaching staff were obviously afraid of davis or what they THOUGHT he could do, I call this "inspection before the fact".

For god sake lets start playing proactive footy and get the other sides starting to be afraid of what our players might or might not do in the game. From where we are right at this moment we need a complete 180 degree turn in the way we or more importantly our coaching box prepare themselves and the team for the game tactically.

 

[Cyclops]

Excuse me for butting in, I know this is not my place but I would like to venture a respectful opinion.

1: Have considered that Woewoedin might have been tagging Hilton? Silly as it sounds, Malthouse often tries to break tags by making a "tagged" player into a "tagger". Still I think you're right, once it was on, Frawely was willing to risk a "shoot-out" between the Ruckrovers.

2: Rodan spanked Leon all night, apart from 2 x 5 second bursts when Davis was fed superbly by McKee and Buckley. He also ran numerous balls out of the defense, and gave excellent value. Does he have the petrol to play midfield?

3: Vardy to the goalsquare would probably have crowded out Richo even more. Richo played excellently up to the point of actually scoring. No other big forward on the night even looked like getting a touch-Vardy would not have been an exception to that trend.

Maybe you have a surfeit of one position players? When Rocca turned in a dud night up forward, he swung into the ruck and did a bit. Most of our blokes can switch a bit, play a few roles. How felixible is the Richmond list?

 

[CJH]

Good points Cyclops...

The fact that Rodan beat Davis is moreso a reflection of Collingwoods inability to exploit this situation rather than good play on Rodan's part. Actually being at the game, I saw Davis repeatedly break away, often getting 5 - 10 metres away before Rodan even reacted. This is fair enough because Rodan really didn't have the mindset to be a tagger and wasn't anticipating what his opponent would do. Davis is probably 3 - 4 inches taller than Rodan and probably stronger overhead. Not once did a high ball come in to Davis to stretch Rodan.

My view is that Rodan is a explosive, dynamic player who has the ability to tear a game open through his amazing initial burst of pace and his sure-footed disposal. He is the type of player you would let the opposition worry about rather than taking him out of the game yourself.

I guess in this respect, we were hurt by the ommission of Mark Chaffey through suspension. We had to counter Alan Didak - a much more dangerous prospect that Davis - and this job fell to Chris Newman, a player who has quickly earn't our respect as being a cool-head in defence much like Jason Torney. With both Chaffey and Newman in the side, they would most likely have taken these two, leaving Rodan free to run in the middle.

Nonetheless, we should have taken a player of limited ability like Hyde and told him to do the only thing we require of him - defend another player.


The way Richo plays the game is by roaming across the whole forward line, often pushing up to the wings and into the centre. It is this capacity to cover the ground on top of his undoubted marking ability that makes him so dangerous.

The spot you are least likely to find him is wrestling in the goal square which is why I would have liked to see Vardy there. Vardy should be under strict instructions not to leave the goal square except at the end of the quarter or unless Richo comes into the vicinity.

This is a tactical move with the sole point of ensuring that he has another tall player minding him, thus making Richo's job easier. As it was, with Fraser missing through injury, Vardy was superflous to our needs and maybe we could have brought in an attacking forward like Mills as an alternative.

As for flexibility of players, we are somewhat limited at the moment with Ottens and Holland being out.

Clearly Ottens is adept in the ruck and is dangerous as a forward while Holland can also play forward if there isn't a big lug to guard in defence.

Richo can only play somewhere where he doesn't have to be accountable for another player! Defence and discipline aren't really in his makeup!!!

Ray Hall is almost the classic ulitility player. He's quick enough and had good stamina so can play as a tall wing. He's big enough to run in the ruck - more as a follower than a centre square dinosaur -, can play quite well as a defender and can mark and kick OK as a key forward.

IMHO, Stafford is a more dangerous option as a Full Forward but obviously he will be the #1 ruck choice in Ottens absence.

Gaspar doesn't have the kicking skills to play anywhere else but back, though he could run as a ruck-rover OK as long as he only handballed! - and Andrew Kellaway doesn't have the explosive speed to make it as a forward. His best ability is superb reactions to an unfolding situation rather than making the situation happen himself.

So aside from Richo, Gaspar and Kellaway, all big players are flexible enough to help the team balance.