IN THE pre-season, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick declared his intention of developing a greater spread of goalkickers to make his team less reliant on brilliant spearhead Jack Riewoldt.

In fact, Hardwick even told the Herald Sun in March that the Tigers "couldn’t afford" for Riewoldt to match his Coleman Medal-winning effort last year of 78 goals, and, more importantly, his 32 per cent contribution to the Tigers’ scoring.

Riewoldt, who is again leading the race for the Coleman Medal, is on track for another 70-80 tally - he has 25.6 in seven games, and he was goalless in round two against St Kilda when he was concussed early - but Hardwick’s plan for a multi-dimensional forward line is coming to fruition.

The Tigers have won three in a row for just the second time since the end of the 2008 season, and it is no coincidence they are increasingly spreading the load.
It became glaringly obvious during Richmond’s stirring 49-point win over Fremantle at the MCG last week when Riewoldt kicked just four of his side’s 23 goals (a contribution of just 17.4 per cent).

In fact, Riewoldt had little influence on the contest with the Tigers boasting six multiple goalkickers, including Robin Nahas and Trent Cotchin (four apiece), Tyrone Vickery (three), Jake King and Bachar Houli (two each).

The contrast with last year (and in particular rounds 9-22, which Riewoldt dominated) is stark.

In 2010, the Tigers’ second-best goalkicker was Andrew Collins (who is now at Carlton) with just 15, followed by Ben Nason (14), Nahas (13), King (12), Mitch Morton (12) and Dustin Martin (11).

This season, Richmond has three players in the AFL’s top 17 goalkickers - Riewoldt, King (13.2) and Martin (11.4).

Riewoldt is also getting into the spirit of the Tigers’ caring and sharing style, being equal-third in the AFL for goal assists with eight (the same as midfielder Martin).